Comments on: Tata Sky planning to launch HD channels in India this year

By: CENTRAL GOVERNMENT E

CENTRAL GOVERNMENT E — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 16:59:15 +0000

Nice discussion on HD. Can any one compare thd HD providers dishtv hd, bigtv hd, sundirect hd, airtel hd etc ?

price, quality , no of channels etc.

If i have a hd monitor can i use it as hd tv ?

By: Aniket

Aniket — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 14:15:24 +0000

@Setu

I agree with you.Even I've used my component HD av cables to transmit from my xbox 360 to samsung LCD tv…and the quality is indeed great.

@Atul probably ur component av cable isn't hd enabled or of lower quality.Otherwise check out the quality on Xbox 360 component cable and decide for yourself.

By: Deepak

Deepak — Sun, 16 May 2010 14:52:12 +0000

Setu, you have a valid point. As more players enter the HD fray, it will only drive down prices.

One feature that is important for me is HDMI connectivity. I like the fact that it is a 'clean' solution – just one cable for both audio and video. with component, you need five connectors! (RGB + LR).

Both Sun and Big TV HD boxes have HDMI, whereas Tatasky+ does not. Hopefully Tatasky will offer an upgraded box when they launch HD.

Also, in a few years we all might need to upgrade yet again, when HDMI 1.4 and 3D broadcasts become popular and eventually reach Indian shores! Imagine watching NatGeo in HD+3D!

By: Setu

Setu — Sat, 15 May 2010 20:16:24 +0000

Thanks for the comments.

And to answer your question, I would strongly recommend waiting for a few months if you can. Big TV HD DVR is not only cheaper than Sun, but also has the recording feature. Let other players enter this segment and then decide.

By: Deepak

Deepak — Sat, 15 May 2010 18:36:31 +0000

interesting discussion. my two cents:

1] what sun and big tv are broadcasting as hd seems to be 1080i, not 1080p. afaik, we are still far off from getting 1080p.

2] if you use highly quality circuitry and cables, 1080i output over component and hdmi look the same. i have tested this using my denon 4810, two xboxes, a ps3 and a popcornhour c200 media streamer. you really have to strain your eyes to pick up the difference.

3] 1080p is a different ballgame. hdmi 1.3a will clearly be better for it than component. and even mentioning svideo for HD is a big joke!

4] while it is not a replacement for true HD signals, an upscaler can narrow the gap. previously i was using a dvdo vp20, and now the denon 4810 which upscales tatasky's 576i to 1080p. result is good, though you getting the occasional artifacts and blurs.

now to the questions – has anyone compared the big tv offering to the sun direct hd? i am trying to figure out which one to switch to. looks like sun has nat geo and discovery in hd, whereas big tv only has nat geo. but big tv is also cheaper by 2k.