The 'Good evening I have no idea what technology I should buy' thread - The Bear and Badger

Dogfingers

Good Evening

I would like to buy a TV, looking to spend around £250. It's largely for playing games. Would be nice to have a SCART socket and needs to be able to plug my old laptop in it.

I've got people telling me to get something at 1080p 60hz and other people not to bother. Would be lovely if some of you chaps could give me a little advice and even lovelier if you could point me towards something online.

I've currently got a TV I've borrowed from downstairs and Street Fighter IV seems to play very oddly in HDMI (like its missing every other frame). Is this because it's only 50hz?

Elmlea

Personally, having had a 120Hz TV for a while now I really do notice the difference, so I'd get one with a decent refresh rate. Get a 100Hz one, I think 120's the US standard as the norm is 60, so I presume a UK one would be 100 for 2x50.

I'm firmly in the camp that doesn't think 1080p makes much of a difference at all when you're at smaller screen sizes. I'd rather take a high quality 100Hz screen with lovely deep blacks and excellent contrast than a really cheap 1080p one. I think most people seem to think the mid-30s is where you can see a difference, so I'd go for a 1080p 100Hz 40" one, and settle happily for a 720p 100Hz model if you're looking at 32" or so.

If you want to pay postage, my local place is doing 1080p 120Hz 43" plasmas for $398!

Escape

Elmlea wrote:

having had a 120Hz TV for a while now I really do notice the difference, so I'd get one with a decent refresh rate.

120s are good for 24p material and interpolation, but inter's smoothness gain is at the cost of input lag.

Dog wants a TV with minimal picture-processing and good scaling. Native 720s are the best on paper, but because they're now budget TVs, the better 1080s tend to claw back that lost ground with superior processing.

Look in your TV's menu for a Game Mode, and disable everything you can.

http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/news/input-lag

adkm1979

Beware the Soap Opera Effect. I hate it. I spent way more for the 100Hz version of my telly, and it's permanently switched off.

three1ne

Watching a movie in 100/120hz is worthy of a full punch to the face.

GooberTheHat

Why's that 3? what does it do that is so bad?

Birdorf

Buying new tech is an awful business.

adkm1979

GooberTheHat wrote:

Why's that 3? what does it do that is so bad?

High refresh rates cause what has become known as the Soap Opera Effect. Everything looks so real that your high budget films with fabby props look like an amateur dramatics club borrowed a friend's camcorder and lit their set with fluorescent tubes. You might have heard that test audiences hated the first screenings of The Hobbit because the high refresh rate made, what looked like dwarves in a hobbit hole in 24Hz look like men with fake hair glued to their face in an artificial set with cheap props.

weadre

adkm1979 wrote:

GooberTheHat wrote:

Why's that 3? what does it do that is so bad?

High refresh rates cause what has become known as the Soap Opera Effect. Everything looks so real that your high budget films with fabby props look like an amateur dramatics club borrowed a friend's camcorder and lit their set with fluorescent tubes. You might have heard that test audiences hated the first screenings of The Hobbit because the high refresh rate made, what looked like dwarves in a hobbit hole in 24Hz look like men with fake hair glued to their face in an artificial set with cheap props.

Yeah I've noticed this on a few tellys. Often demo ones in store, and one of my mates does it. Didn't really know why it was until this explanation. It certainly has a very strange look to it. I've tried talking to him about it though and he doesn't seem to think anything is wrong.

Dogfingers

Thanks for that guys, helps quite a lot, I will continue my search

Yossarian

Are we allowed to ask for advice on buying technology in here in the morning or is that a separate thread?

krs

No, damn you! Evening only! Start your own thread rather than ruining this one with your temporal disregard.

GooberTheHat

As long as you say good evening that's fine.

Mod74

It's the evening somewhere.

Escape

adkm1979 wrote:

what looked like dwarves in a hobbit hole in 24Hz

24p. Jackson filmed The Hobbit at 48 fps.

adkm1979

Yeah, terminology was off but you get the gist.

Elmlea

24Hz makes more sense than 24p, tbh. The p just comes from when they refer to 24Hz 1080p footage as 1080/24p, right? In itself it doesn't stand for anything. Hz makes sense because at least there's 24 frames per second.

Escape

24p is 24 fps. Hertz is cycles per second.

24 doesn't multiply by itself into 60, so TVs running at 60 Hz have to perform a 3:2 pulldown.

24 x 5 = 120
24 x 10 = 240

No problems there. Interpolation compares frames and, well, interpolates. With subsequent input lag, so it's a bad idea for twitch-based gameplay.

High levels of interpolation are good for retinal persistence - assuming sufficient motion, but it's an imperfect solution to a problem that CRTs laugh at. (A CRT fires a beam, so it doesn't have to match-cut frames to further harmonise lit pixels.)

50 Hz went out with CRTS.

Elmlea

Don't UK TVs still advertise themselves as 50/100Hz?

What's with plasmas here claiming 600Hz too, that seems needless.

Escape

Elmlea wrote:

Don't UK TVs still advertise themselves as 50/100Hz?

You can get them, but they're quite rare nowadays.

600 Hz because plasmas can.

RamSteelwood

Elmlea wrote:

24Hz makes more sense than 24p, tbh. The p just comes from when they refer to 24Hz 1080p footage as 1080/24p, right? In itself it doesn't stand for anything. Hz makes sense because at least there's 24 frames per second.

the 'p' stands for progressive scan. as opposed to 'i' for interlaced.

Elmlea

I know; hence why they refer to a 1080p picture running at 24fps as 1080/24p. There aren't 24 "ps" involved though, that's why I've always thought it was a lazy naming convention.

three1ne

My mobile is packing up. Had it for 5-6 years and am totally out of the loop.

I don't like contracts and am quite a happy little chap on GiffGaff payg.

Want to spend a max of £200 and get a decent Android phone. Just missed the boat with the cheap Nexus 4s. Annoying.

Any advice?

beano

Aren't they simply out of stock? Bummer if not.

three1ne

Apparently that's it. Clear out before the next release. Or summat.

beano

Did retailers get them? PCworld?

HTC One, no idea what they retail for though.

Mod74

I'm trying to weigh up what PVR to get. The YouView is the obvious one. I'd prefer a freesat/time one because of picture quality concerns but the channel selection looks pony compared to freeview.

I was on Amazon and noticed this Panasonic http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00BYUGN74 which is cheaper, seems OK regarded and has the added bonus of Netflix.

I'm sure someone here had lots of experience with the current crop of set top boxes. Who was it? And HALP!

LazyGunn

HTC One's cost a facking bomb, unless you get them on contract, i should know, i have one, but they're far more generously priced than the frankly absurd S4 when the One is an absolutely blinding phone, phone of this 'generation' anyways, well done HTC for pulling one out the bag, just when I thought all was lost. I kid you not, the One is just beautiful, just to look at. The BT engineer who sorted my line out in my new place was askin me a bunch of questions about what phone i fancied and i was like 'look at this' and put the One in his hand and was like 'have a good look'. And lo it was an absolutely beautful bit of kit.

I'm really torn about selling my s2, it'd be dead useful for development but its in great nick and worth 100+ buh

My advice btw is get an oculus rift, why look through unreality through a window in reality when you can be a sensory unit in unreality itself!

LazyGunn

also i find escape talking about tellys vaguely arousing

AJ

I've heard positive words about Humax, but that's all I know on the subject 'cause I gave up on broadcast TV a long time ago.

Rev

I've got a humax. It's a decent piece of kit. my tv is better in terms of number of channels I get but I can't record off it. It's a god send as far as Jake is concerned because it stores so much. Great for keeping it loaded with programs for him.

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