HDTV Upgrade Advice Needed

Re: HDTV Upgrade Advice Needed

honestly i think your just dealing with an old set. If i am correct this set was manufactured around 2005. The advances since then on LCD units makes the one you have seem worse then it might even be.

Even though, at this point, Blu Ray is really the only 1080P source used within the next 2-5 years there will be many more 1080P options. I would upgrade now, and within the stated time period you will be able to utilize the 1080P feature much more.

Re: HDTV Upgrade Advice Needed

There is no such thing as a 1080i LCD RP television. Your Sony has a native resolution of 768p - and it converts all incoming signals to that resolution. (It will accept a 1080i signal. So will every other HDTV because that's required by the specs.) Part of the problem might be that your signals are getting over-processed because of the settings you're using. Try setting your HD-DVR to output 720p and your DVD player to output 480p and see what things look like. Also get a calibration disc like Avia or Digital Video Essentials and run it on your set. You can't simply use somebody else's settings, even for the same model, and get the same results. Seating distance, lighting, even the color of the paint on the walls can all affect how the picture looks, not to mention that fact that no two televisions are ever 100% identical.

Having said all that, SD channels often look worse on an HD set than on an SD one. HD can't actually add resolution that isn't there in the original signal, even when rescaling, and it does magnify the flaws inherent in low-res images. (It is much like the experience a lot of had 20 years ago going from smaller CRT sets to large RPTVs.) But your HD channels should look very good indeed if your set is properly calibrated for your viewing conditions.

On the SD-DVD front: These will vary considerably based on the original source material. My CSI discs look almost as good as the HD brodcasts. The Ascent of Man, a BBC/PBS documentary from the 70s that was shot on 16mm, looks fairly crummy. But the source material is clearly in bad shape. The non-anamorphic Streets of Fire looks amazing - far better than on any previous home video release - because the original transfer is very clean. The Rocketeer, also a non-anamorphic DVD, doesn't look nearly as good. In both cases the producers seem to have ported the existing laserdisc transfer to DVD, and Disney's original Rocketeer laserdisc was never very good to begin with. Garbage in, garbage out.

Certainly you could do well by buying a new set, but depending on your viewing distance you may not see that much difference between 720p (768p) and 1080p. You might just want to take another stab at properly tweaking your current setup and hold off for a year or two on the new set until you're ready to go Blu Ray. By that time prices will have come down further and you'll get even more bang for your buck.

Regards,

Joe

Re: HDTV Upgrade Advice Needed

From the player (I assume it's not Blu-Ray) I would try first the 720x480p or the 1280x720p.