Any sign of HDMI/DVI PVR's or FREEVIEW STB's???

[tigermain]

I've trauled and still not found any even in the news feeds has any manufacturers suggested such products yet?

 

[ianh64]

All the Freeview HD trial boxes were HDMI. TBH, I wouldn't bother waiting for HDMI as the SD services via HDMI were no better than my Humax box via RGB SCART - even with upscaled content.

 

[bigtim]

All the Freeview HD trial boxes were HDMI. TBH, I wouldn't bother waiting for HDMI as the SD services via HDMI were no better than my Humax box via RGB SCART - even with upscaled content.

And most new HD panels come with a built in Freeview tuner anyway.

My HXD860s DVD recorder has HDMI out and upscales freeview through it to 720p or 1080i, but it's set to 576 as the TV (40w2000) does a better job of scaling.

 

[Sonic67]

Evesham's iplayer upscales.

http://www.evesham.com/products/info.asp?e=B8CDB626-6D48-424D-BC6F-3168E30A7B75

 

[tigermain]

And most new HD panels come with a built in Freeview tuner anyway.

My HXD860s DVD recorder has HDMI out and upscales freeview through it to 720p or 1080i, but it's set to 576 as the TV (40w2000) does a better job of scaling.

Well this is the point of my thread, the tv Im looking at is the Hyundai A321 which is analogue, as the Q321 is 200 notes more and has a built in card reader too but there have been a lot of complaints about lip sync so I thought it would be a better option to go for the A321. But then it seems pointless having a digital signal converted to analogue to convert it back to digital again!?!?

OK so 2nd question then which PVR's other than the iplayer upscale? and are worth a look??

 

[bigtim]

Well this is the point of my thread, the tv Im looking at is the Hyundai A321 which is analogue, as the Q321 is 200 notes more and has a built in card reader too but there have been a lot of complaints about lip sync so I thought it would be a better option to go for the A321. But then it seems pointless having a digital signal converted to analogue to convert it back to digital again!?!?

OK so 2nd question then which PVR's other than the iplayer upscale? and are worth a look??

Actually, you'll find that the Digital tuners in panels are outputting analog which is then being re-digitised before being displayed by the panel anyway. Sounds crazy but makes sense when you think that it's simple (and cheaper) for the panel to be fed by one DAC/Scaler and all inputs (external and internal) routed through it.

You could go for a Sony 860s or Panasonic EX85 - they both upscale through HDMI and you'll be replacing your freeview tuner, DVD player and PVR with one (admittedly not cheap, £300) box.

Problem is, of course, that either will scale to 1080i or 720p and then your TV will have to scale again to the panel's res (1368*768) so 2 scaling steps = possibly a worse pic than just feeding RGB.

Cheapest option and also best pic quality might be to just get a good deal on a better brand TV with built in freeview and no lipsync issues (Toshiba 32wlt66/68 or Sony S series) - would set you back maybe £110 more than the hyundai with no external boxes or problems.

 

[tigermain]

Thanks for the advice Bigtim made interesting reading. I did however notice that ebuyer has dropped the price of the q321 (with freeview decoder) and after trawling through the few hundred pages of posts on here it seems there is a firmware update available which should hopefully sort the lip sync problems, but I will look into the other suggestions as well