HD is generally meaningless unless you're a graphics whore. I've seen the comparisons in places, the picture quality isn't that big a difference. Can you see the difference? Sure, it's a little sharper. Is it like going from black and white to color? Not a ----ing chance.

Uh, yeah there is a big difference. I know I'm a GFX whore, and I don't care. Fuck VHS, and fuck channel 7 for their shitty "HD" channel.

Funny you should bring this up, walking through Dick Smith today and it was so easy to pick out the Standard Definition TV's from the High Definition models. Really there is a HUGE difference between them.

The main issue with HD is that the media you are watching is NOT HD. Free-to-air HD Digital television is far from high quality and even DVD movies.

To see what real High Definition is, plug in an Xbox 360 or a PS3 into a HD TV and bang on a HD DVD or Blu-Ray disc, the difference will shock you.

Not worth the 1000's of $ imo.

The jump from DVD to HD-DVD or Bluray is actually pretty spectacular.

It's not so good that I'm ready to sink several hundred dollars in it when all it's going to allow me is the power to watch a super version of Fantastic Four (whoooo!) but it certainly is a whole lot better.

I can't see the difference in the stores but like they set them tv's up correctly anyway. Most of them are dolts if you ask me.

It's good if set up properly as previously mentioned.
I mean, I'm not noticing a huge difference with my Wii (though it is noticeable) but that's only at slightly higher than SD definition.

Playing an X360, or maybe watching a HDDVD is a huge difference.
Should try and find those comparison pics someone posted somewhere.

There is a difference and if you say otherwise you haven't experienced it properly or you have no money and get jealous easily. If I had the money i'd get a hdtv in a second. :)

Here is Mach's comparison from an old thread...

having recently got a 24" widescreen monitor, I can say that there is a noticeable difference between "standard definition" and "high definition". Metallix's comparison really says it all, but having just yesterday watched a DVD on here, I can say that it looked fairly mediocre in comparison to, say, the 720p rip of the Top Gear Polar Challenge special that I have.

Also, I've seen a couple of trailers in both 720p and 1080p on this monitor, and I have to say the difference is not great. The 1080p version definitely looks a little better, but whether it's worth the much higher file size is debatable. If I was going to download a long HD video, I'd probably just get the 720p rip, unless the size difference wasn't too big (which is why I said if it's a long video...)

So is there a noticeable difference between SD and HD? For me, yes. Is there a noticeable difference between 720p and 1080p? Again, yes, but only a slight one...

I even notice that difference on a 22" monitor in 1680x1050 - DVD's actually look slightly rubbish.

Yeah dvd's look bloody terrible on decent sized pc monitors. And that comparison is scary cool. Gotta start saving for a hd player soon.

Does HD improve gameplay performance? I'm not talking about the look or how well it immerses you into the game, but how it actually contributes to the gameplay. For instance, does a 1080p crosshair improve aiming? Can you see hidden areas or enemies in the distance that you couldn't see before? Or is it no different to playing on SD/480p?

It depends on the game, I would say for the most part HD doesn't improve gameplay performance at least at the moment. It's been said that in fast paced games like Burnout you have an advantage playing in HD as you can see whats ahead of you more clearly.

I really haven't experienced true HD despite owning a HD TV so I'm not obliged to say. Sure I've seen it in stores but I'm not exactly sitting down watching it all day and digital broadcast isn't perfect

Check this out slashy, post my mate made on our website, may come in handy if your serious about trying out the HD.

Are these actually *.wmv files? I should be able to burn them onto a DVDRW and play it in my divx dvd player. Unfortunately my Pioneer DVD player has a horizontal blurring problem (standard issue) :( Hopefully it'll still look kickass. My TV is 1080i btw

After HD picture quality was shown to be vastly superior:

I think you're clutching at straws a little now, Robert :P

I guess the real question you should be asking is does better graphics improve gameplay at all? Would you rather be playing games on an xbox 360 or a sega master system (if anyone says the master system I'm happy to go down to cash converters, pick one up and then swap with you... <_<).

As other people have said, I find HD significantly better than SD as far as television/movies go and when it comes to games, I'll always go with playing in a higher resolution with less extra effects than playing at a lower resolution.

Actually I saw ElPrez's tv (some massive 1080p Sony behemoth) in a shop the other day playing a blu-ray disc and it looked unbelievably good compared to everything else in the store.

I think I saw that TV too, is it the Sony Bravia W series? It's one incredibly high quality display, it was running some special feature thing from the Spiderman 3 blu-ray disc, it looked totally schmick. I'm starting to appreciate high definition stuff more now that I have a 24" monitor that can display 1080p, I pretty much download everything that I watch in 720p now (1080p files are too big for such a small increase in quality over 720p, imo) when I can, and I think I've said this before, but the difference in quality between standard definition and high definition is phenomenal.

Also, as to the graphics vs. gameplay discussion, obviously they're two separate things and a game's graphics don't affect its gameplay (however more processing power can be used to create bigger environments, better physics models, etc. which can affect gameplay), but better graphics do definitely add to the enjoyment of a game, at least for me. For example, Forza 2 has fairly bland, barren environments, imo, but PGR 4 has lush, nice looking environments, and playing the PGR 4 demo, I was thinking to myself that I'd enjoy Forza 2 a bit more if it had nicer looking environments (or even just a bit more colour...).

Entirely and utterly. There's a reason PC gamers are fanatical about resolutions. I couldn't imagine living out the remainder of my days sniping in 640 by 480.

*shudders*

Actually I've heard (from my ex-flat mate who used to beat me in quake 25 to -3) that the pro fps players often play in a lower resolution because it's easier to aim. Just to note though: when I played against my flatmate, I did have a much higher resolution than he did, so there's clearly a fairly significant advantage... <_<

Thats relative to the size of your monitor though - instead of going down from 1280x1024 to 1024x768 in order to make aiming easier, you could also just get a monitor 2" larger and play in 1280x1024.

Have you ever looked in the distance in a game and asked yourself, "is that a guy?" I know I have had trouble making out things in the distance. HD makes those things look clearer. So whether you're sniping and it allows you to hit things a little farther away, or you're racing and it lets you plan your course a little better by giving more reaction time, there are gameplay advantages to HD here and there.

Few months back I was playing Burnout a lot on GameCube, then I switched to playing Burnout on a Xbox 360 and I noticed that when going at high speed and dodging on-coming traffic there were a MARKED difference in gameplay because I was able to more accurately gauge just how far ahead of me those oncoming cars were, and it definitely affected gameplay.

Overall though for most games it doesn't affect gameplay, but it's like having a better pair of glasses and I really prefer it. HDTV for gaming is a must IMO.

speaking of high def, my dad said that he'd pay for an HDTV tuner card for the PC in a couple of weeks when he gets paid the dividend for some shares that he has :D

DO NOT get a DVICO HDTV card, it has the worst software I have seen. Completely buggy, crashes essentially when I try and do anything.

oh boy, panic mode! That's probably what I was going to get, so I'll have a look and see if other people have such complaints as you...