General RPTV Picture Quality Question (1 Viewer)

[Greg.J.G]

I'm new to RPTV's. I've always had tubes but recently purchased an RPTV. I immediately noticed that the picture on it was very dull (colorwise) compared to my tube TV. Is this normal for an RPTV? My other TV is a cheap Sharp 25” that I only paid $200 for earlier this year and the picture quality is awesome. Colors are very vibrant.

I’ve sold that RPTV (which was only a couple weeks old) and bought an RPTV HDTV Widescreen, which hasn’t been delivered yet. But with that RPTV (the one I sold), I played around with the color settings (even used Digital Video Essentials to get the picture quality right) but it just didn’t look anywhere near as good as my 25”.

 

[Tim Hess]

How [B I G] was your RPTV? was it [16x9]? The smaller the set (when talking about tube or Direct View sets) will always be a better image (IMO).

If I could get a 47-50" [16x9] HDTV Direct View set, I would in a second.

 

[Greg.J.G]

The one I sold was a 43" 4:3 EDTV set. I had an HDTV OTA receiver hooked up to it through the 480p component port and even that didn't have the greatest colors.

The new one (which hasn't been delivered yet so can't comment on the picture) is a Samsung 42" 16:9 HDTV (reviews I read said it has an awesome picture).

 

[Jeff Gatie]

Have you done a convergence (preferably a system level)?

Have you calibrated the set using Avia/V.E ?

Is the room the tv is in excessively bright?

All of these will effect the picture on an RPTV, the first 2 will help, the third will hurt. RPTV's are not as bright as tubes and require a bit of light management (no direct sunlight, lower overall light level in the room) for a superb picture.

 

[Lew Crippen]

Greg, Jeff asks some good questions. You also need to consider them as far as your direct-view set was concerned.

Did you ever adjust the settings on your tube TV? Many times they come with very bright settings—you get used to that (even though it is perhaps not technically correct) and make comparisons accordingly.

My suggestion is to calibrate using one of the disks Jeff mentions. It may seem too dull, but give the settings a couple of weeks chance and see how you feel. You may like what you have or may wish to make adjustments according to your preferences, but you will be making the adjustments from a known base.

 

[Greg.J.G]

I did some convergence. I had the grid pretty darn straight and the guns lined up. I also did use Digital Video Essentials (their latest one) to set the brightness, contrast, and color settings.

The room can get bright during the day but I leave the lights off in the evening. The picture still seemed pretty dull with and without light.

I did make adjustments to the brightness (no contrast) of the tube TV. I also use the energy saving mode which lowers the contrast I think. It definitely looks better without energy saving off, but even with it on it looks much, much better than the RPTV did. Also, brightness on it is only at 25% (with energy saving off). Wish I knew what contrast was at.

Others who saw the RPTV before I sold it also mentioned that it looked bad. It was a cheap RPTV so maybe that was the biggest problem.

I guess I'm just wondering what I should expect as far as closeness to the tube TV quality. It's hard to tell with demo TV's at electronic stores since they crank the brightness and contrast up.