- Joined
- Jul 3, 1997
- Messages
- 7,061
Without a doubt, one of the buzz words at CEDIA was 1080p. There were lots of 1080p monitors around but, surprisingly, not so many that actually accept a 1080p native signal. I'm starting this thread to have a dialogue about 1080p information and misinformation. Let me get the ball rolling:
A 1080p monitor is capable of displaying a 1080p signal. However, it doesn't necessarily accept a 1080p signal as an input. It can produce 1080p with its internal scaler, scaling up lesser sources to achieve 1080p pictures. Right now this is not a major problem because there is very little 1080p source material out there and this is usually limited to HTPCs and other "hobbyist" applications.
However this situation will change shortly with the eventual introduction of High Definition DVD players. By next year, lots of people will have Sony Playstation 3s and I'm willing to bet that Blu-Ray will offer 1080p output. For those who have 1080p sets that do not accept 1080p input directly this means that they will have to take a lower resolution output from the player and feed it into the display which will then scale it back to 1080p for viewing. That's two stages of scaling (down and up) that don't need to be in the loop and two places where artifacts and other picture degradation can be introduced. With a 1080p input on a 1080p set you avoid this altogether. So while buying a 1080p set without 1080p input might not mean much right now, it surely will in a year or so and retrofitting the display will not be easy, if at all possible.
One of the problems is that statements such as, "the HDMI standard does not yet support 1080p" were being bandied about by some at CEDIA - mostly the manufacturers whose sets don't accept native 1080p input. This is not really true. While the current HDMI specification (version 1.2 adopted on 08/22/05) doesn't have 1080p listed in its minimum standards that doesn't mean that HDMI doesn't support 1080p. There are plenty of devices out there with HDMI jacks that use 1080p. However, in order to support 1080p input, the device must contain the chipset and associated circuitry to use it properly. And more electronics = higher cost in a very competitive business. A little later (maybe 16-24 months from now) the HDMI specification will add 1080p to the minimum standard as a mandate and then all new devices will have to support 1080p. But until then, it's CAVEAT EMPTOR. For now a lot of the manufacturers are skirting the issue.
Lots more to discuss, but I'll open the floor to comments rather than ranting on at this point. Feel free to jump in here.
A 1080p monitor is capable of displaying a 1080p signal. However, it doesn't necessarily accept a 1080p signal as an input. It can produce 1080p with its internal scaler, scaling up lesser sources to achieve 1080p pictures. Right now this is not a major problem because there is very little 1080p source material out there and this is usually limited to HTPCs and other "hobbyist" applications.
However this situation will change shortly with the eventual introduction of High Definition DVD players. By next year, lots of people will have Sony Playstation 3s and I'm willing to bet that Blu-Ray will offer 1080p output. For those who have 1080p sets that do not accept 1080p input directly this means that they will have to take a lower resolution output from the player and feed it into the display which will then scale it back to 1080p for viewing. That's two stages of scaling (down and up) that don't need to be in the loop and two places where artifacts and other picture degradation can be introduced. With a 1080p input on a 1080p set you avoid this altogether. So while buying a 1080p set without 1080p input might not mean much right now, it surely will in a year or so and retrofitting the display will not be easy, if at all possible.
One of the problems is that statements such as, "the HDMI standard does not yet support 1080p" were being bandied about by some at CEDIA - mostly the manufacturers whose sets don't accept native 1080p input. This is not really true. While the current HDMI specification (version 1.2 adopted on 08/22/05) doesn't have 1080p listed in its minimum standards that doesn't mean that HDMI doesn't support 1080p. There are plenty of devices out there with HDMI jacks that use 1080p. However, in order to support 1080p input, the device must contain the chipset and associated circuitry to use it properly. And more electronics = higher cost in a very competitive business. A little later (maybe 16-24 months from now) the HDMI specification will add 1080p to the minimum standard as a mandate and then all new devices will have to support 1080p. But until then, it's CAVEAT EMPTOR. For now a lot of the manufacturers are skirting the issue.
Lots more to discuss, but I'll open the floor to comments rather than ranting on at this point. Feel free to jump in here.