Wayde_R

TV shopping

I've looked at a number of TVs at various retailers with a critical eye lately.

I've noticed that all the TVs (almost) without exception show some amount of pixelation or distortion when displaying DVDs where the screen is 50" or greater, some more than others and generally proportionate to the set's relative quality.

What's got me baffled is this one display at Best Buy has a Sony Wega 60" LCD projector showing one of the newly remastered Star Wars movies playing from a moderately priced Pioneer DVD player (DVa 563 or its newer replacement)using component video (I don't think that player has DVI or HDMI). It shows the movie almost perfectly, it's as if it's a high res DVD.

My question is; how can this one display show the movie so perfectly? Is the Wega that good? If so, is it really good scalers being used in the TV? Or is it possible that every other display I'm looking at in the stores are setup wrong?

Does anybody here know what I'm talking about when I cite the pixelation you see in larger displays showing DVDs, presumably the DVD player is setup to show 480P, the TV is probably upscale this to its native resoution. Invariably they're not "perfect".

If that Sony Wega is just that good, why does anybody need HD DVD?

HomeTheaterFocus.com
GizmoCafe

Kenneth Harden

I work around nice TV's, well, from trash to 70" Sony XBR's and InFocus projectors.

The true HD feeds look stunning. Done and done. American Chopper sparkles, along with the other HD shows (DiscoveryHD right off a $300 Samsung DirecTV box)

SOME DVD's look good. Finding Nemo looks great, for example. However, some DVD's get some more compression and don't look as great. Even movies like Napoleon Dynamite (sp?) look very good, certainly taking advantage of even a very expensive TV.

Really depends.

Wayde_R

Thanks for the reply Ken.

Funny you mention Finding Nemo. They were playing Finding Nemo on DVD on a 50" Samsung DLP RP. It looked pixelated. Not bad from about 8' back, but when you get up on it you can definitely see "blocks" and jaggies around the edges of images.

I realize the real HD feed will look great on all the TVs, that's why I don't care as much about that, I'm most interested in DVD.

Would it be an unheard of imposition on the sales staff if I brought in my own DVD player w/ my own DVD so I could hook it up to their TVs for testing? On my own TV I know I could go into the menu system and make sure it's set for progessive scan, perhaps on that Samsung needed to do some tweaking. Could progressive scan off on the DVD player cause the pixelation I am seeing?

I'm positive some sales staff are knowlegable, but most just seem to say you simply have to sit back about 10 feet from your 50" TV to watch a DVD without noticing pixels. They accept it as the way it is. But that one display seems to accomplish the impossible. I'm positive that one TV the Sony Wega LCD RP isn't using some video processing so superior the rest of the industry can't copy it.

HomeTheaterFocus.com
GizmoCafe

Benson R

First thing is, best buy is poor place to gauge tv performance. They almost never setup the tvs right. Everytime I go there I see things like setting up a widescreen tv with a dvd player set to play in 4x3 mode. For all you know, even on some of the expensive sets, they have the dvd hooked up through composite video cables( I have seen them do this many times).

As far as whether sony is superior, I think you will find many here on the forum who will tell you that they have been coasting on their name recognition for a while, and their products these days are way overrated.

Perhaps the sony looked vastly superior to you because it was the only lcd tv you looked at. The newer lcd and dlp sets produce an image that many find superior to the crt rptv sets.

I suggest you look around this forum and elsewhere on the internet for reviews, then go to stores like bestbuy just so you can get a look at the set before you buy.

XBL Gamertag: PVT Hicks

Kenneth Harden

Wayde:

Where I work, we would do whatever you wanted as long as it didn't harm our gear and you were serious about buying (not a stroker) - even if it took a while.

No matter what, you will need to sit back a little, DVD's can only do so much. You need to measure at home how far away you will be sitting, and recreate that in the store!

Wayde_R

Hey Benson

i've definitely seen all the display types in action except maybe lcos in stores.

My main and only question is why the huge discrepancy between every other large TV I've seen (playing DVD only) and that one display.

I suspect it's because the displays I've seen don't have the DVDs set to progressive scan. I looked at another display recently and I serepticiously reset the DVD player to its factory defaults (the DVD player in question was the DV563a with which I am very familiar) The sales guy felt he had to show me all these settings the TV uses to improve the picture, I didn't care about any of that and was focused on the pixelation (I was polite of course). After studying the picture for awhile, I asked if I can play with the remote for the dvd player. I think the sales guy felt a little embarrassed when I switched the DVD player to the correct aspect ratio and enabled progressive scan. The difference in the picture was night and day. Having been able to switch it back and forth and study the differences I want to say that nearly EVERY big screen HDTV display in the Kitchener Waterloo area showing a DVD movie has progressive disabled and the sales staff don't realize.

It makes me wonder if people do any critical viewing at all? Many of the TVs I saw even showing HD feeds looked horrible and could fixed with a few simple settings.

Critical viewing in store isn't the greatest way to judge. I realize this, however what I was looking for was the level of pixelation on DVD playback only. I wasn't concerned with colour temp, tint, brightness, convergence. However, depending on what display type I was looking at I might be inclined to look for the blemishes known to that type. Such as... how well does this LCD rp deal with screen door, how well does this DLP model deal with rainbow effect. But I agree with you Benson, you can't always judge by the store display.

HomeTheaterFocus.com
GizmoCafe

Ted Lee

for a high-end shop, they should have no problem. for a b&m store (like bb) they may look at you kind of weird, but if you get the right salesperson ... they may be willing to humor you. i'd ask first, then come back when that particular salesperson is there (and willing). bb employees don't make comission, so it's not you're taking any money from them (in the form of potential lost sales).

anyway, to go back to your impression on the sony 60" lcd, i agree that it is one of the best tv's we have. personally, if i were going to buy a tv today, that is probably the one i would buy myself.).sorry, but i just have to go off on this.

yes, some employees at bb don't know what the f they're doing. but please don't assume that every bb store (and employee) is like that. in my store and department, i'm proud to say that many of the associates are rock-solid in their technical knowledge. in my dept (ht) we make sure to use the best cabling possible and make sure everything is setup correctly. anyway, if you see something incorrectly hooked up, ask to speak to the ht manager and let him know your thoughts. if the manager is worth anything he'll make sure the issue is addressed.

this is my dvd collection. there are many like it, but this is my own ...

TheBat

anyone have good info about the sony 36 inch tv? the one that has the 16x9 enhanced mode?
cost about 899 or so.
JACOB

Wayde_R

Any views on the Hitach 51F510 or 57F510 ?

Should they do progressive scan DVD well? I hate the 'noise' around images on a lot of big crt RPs out there. But if these sets can be made to look clean doing 480P I think they'd be perfect. I can deal with the size and the price is definitely right. I can't do an FP nor can I justify the extra $$ on the Hitachi 50v500 which I'd love to take home.

HomeTheaterFocus.com
GizmoCafe