Panasonic Series 8 Panels advice

bstonehouse

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Please can someone explain the difference between the new WD8 and HD8 panels. My understanding was that the WD8 would not be HD complaint due to its resolution of 852x480. I now see it advertised as HD Compliant and SKY HD Complaint and I am now confused. I want to buy a Series 8 panel that is HD Compliant but am not sure of the advantage of paying c£1000 more for the HD8.
Any advice would be much appreciated as I am afraid that this HD stuff confuses me.
 
If you are just looking at pixel counts and resolutions then technically neither of the panels are HD ready.

The SD panel has a resolution of 852x480 and the HD panel is 1024x768 so if the are fed a 720p signal which is 1280x720 then the SD panel will have to downscale whilst the HD panel will still have to scale to make it fit and loose picture information at the sametime...just not as much as the SD panel...the same thing with 1080i which has a resolution of 1920x1080.

If you are talking about connections and supported resolutions then they are both HD compliant in that they will accept both 720p and 1080i at 50Hz via the HDMI input blade.

Cheers, Lee
 
The PWD8 is not HD Ready, but it is HD Compatible i.e. it is able to accept and display HD Material and the future Sky HD offering. The panel itself is a Standard Definition panel and would scale down any HD material. This scaled down HD image would look better than SD material but not as good as a truly HD ready screen. The PHD8 is the HD ready screen, has higher resolution and therefore able to display the HD signal as close to how it was intended to be displayed as possible.

The advantage depends on your own expectations and the size of your wallet, there is very little HD material available at the moment (unless your a gamer or have a PC hooked up), many of these HD Ready screens are expensive, the cheaper ones seem to be lacking in picture quality.

The advantages are different for each person, if you have HD sources to take advantage of (Xbox 360, PS3, Blueray etc) then the HD Ready screens are a must. If you just want to enjoy a large screen plasma with usual TV signal and DVD sources then it's probable that a good quality SD screen (perhaps HD Compatible) would suite your needs and budget while we all wait for larger HD content and of course for the cost of technology to drop.
 
HD Compliant is a half-way house which I don't think has any official credence.

Basically it means that the screen will accept all the necessary inputs which HD TV is set to use and handle copy protection (HDCP) etc but - as you say - does not have enough pixels to display the full HD image.

HD Ready is an 'official' standard and means that, as well as accepting all the right inputs, it also has a minimum of 720 horizontal lines and will therefore display a 'high definition' picture.

You need to be aware that today's definition of an HD picture (720 lines) is not the be all and end all and technology is already moving to higher resolutions than this. So 'HD Ready' at the moment really just means 'higher definition than SD' rather than 'highest definition'.

I'm sure that neither the PWD8 nor the PHD8 would let you down but I went for the PHD8 because I felt it would have more longevity due to the higher resolution. I don't have any HD sources at the moment, but it will help me to get the best out of them for longer when I do get them.
 
:rotfl:

Good to see we all agree!
 
Thanks Guys.............it's making more sense. Does this mean that the series 7 models are not HD compliant because they do not support 720p/1080i ?
 
the 7 series can't take an HDTV (HDCP) feed on the HDMI board and rescale it (without external scaler and HDCP stripper) whereas the 8 series can.
 
IIRC they will accept these inputs over an analogue connection (eg component) but this is not HDCP-compliant so falls foul of the official stamp.
 

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