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Home > Archive > Sony playstation2 > September 2006 > True 1080p TVs are still rare:
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True 1080p TVs are still rare:
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| Sammy Moulden 2006-09-25, 7:34 pm |
| Consider this: Sony pushes a ultra-high resolution as it's USP. Play
games in the highest resolution available on TVs.
GREAT! GOTTA HAVE IT!!!
It demoes games purportedly in that resolution, defying predictions and
spin from it's arch-rivals.
FANTASTIC!!
Now the sobering thought. The number of TVs capable of that resolution
is marginal, if barely registering in the world.
HDTV has barely launched outside of the US and Japan, with Europe
Astrailia, and Afrika havin lagging considerably behind.
The vast majority of TVs are 480i or 512i (for Pal). So 90% of console
gamers will never see the extra detail that Sony or Microsoft boast
about.
Sure, you say, people will upgrade!
Sure they will, but when there are so few 1080p TVs out there, it's not
going to happen soon.
CNET has just 107 listed out of over 1000 Tvs on their guide, and they
start at $1300 for a westinghouse.
On the hight street, that's going to be even more expensive.
http://reviews.cnet.com/4566-6475_7...t=lowPrice9+asc
Even discounting all standard defeniton TVs, the vast majority of those
availablenow are 720p or slightly above, supporting at most, 1080i.
Not only that, the starting price for a 720p TV is around $300-$400.
http://reviews.cnet.com/4566-6475_7...t=lowPrice9+asc
99% of all console games bought and played for the next 3-5 years will
be on Standard defenition or 720p TVs, and the vast majority of new TVs
bought will be 720p/1080i.
Even when you count in that more TVs will support 1080p in the near
future as technology gets cheaper, 1080p really only offers an
advantage to TVs above 42",. Anything below that and the pixel density
difference just too small to notice. Most consumers simply neither
have a need nor the space for anything above 32"! And in homes with
kids, only one out of maybe 3 TVs is going to be above 28"!
Arguably both Microsoft and Sony are chasing a small market with their
emphasis on 720p and 1080p, with Sony hoping that Blu-Ray will be the
big new consumer driver for the comming years.
Sadly, all the indications are that it wont be and that the public, by
and large, probably wont show an interest for a good half decade or
more.
So who is actually going to buy these expensive and large TVs?
Videophiles. People with plenty of disposable income, that care about
the top end audio and video.
It's a lucrative market, and can drive the bottom end (many high end
products, like Dolby Digital and DTS decoders have made it down to the
low end) - however, the Playstation 3 is a massmarket product aimed at
general conumers. Not videophiles.
While Laserdisk, for example, survived with just a few sales to
Videophiles, it remained eleitist and never needed to be massmarket.
the PS3, by contrast, NEEDS massmarket acceptance to drive costs down
and give it a long and fruitful life.
Sure, the PS brand on it's own is enough to drive sales, but if Sony is
basing it's entire marketing stragetgy on the resolution it can output,
when 99% of it's customerbase will never see that detail, they have a
serious problem.
Arguably, so does Microsoft. But at least it didn't bank it's entire
marketing strategy on a 1080p blu-ray future. At least all games on the
360 look good at standard resolution.
To own a PS3, you really need that high-def TV to justify it over and
above a 360 or Wii.
No, Nintendo - so long as they can break out from the 'kiddy' lable
that has been incorrectly stuck to it for the past decade, will do much
to eat into Sony's reputation as the market leader.
Think of it as two pirhanas snapping at the ankles of a world class
swimmer who's just a bit beyond his prime.
Eventually all you'll be left with is a floating bloddy mness, two fat
stuffed pirhanas and a torso flailing about trying not to drown.
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| Brenden D. Chase 2006-09-25, 7:34 pm |
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"Sammy Moulden" <bigboobs_linda@lycos.co.uk> wrote in message
news:1159215134.085464.195760@m7g2000cwm.googlegroups.com...
quote:
>
What are you afraid of?
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| Sammy Moulden 2006-09-25, 7:34 pm |
| Not you.
Brenden D. Chase wrote:
quote:
> "Sammy Moulden" <bigboobs_linda@lycos.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:1159215134.085464.195760@m7g2000cwm.googlegroups.com...
>
> What are you afraid of?
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| Paul C. 2006-09-25, 7:34 pm |
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I imagine that adding 1080p support is relatively cheap so there's no harm
in having it. After all the 360 is going to add it simply with an update to
the console software.
It may not be prevalent currently but in a few short years it may be very
popular, who knows.
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| Sammy Moulden 2006-09-25, 7:35 pm |
| Clearly you have no concept of how a TV (LCD or Plasma) works.
If you have a resolution of 1280x720, and that's the number of pixels
physically in the screen, then you can't 'magically' add it.
Also the circuitry needs to be able to handle such a high-bandwidth
image without distortion, sheering, etc. So the Video Cirtcutiry needs
to be top notch.
So far, 1080p sets are predominantly deinterlacing and upscaling, but
not natively 1080p.
Those that are native, don't all support 1080p/60 (which only a tiny
number of sets support).
Of those, HDMI 1.3 (the PS3s godel crown) even fewer support yet.
If it was a simple software update then why the $1000 gap between low
end 1080p and low end 720p?
Finally, the 360 is the OUTPUT device. It's like changing a setting on
a PC to use a higher resolution.
Paul C. wrote:
quote:
> I imagine that adding 1080p support is relatively cheap so there's no harm
> in having it. After all the 360 is going to add it simply with an update to
> the console software.
>
> It may not be prevalent currently but in a few short years it may be very
> popular, who knows.
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| Paul C. 2006-09-25, 11:36 pm |
| "Sammy Moulden" <bigboobs_linda@lycos.co.uk> wrote in
news:1159226986.501752.308960@m7g2000cwm.googlegroups.com:
quote:
> If it was a simple software update then why the $1000 gap between low
> end 1080p and low end 720p?
>
> Finally, the 360 is the OUTPUT device. It's like changing a setting on
> a PC to use a higher resolution.
It's a simple software update to OUTPUT it, that was my point. Or at least
that's what Microsoft is telling people. I don't need it anyway so it's
pretty much irrelevant to me but some people get a high on tech specs so
they'll enjoy it. I have a life so I don't think about that crap. 
I have no plans to upgrade my smaller HDTV which currently supports
480p/720p/1080i, it does the job for me & I don't need something that is
technically superior that I wont notice a difference on.
It kind of reminds me of all those crazy people who actually thought
Monster cables made a difference in performance just because they were
hyped & more expensive, lol!
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| Sammy Moulden wrote:
quote:
> 99% of all console games bought and played for the next 3-5 years will
> be on Standard defenition or 720p TVs, and the vast majority of new TVs
> bought will be 720p/1080i.
I think this is probably true. 1080p TV's will get cheaper and more
affordable in the upcoming years, but I think what will happen is
cheaper 1080p TV's will push down prices of 720p TV's which will create
a huge surge in 720p HDTV buying. There are many people in wait mode,
waiting for the price of an HDTV to be within their budget and 720p
TV's will be the first to reach that price point. When you consider
the fact that most people keep their TV's 10+ years, the 720p installed
base will be the majority for many years to come and won't change very
quickly. In fact I would imagine even when the PS4 hits stores, there
will still be a huge installed base of 720p TV's.
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| In article <1159280049.731087.264370@d34g2000cwd.googlegroups.com>, "Tom" <tom_overton_1968@yahoo.com> wrote:
quote:
>Sammy Moulden wrote:
>
>I think this is probably true. 1080p TV's will get cheaper and more
>affordable in the upcoming years, but I think what will happen is
>cheaper 1080p TV's will push down prices of 720p TV's which will create
>a huge surge in 720p HDTV buying. There are many people in wait mode,
>waiting for the price of an HDTV to be within their budget and 720p
>TV's will be the first to reach that price point. When you consider
>the fact that most people keep their TV's 10+ years, the 720p installed
>base will be the majority for many years to come and won't change very
>quickly. In fact I would imagine even when the PS4 hits stores, there
>will still be a huge installed base of 720p TV's.
>
There are tons of sub $800 32" sets now. If that is out most peoples budgets,
they better get off the welfare rolls and get a job.
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| GMAN wrote:
quote:
> There are tons of sub $800 32" sets now. If that is out most peoples budgets,
> they better get off the welfare rolls and get a job.
Many people are indeed buying those TV's, but quite often people are
upgrading to larger screen sizes when they make the move to HDTV. If
you are upgrading from a typical 32" SDTV for example, you really need
about a 46" HDTV to replace it if you want the same viewing area when
watching 4:3 material. Nobody wants to watch a smaller screen than
they used to.
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