Norm

I just bought an LG brand 44" LCD Projection TV. I am so disappointed the quality of it with regular Direct TV. Some of the channels look like a Video CD. DVDS look great on it even without Progressive scan. Is this how all the LCD Projection TVs look with Direct TV? If I return it for another HDTV will it handle Direct TV any better? I'm pissed! Thanx too anyone that wants to help.

Christopher Reeve Foundation

Zach

Hi Norm,

Don't rush to return your LG LCD. It's a nice set. In fact, I love my Sony LCD projection TV...but I too came to the harsh realization you did shortly after purchasing a large LCD set while being a DirecTV customer.

SD television is just unimpressive...to say the least. When I complained of this earlier I was told that SD broadcasts are meant for viewing on 32" screens (I could be overstating that), and that any screen over that size is artificially "blowing up" the image. This is what creates the 'nasty' image.

As a result, watching SD television (especially through Tivo) on digital projection sets is somewhat of a letdown...but a small tradeoff IMHO for the picture on HD, XBOX and DVD images.

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong (and I'm sure I've oversimplified this), but this is how it was explained to me...and I accepted it.

Zach

"Life is short and hard...
like a bodybuilding elf."

StephenHa

one of the magazines had a simmilar question and said it's just the quality of signal, cable, and sat both look poor on digital sets since you are seeing all the defects switch to an hd source (even directtv) and you'll see a huge difference

Mary M S

Hi Norm, You don't mention if your STB is HD capable or one of the standard boxes?

If it is not an HD STB, I purchased my Sony LCD 60" before upgrading my Direct system. I too was extremely disappointed in the reduction of quality of my exsisting SD feed which the old CRT set had handled very well.

Within a week I purchased an RCA DTC100 for the digital audio capabilities. (still had not upgraded my sat dish) I was astounded at the improvement in SD with the new box before I ever set up the rest of the system to receive what HD broadcasts there were.

I assume the higher quality electronics, shielding? bandwidth in the new Sat receiver were responsible for the difference.

Later I replaced my aging RCA DTC100 with a test run upgrading to a Sony HD200 HD STB. (which unfortunatly I had to return for freeze issues). Again the quality of the SD channels took an noticably upward swing with the later generation satilite receiver.

My mom still has not upgraded her sat to HD and is running a standard Direct receiver on the same Sony LCD display. Absolutly awful PQ when compared to mine using the DTC100. She has put me off having her Direct dish upgraded (every time they come over she ends up with glitch issues - so fears living through all the appts again). I will talk her into this upgrade soon. Meantime while she still has her original dish. If I replace my STB with another HD unit, I will pass her my DTC100, which I know will improve her PQ immensely.

different displays do handle sat feeds with greater/lesser aplomp due to quality of certain electronics (can't remember which one - I used to know and if I shopped a new display I'd be researching it again).

Regardless if you are using a 'basic' Direct reciever you might want to consider picking up a used HD STB (if fesible for you) even if you are not intending to upgrade your dish to HD at this time.

Norm

Well its not a good trade off to me, my eyes start hurting. Its like watching a poor Video-Cd on some of these channels.

Christopher Reeve Foundation

Mike_J_Potter

You might also want to try tweaking the settings on the TV. I was able to get the picture allot better, though still not nearly as good as a dvd at 480P or my HD set top box at 720P but thats understandable.

Tyson Wetzel

SD Television or NTSC was actually designed for use on 19" TV's (the largest at the time) around 50 years ago. NTSC or Never Twice the Same Color sucks.

StephenHa

lol

Bill Will

If I remember right, That's why it took Sony so long to move to the 35 Inch Tube when everyone else already had them. Sony said that the NTSC picture could not be any larger than 32 Inches without degrading picture quality. But in the end they were forced to move to the 35 Inch size because all the other brands had them & at the time the 40 Inch Mitsubishi sets were really starting to cut into Sony's 32 Inch "XBR" sales.

Kenneth Harden

I get that at work all the time.

Even with our 32" Sharp NON-HDTV with DTV, you can see .jpeg-like compression and all that. I would hate to see Cartoon Network on a DLP!!!

Maybe you are too close to the TV for some low-quality broadcasts