Should I be considering HD or SD performance when looking for a new TV

Depends, what do you think you're going to be watching more of?

Hi

Thanks for such a prompt reply.

I'm having trouble with the editor and only the title of my question was posted initially, without the detail. The full questions should have been:

1.       About half of what I watch is SD (The rest is HD, and I don't watch much 3D). If upscaling has been done by another device (Blue ray player or PVR for example) does the SD performance of the TV matter? The reason I ask is that there seems to be no one TV (42-47 inch for my £1200 budget) that is best at both. For example the What-Hifi 2012 best buy Sony (853HX) is described in a number of reviews as having fanstastic HD and 3D but is not as good with SD.

 2.       There are standard formulas for the optimum viewing distance of SD and HD material. What’s the formula for upscaled SD? Is it the same as normal SD, HD or somewhere in the middle?

Thanks in advance

SF

They're the same thing, if SD wasn't upscaled it would be seen in a small window in the middle of the screen with black bars all around (top bottom and both sides), so "normal" SD IS upscaled SD.

Thanks

Thats makes things clearer (and simpler)

Cheers

SF

No. If the source (blu ray player / PVR) upscales SD, your TV's upscaling ability does not matter.

When I went to demo the Sony 55HX853 at John Lewis the first thing that I asked them was could I see it with a SD broadcast. They said they could only show me HD....funny that is.

Take a DVD with you & ask them to play the DVD. Surely they should be able to do that for you. Shops often have a shared feed for satellite channels, resulting in worse performance.