# Will I ever be able to view 1080p VOD on my displays?



## phatal (May 15, 2006)

I have two 1080p televisions:
1) Sony rear projection (SXRD) R60XBR2 (60")
2) Sharp LCD LC32D62U (32")

Neither one of them will pass the video test. Both are connected to their own 622 receiver via HDMI. I know issues were brought up about some displays when VOD first arrived, but I haven't seen or heard of any remedy that E* is working on to resolve the problem(s). Both of my TV's display 1080p Blu-Ray material flawlessly, but neither can display E*'s 1080p offerings.

Has there been a final word on this subject? Thanks in advance for any information.


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## space86 (May 4, 2007)

How old are the TV's, that might be the problem?


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## phatal (May 15, 2006)

Both are less than 2 years old. Age should have nothing to do with it. They both have the necessary specifications for displaying 1080p over HDMI and do so very well from other sources.


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## Allen Noland (Apr 23, 2002)

They have to support 1080p/24 (24 frames per second). Do you have a status screen on the TV that will show what the resolution and frame rate is? I fairly sure they are working to resolve some of the 1080p incompatibilities.


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## daveray (Feb 12, 2004)

phatal said:


> I have two 1080p televisions:
> 1) Sony rear projection (SXRD) R60XBR2 (60")
> 2) Sharp LCD LC32D62U (32")
> 
> ...


I do not think E* has a problem. Your 1080p TVs will not disply 1080p 24.

http://forums.highdefdigest.com/hom...24-signal-multiplies-original-frame-rate.html


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## Jim5506 (Jun 7, 2004)

Once again we are butting up against the vaigeries of the HDMI interface.

There are so many HDMI specs that it is a crap shoot as to whether your display will work with specific HDMI entities.

Why do Blu-Ray players all seem to work - because they go to the lowest denominator, the simplest spec and thusly almost every display works, whether they are 1080p30, 1080p24 or 1080p60 displays.


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## phatal (May 15, 2006)

Jim5506 said:


> Once again we are butting up against the vaigeries of the HDMI interface.
> 
> There are so many HDMI specs that it is a crap shoot as to whether your display will work with specific HDMI entities.
> 
> Why do Blu-Ray players all seem to work - because they go to the lowest denominator, the simplest spec and thusly almost every display works, whether they are 1080p30, 1080p24 or 1080p60 displays.


Yeah, I get that. But your point about Blu-Ray players should hold true for E* or anyone else. If the spec is "vague", then you should account for that in your implementation. My Sony SXRD still surpasses any LCD (and some Plasma) offerings on the market in terms of visual quality, yet E* seems unwilling to support it because it's too "old"? Very frustrating. I guess I should share some of my frustration with Sony and Sharp too since they're partly to blame here by not implementing 24fps signals on the displays I purchased.


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## ncted (Aug 19, 2006)

I can't even get 1080i over HDMI between my 722 and my Samsung LN-S4696D. HDMI is a suckily implemented technology. Period.

Ted


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## RollTide1017 (Oct 12, 2008)

This doesn't seem like an HDMI spec problem but more of a Dish not supporting all displays with there 1080p content problem too me. The spec allows for 1080p24/30/60 but it is up to the content provider to provide all those formats. Dish chose, for some reason, to only allow 1080p/24 displays for there 1080p VOD content. This is E*'s problem for not supporting at least 1080p/60 (which I believe virtually every 1080p display accepts). HDMI is working fine, Dish just needs to provide content that all displays can accept.

I agree that HDMI has its difficulties but, Dish is part to blame here as well.


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## BattleZone (Nov 13, 2007)

First of all, you can view 1080p VOD content on ANY TV, even a 1930's B&W TV if you have one working. You just won't be able to view it in 1080p.

Film is shot at 24 frames per second. When film content is transferred to HD, it is almost always encoded at 1080/24p. This is true of Blu-Ray movies, DirecTV, and Dish "1080p".

The problem is that few TVs made before 2006 even support 1080/24p input signals (even if they DO support 1080/60p input signals). This is the fault of the TV manufacturers, *all of them*, who were advertising their TVs as "1080p" without supporting both common 1080p formats, or even mentioning them. The bottom line is that the TV manufacturers didn't want to spend the extra money to add 1080/24p support until there were source devices that output at that format, and the first such device was the first HD-DVD player in 2006.

The chipsets used in both DirecTV's and Dish's HD-DVRs do not support 1080/60p output, as the bandwidth is too high. More expensive chipsets are available that output 1080/60p, but since no actual content will be sent in this format, neither company choose to spend the extra money. So, if your TV doesn't support 1080/24p, then the receiver has to convert to 1080/60i, or a lower format that your TV supports. The good news is that if your TV's deinterlacer does a good job, there will be virtually no difference in what you see. If your TV has a lousy deinterlacer, well, we can't help that.

Many higher-end 2007-2008 model TVs further support refresh rate modes that are even multiples of 24, where older TVs have a fixed 60 Hz refresh rate. A TV with a multiple-of-24 refresh rate can (if designed right) display 1080/24p content with each frame repeated at the same multiple, so that each film frame is on-screen for 1/24th of a second. 60 Hz TVs simply can't do this, and have to display frames repeated in a 3:2 pattern, creating "judder". Judder, which has been a problem with film-to-TV conversion forever, can finally be eliminated with one of these newer TVs.


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## ZBoomer (Feb 21, 2008)

I agree with IIP; it's not Dish's fault that they output a newer format than your older TV supports.

If it's anyone's fault it is the TV manufacturer's fault for not supporting all formats HDMI supports.

Even then this is still a relatively new technology. Every time this happens there is a ramping process up to where TV's support all formats, whereas at first they didn't. New formats are added as we go along, TV's become obsolete fast during this ramping period. It's one reason I waited so long to jump on the HD bandwagon whereas I'm usually an early adopter. I wanted to wait till TV's accepted 1080p/24 and all other formats BD and other sources were putting out.

The first 1080p TVs didn't even accept 1080p INPUT signals AT ALL, at any frequency. They displayed in 1080p, but wouldn't even accept that input signal. How lame is that? They only accepted 1080i and 720p, the broadcast standards. This took many buyers by surprise, when they later discovered their "1080p" TV wouldn't even accept 1080p inputs. Lame.


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## HobbyTalk (Jul 14, 2007)

Not to fear, a new format of HDMI has been approved that includes an audio return channel, more bandwidth, high speed ethernet and more... this will require all new hardware in TV's and in A/V equipment and replacement of all HDMI cables. The fun is just starting


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## ZBoomer (Feb 21, 2008)

^^^ Exactly; it's like buying a computer. Just expect it to be obsolete in 2 years, lol. Too bad my Kuro cost considerably more than PC!

TV was so stagnant for years until HD came along, now isn't this fun? 

Speaking of HDMI, I wish they'd fix the connector type. HDMI connector sucks, a big step back from DVI IMO.


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## HobbyTalk (Jul 14, 2007)

The new HDMI spec will use a new lockable plug in it.


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