The Hip Zone » HD LCD TV http://www.thehipzone.co.uk Technology and the Internet Sun, 20 Dec 2009 19:54:01 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9 en hourly 1 Banding on Sony Bravia http://www.thehipzone.co.uk/banding-on-sony-bravia-11 http://www.thehipzone.co.uk/banding-on-sony-bravia-11#comments Mon, 09 Feb 2009 00:55:18 +0000 Tony http://www.thehipzone.co.uk/banding-on-sony-bravia/ Is this banding in this picture of my Sony Bravia KDL-40V3000U?

Sony Bravia KDL-40V3000U

Or is this normal for an LCD TV? Or is it because it is 8bit

I am really starting to wonder whether this LCD technology is upto the job.  Hopefully the new LED TVs will fair better.


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]]> http://www.thehipzone.co.uk/banding-on-sony-bravia-11/feed 1 My new Sony KDL-40V3000U HD LCD TV http://www.thehipzone.co.uk/my-new-sony-kdl-40v3000u-hd-lcd-tv-8 http://www.thehipzone.co.uk/my-new-sony-kdl-40v3000u-hd-lcd-tv-8#comments Sat, 20 Dec 2008 20:42:55 +0000 Tony http://www.thehipzone.co.uk/?p=8 I used to be a cynic about HD televisions thinking it was all a marketing con, until I actually saw one in person correctly configured. In most shops such as Currys and Comet they simply don’t have decent source material and don’t change the default settings, which just doesn’t do the televisions any justice.

I had my heart set on the Sony KDL-40V3000U after seeing it online in Argos and John Lewis for £999 with a Playstation 3 included, but was really disappointed to find that both had sold out and would not be getting any more stock. How many did they actually have I wonder?

Anyway, a couple of weeks later I saw the same deal in the Sony shop in the Trafford Centre in Manchester and went for it albeit £100 more expensive; plus I also agreed to buy a £40 HDMI cable. I later found out from colleagues that this was a complete waste of money as you can get a HDMI cable for £10 and as it is a digital connection it either works or it doesn’t (at least I didn’t go for the £60 one).

Despite all this I have been completely gobsmacked by the television, and amazed how my old Sony 28″ CRT suddenly looked like an antique.  If I were buying one again I would be looking at LED TVs instead.

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]]> http://www.thehipzone.co.uk/my-new-sony-kdl-40v3000u-hd-lcd-tv-8/feed 1 High Definition Wii http://www.thehipzone.co.uk/high-definition-wii-18 http://www.thehipzone.co.uk/high-definition-wii-18#comments Sun, 17 Feb 2008 18:22:51 +0000 Tony http://www.thehipzone.co.uk/high-definition-wii/ Well not really, but it does support what is known as enhanced definition (EDTV). The Nintendo Wii does not come with an EDTV cable, this is not unusual; Sony do not provide a HDMI cable with the PS3. Upgrade cables are required for both to get the most out of these consoles when used with High Definition televisions. After wasting £40 on a HDMI cable for the PS3 I was reluctant to spalsh out on an EDTV cable for the Wii. However, some of the professional Wii gamers over at Wii Talk convinced me that I would notice the difference, so I went along to my local Game shop and bought a generic £12.99 Gameware EDTV cable for the Wii.

To be honest I couldn’t really see much of an improvement, but perhaps it is just me. The EDTV on the Wii is 480p format. The ‘p’ stands for progressive which means all rows are updated every second rather than every other row when using a standard cable; this is known as interlaced. This should give a sharper picture, but I couldn’t really see it. Additionally, as the component cables used in the Wii cable have five wires, two more than the provided cable, you get a much richer picture as information about hue and saturation can also be sent to the television. Please note that your TV has to have a component input to get the benefits from EDTV. Finally, if you do buy one of these cables make sure you go into your Wii settings and change the ‘TV Type’. I have included some before and after pictures below:

Wii Standard Cable

Wii EDTV

Can you see the difference?  £12.99 well spent?

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]]> http://www.thehipzone.co.uk/high-definition-wii-18/feed 3 HDMI cables, have I been conned? http://www.thehipzone.co.uk/hdmi-cables-have-i-been-conned-14 http://www.thehipzone.co.uk/hdmi-cables-have-i-been-conned-14#comments Mon, 11 Feb 2008 08:50:07 +0000 Tony http://www.thehipzone.co.uk/hdmi-cables-have-i-been-conned/ It is a well known fact that many electrical retailers make very high margins on accessories and of course insurance policies that you don’t need. I usually say no to both, but when I bought by first HD LCD TV with a PS3 from the Sony shop I found myself saying yes I will have one of those £40 HDMI cables – cheaper than the most expensive one. I told my colleagues in the IT department about this and they said I could have picked one up in Argos for £10 and I had wasted my money as the connection is digital and the cable will either work or won’t. I’ll dig around over at AVforums later to see if they are correct, my feeling is that they are.

I think this post proves the point that some HDMI cables have a mark up of a whopping 80%.

I had a quick read of this post about HDMI and it seems that HDMI does have loss problems over long distances, would the cable make any difference though?

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]]> http://www.thehipzone.co.uk/hdmi-cables-have-i-been-conned-14/feed 3 Great advertising, but… http://www.thehipzone.co.uk/great-advertising-but-13 http://www.thehipzone.co.uk/great-advertising-but-13#comments Sun, 10 Feb 2008 12:21:08 +0000 Tony http://www.thehipzone.co.uk/great-advertising-but/ It must be said that the recent Sony advertising campaign for Sony Brava’s has been excellent. Ellie Lovell asks whether the “Colour like no other” campaign would make you buy a Sony Bravia – for me the answer is no, as I like many “geeks?” these days will always check the web and dig around in the long tail for verification. In the case of my purchase of a Sony Bravia KDL-40V3000U I lurked around at avforums to get the confirmation I needed.

It turns out that the colour is great, but like many LCD TVs there are shortcomings and when I see marketing statements such as “Sony Bravia HD1080 TV’s can output sources in their full glory” I can’t help think that this is not exactly true, and should be qualified. “Sony Bravia HD1080 TV’s can output sources in their full glory unless the scenes are dark, you are watching fast-paced sport or there are major colour gradients on screen”

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