Am I missing something with HD ??

[BIGMAX]

Been downloading the HD samples available from Windows and the various film trailers and viewing them on the pc. Haven't yet connected my pc to my hd ready tv.

I am watching 720p clips with the res set to 1024x768 on pc and then watching them with the res 800x600. To be honest I can't really see too much difference in the pictures.

Is this "hard to tell" difference what we can expect between Sky broadcasts now and when Sky hd hits us or am I missing something along the way ??

[Chris Muriel]

This to a great extent depends on the size of monitor or display device you are using and the distance from which you watch it.
Please specify the above if you want a coherent answer.

Chris Muriel, Manchester

[Kevo]

Q.

... am I missing something along the way ??

A.

Haven't yet connected my pc to my hd ready tv.

Do so, forget your monitor and be prepared to be AMAZED

[BIGMAX]

Cheers Chris, I am only viewing the pictures on a 19" computer screen from a couple of feet. I realise its going to be very different when watching a 43 inch screen from about 9 feet but I just thought that even from close up the hd images would be far more noticable.

[originalbadboy]

Well 720p = 1280 x 720, so if your watching a video clip in a lower resolution than that then your not going to see any benefit as the image is being scaled down ......

[BIGMAX]

But Changing the Computer res to 1280 x 720 doesn't yield any better results (for me anyway).

[Stephen Neal]

What native resolution is your monitor, and what connection are you using to your TV.

Your monitor (if 4:3) needs a minimum resolution of 1280x1024 to see the full resolution of 1280x720 material, as this is the 4:3 resolution that will support the full 16:9 resolution when letterboxed.

[originalbadboy]

What he said,

If your computer monitor cant handle 1280 x 720 as its native resolution, then the monitor will scale the image as well, again making it look potentially crappy.

Thats why for a LCD display to be 'HD Ready' ideally the native resolution should be 720p, or it should at least be able to scale to 720p without introducing artifacts.

To get the best picture quality on a fixed res device (ie an LCD), you have to use the native resolution, or as some call it 1:1 pixel mapping, otherwise there is always scaling going on.

[BIGMAX]

Changed the monitor res to 1280 x1024 as it is 4:3 but I just can't seem to tell quality difference to other lower resolutions used previously (800x600, 1024x768 and 1280x720).

[Stephen Neal]

Originally Posted by BIGMAX

Changed the monitor res to 1280 x1024 as it is 4:3 but I just can't seem to tell quality difference to other lower resolutions used previously (800x600, 1024x768 and 1280x720).

Is your monitor an LCD or CRT?

What source did the HD clips come from - and what are their native resolutions?

The quality of HD material does vary quite widely, as - of course - does the quality of SD.

However you should notice more fine detail, smaller macroblocks, and less visible high-frequency noise. You may also notice different colourimetry - though this will depend on how the HD material was sourced (there are HD and SD colourimetry systems, and some HD material is actually shot with SD colourimetry) and how it is displayed (I think many PC replay solutions ignore the different colourimetry that HD and SD material is based on)

"HD" gamma-corrected Luma is derived from gamma corrected RGB using the following formula :
Y' = .2126R' +.7152G' +.0722B'

"SD" is derived using the following
Y' = .299R' +.587G' +.114B'

As you can see, the relationship between luma and chroma source signals is significanly different. (More luma derived from green, a bit less from red and a lot less from blue)

If this is not taken into account you may see significant colour differences.

[BIGMAX]

Stepehen, I was looking at the xmen3 trailer in particular (720p), the monitor is CRT, I am probably expecting too much and not really noticing the subtle enhancements the high def pics bring but maybe as has been said I need to see them played on my 43" tv.

[Kevo]

A lot of movie trailers do no particularly show off HD that well.

I find the best to show of HD are the IMAX trailers/DVDs and the TV Manufacturers demos (although they mainly use 1080i).

[CrispyXUK]

I too find HD completly underwhelming, nice, but nothing special

[Kevo]

I guess it's not for everyone but personally I think it's the best thing to happen to TV since colour was introduced in the early 70s.

[pez]

Ive really noticed the quality when going from hidef clips on an ae500 1280x720 projector back to dvds upscaled by my PC, which look fuzzy by comparison (all fed over DVI-D from a 6800gt equiped PC).

you really do need large screens to make out the difference between sd and hd, especially as in this country regular PAL has quite a few lines anyways. I can see very little difference here between regular PAL material and 720p or 1080 material when i set my 19inch CRT into video modes that can play those resolutions (max on my monitor is 1920x1440, and itll take 1920x1080 and get the aspect ration pretty much spot on with a bit of tweaking of the vertical zoom!).

As for the 4:3 monitor res, 1280x960 is 4:3 with squarish pixels, 1280 x1024 isnt a 4:3 res (1280/4=320, 320x3=960).

big screens, hidef, cool!

pez