FTA with new LCD HDTV

[TRG]

Well my beloved 12 year old Sony Trinitron finally stopped working. I didn't want or need a real large screen for my viewing area so I figured something like a 32-42 inch would work nicely. I have a nice piece of audio video furniture I wanted to continue using so I made some measurements and headed to a few different electronics stores. It turns out that the 32 inch is the largest I can fit in the cabinet. So I bought a Sharp AQUOS and hooked it all up. I'm using the component inputs for my SD FTA receiver. First I scanned the OTA from my outside rooftop antenna. The HD programs looked nice but the SD stuff looked poor to just OK. The same was true when I watched SD FTA. Now I understand that the HDTV is made to watch HD content but the SD looked so much better on my 12 year old Sony. Do some HDTV's display SD programming better than others? The store where I purchased the TV has a good return policy and I think I'll be bringing this one back. Any and all comments will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Anole]

I've seen this discussion a lot over the years.
You might want to take a tour through our HT TV department - they may have a thread on it.
Basically, you need to tune the tv to customize it for each input.
Brightness, contrast, sharpness, etc.

I got a 42" Syntax about 4 years ago.
There were all sorts of bitching about poor quality in SD on most HD sets at the time.
So, I followed the tune-up suggestions, and have been very happy all these years.

Recently, I did an accidental "reset to factory" on one of the inputs.
Afterwards, the picture did in fact, look like crap!

 

[Jim S.]

Many people turn the sharpness all the way up, which is the worst possible thing to do because on most sets the natural setting is actually all the way down! Anything else is just creating things that aren't there.

Also, you have to get used to the fact that analog actually had higher than 640x480 resolution, not counting the fact that the color fidelity was worse.

 

[Tron]

One of the big problems is that the HD displays have such a fine resolution that they reveal artifacts that the much lower resolution (and interlacing) of the older CRT SD televisions masked. Another issue is with the LCD panel versus a CRT. CRTs do not have an image lag due to slow display refresh rate. LCDs, on the other hand, have a MUCH slower refresh rate than a tube. Therefore, compression and motion artifacts not visible on a tube are exaggerated on an LCD panel.

 

[Wescopc]

"Consumers Reports" found a big difference between various HD LCD's SD quality. Samsung with a 720 screen came in the best. The conversion of pixel addressing from SD to HD often is the problem that the set's software often handles poorly. I bought a 32" Samsung just for FTA SD - works great on both SD and HD.
Bob

 

[TRG]

"Consumers Reports" found a big difference between various HD LCD's SD quality. Samsung with a 720 screen came in the best. The conversion of pixel addressing from SD to HD often is the problem that the set's software often handles poorly. I bought a 32" Samsung just for FTA SD - works great on both SD and HD.
Bob

I thought it might have to do with upsampling software. Is this report online or only in the print copy. I can check my local library if it's available via print only.

BTW - I have made some adjustments on the AQUOS and now SD looks quite a bit better. :up Primetime OTA HD programming can be breathtaking. I guess I need to pick up an AZbox HD FTA receiver now.

 

[Wescopc]

The report is online - I subscribe. I don't know if it in print or not.
Bob