Choosing a HDTV and saving $$ by going with 720p

An article by Paul    Comments Off

I’ve been spending quite some time now looking at the whole HDTV thing… and man it can do your head in to start with.

For starters you need to suss the LCD vs plasma thing out and the guts of this is plasma is better at rendering better motion (left to right) than LCD, and it’s also better at colour contrast than LCD.

On the downside plasma has in the past been associated with larger form factors of 50′ screens and upwards, are heavy due to their construction, pump out a lot of heat due to their tech and suck twice the juice from the plug compared to LCD.

LCD seems to dominate (traditionally) in the smaller 40′ (and below) form factor. Suck less power, create less heat, but be bugged by poor viewing angles and issues of contrast.

From what I have seen a number of the LCD issues have been sorted these past 12 months while Plasma has also made in roads into the smaller 32′ and 37′ form factors.

One area I have felt we can all get sucked into is the issue of 720p vs 1080i or 1080p.

Watch this cool video I found from a tech geek that does a good job of explaining it all in simple terms and makes the point that in most cases a HD ready 720p set will do the job just fine vs paying extra $$ for a full 1080i or p set.

When you consider what is actually being broadcast in NZ and the way it has been encoded by the broadcasters SKY, TVNZ etc – a 720p set is the way to go.