Sony & Panasonic understand HDTV is confusing and want to help
by Matt Burns 
posted Aug 18th 2006 at 2:39PM
High-definition is one of the most overwhelming and confusing new consumer electronic products the public has ever seen. There are so many different options and decisions to make that it overwhelms consumers to the point that that they simply give up and don't buy anything. Sony and Panasonic has recognized this and recently stated at the fourth annual DisplaySearch HDTV conference that they are going to try to help. What they are going to do is still up in the air but anything, even if it means teaching the general public about their products, would help. We here at HDBeat feel that a more general marketing strategy that will target mainstream media is one of the best ways in educate, and yes, sell their products. Even retail level hand-outs is rather nice to have but many large brick and mortar stores do not allow this, but some do. Really, anything they can do will be appreciated. You know, we do get tired of doing all the work sometimes.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Ben Hobbs @ Aug 19th 2006 6:05AM
They could both start by not labelling every TV as "HD Ready" even when its just a normal resolution TV that downsamples the high resolution to normal resolution.
GhostDoggy @ Aug 19th 2006 7:03AM
Claiming XGA (1024x768) is 'HD' is insulting. Sure, the ignorant masses might never know, but that doesn't make it less insulting or right. If their products cannot accept AND display 1280x720 or 1920x1080 then are not HD in my book.
This single-handed deceptive advertising kept me from considering them when I bought my displays over and over again.
Ben Drawbaugh @ Aug 19th 2006 11:08AM
Ghostdoggy,
I disagree, 1024x768 is HD, ALL tv's scale and there is no reason why 1280 pixels can't be scaled properly to 1024. Sure 1280 pixels are better, but it isn't fair to not call it HD. I wouldn't buy one, but I wouldn't tell someone there TV wasn't really HD.
Sean @ Aug 19th 2006 2:13PM
Ignorant executive pricks brought this upon themselves. It's confusing because there is no standard anywhere and there are so many options when there don't need to be.
Examples:
Some TV's come with HD tuner, some don't. Unexcusable. All should come with one and be able to pick up OTA broadcasts with an antenna.
3 different resolutions - there should be ONE. 720p vs 1080i vs 1080p is ridiculous. If it was just "HD" and you didnt have to use these arcane numbers to differentiate between 3 different types, maybe that would help. No one used to care, let alone know, that their TV was 480i, it was just "TV" and it worked. HD should be the same.
Too many connection options... Component, DVI, HDMI...
AACS - if you dont have HDMI will you be able to watch Blu-ray discs in a few years from now? What if your DVI-only TV doenst have HDCP support?
The fact that most HDTV's don't even have the number of pixels of the HD video they're displaying and have to scale it. Sure it still looks good, but the fact that most LCD and Plasma's don't go above 1360x768 and 1024x1024 respectively is a joke.
On and on it goes... the whole industry is just stupid and it's too bad because HD is fantastic and they've ruined a brilliant oppurtunity.
Ben Hobbs @ Aug 20th 2006 4:10AM
Ben Drawbaugh
How on Earth is 1024 x 768 High Def? It's not even a widescreen resolution, when ALL High Def material is; HD DVD, Blu-Ray, Xbox360, OTA HD, Cable, Satellite.
For a 1024x768 Display to be Widescreen it needs to have irregular shaped pixels, so you essentially have a TV that has to SCALE DOWN even the lowest resolution High Def picture (720p) into a 4:3 picture with odd shaped pixels.
I think your a contributor here, you should know better than that as people rely on your advice and comments. Also ALL TV's do not scale, I personally have an LCD which takes 720p and displays 1280x720 - where does that scale? and even if it was a different resolution and scaled to say 1388x768 at least its a uniform 16:9 stretch and not bodging it into a 4:3 resolution.
Ben Drawbaugh @ Aug 20th 2006 6:14PM
Ben,
If you want to see your TV scale capture some OTA content on your PC and watch it in a window. Compare what you see to what you saw on your TV. Pay attention to the distance between the bug and the edge of the screen. You will see that your 720p tv is shaving some of your pixels off. Overscan is engineered into TV's by scaling the picture. You may also notice garbage on the edge of the non-overscanned image, usually across the top. There are TVs that support 1:1 pixel mappings, but not out of the box and then will see the garbage on the edge. This is a key difference between so called PC monitors and TVs.
Since all TVs scale one that scales to 1024x768 can theoretically look as good as one that displays 1280x720. It all depends on the quality of the scaler.
Obviously, theoretically more pixels are better, but not if the TV has a bad scaler.
Ben Hobbs @ Aug 21st 2006 3:46AM
Ben,
You kind of missed the whole point about scaling 16:9 images into a 4:3 resolution with odd shaped pixels. I can't think of any High Def material easily available in a 4:3 resolution. Like I said scaling between 1280x720 and 1366x768 is a uniform stretch/shrink. Scaling High Definition sources (all of which are at least 720p) will involve scaling non uniformly to fit into the 4:3 resolution.
Widescreen TV's with a 4:3 resolution are part of what may have led to the death knell of plasma TV's, I'm a Home Cinema installer and I have trouble getting my head around how a 4:3 1024x768 resolution TV fits into the widescreen only High Def camp.
Ben Drawbaugh @ Aug 21st 2006 6:05PM
Ben,
I have seen some awesome looking Plasmas with a 1024x768. They have great scallers that work really well. Don't try to figure out how it works, just look at the TV and decide if it is HD or not. You shouldn't need to look at a TVs specs to decide if it is HD or not.
Ben Hobbs @ Aug 22nd 2006 6:41AM
Touche Ben
I Still think that if its almost too complicated for a professional Home Cinema Installer to understand then how is Joe Public going to. What happens when someone plugs their PC into one of these Widescreen 4:3 resolution plasma's and gets a very distorted unusable image. Or if they want to use anything that attempts to pixel map.
My advice to anyone is that 1280x720 (720P) is the minimum resolution for High Definition, remember its not called slightly higher definition.
Ben Drawbaugh @ Aug 22nd 2006 3:28PM
Ben,
I don't understand why anyone would expect normal people to understand HDTV. My parents have enjoyed TV for years and they don't even know what CRT or NTSC means. They don't get it and they don't need to. Turn it on, if it looks great then your all set.
Once again don't get obsessed with the tech specs, among other reason they often aren't even acurate.