Need help to impress boss! HD content on TV's (1 Viewer)

[Ryan Leemhuis]

I work at a new Sears essentials store in Michigan. We have lots of HD and ED TV's setup with Dish Network. On the TV's we have ESPN HD displayed. However, on every TV when I push "Info" or similar, it says the signal is in 480p. Correct me if I am wrong but shouldn't it at least be in 720p to be considered HD? What could be setup wrong? It would really impress my boss if I made the TV's look at lot better Thanks for all your help! I am an HD content noob although I know a good deal about HD and TV's just not to set it up :frowning:

(the receivers are I believe silver JVC HD receivers)

EDIT: It looks like this from what I can remember(its hidden in the back)

http://www.cybertheater.com/images/1...d_receiver.jpg

 

[RAF]

I would suggest you don't use ESPN HD as your source material. They very often don't broadcast "true" HD and much of the time even when they do they still use a 4:3 format with gray bars on both sides. I've actually seen some stores change the aspect ratio of these broadcasts to get rid of the side bars (and then basketballs end up looking like footballs.)

While I realize that you probably want to show sports because that's usually a crowd pleaser, I would suggest you use Discovery HD (assuming that your store subscribes to it) for your demo material. Some great HD images and far more consistent in the HD area than ESPN. Also, does your Dish system get the 10 new VOOM channels? Lots of things to choose from there as demo material.

And to answer your question, you have to have the receiver set for 720p or 1080i if you want to get HD. This is accessed from the box's setup menu (at least on my Dish HD box). Are you sure that the feed to each set is via the component output (or similar) and not the S-Video or (shudder!) composite output? Lots of things might be set up wrong.

Good luck.

 

[Allen Hirsch]

The HD tuner/receiver is where the input signal is setup - should be 1080i or 720p, and 16x9 aspect. You should then be able to confirm what signal the TV is receiving (where you saw it's only getting 480p now).

Don't know if Dish gets it, but I second Discovery HD and InHD as much better examples of HD programming
than regular ESPN - the nature programming "shows off" HD better than regular programming, and many times better than sports.

OTOH, if you have a HD DVR, good, true HD sports programming, like Sunday Night baseball on ESPN, or the Super Bowl game, is worth running over and over to sell HD to the Joe Sixpack crowd.

 

[Joseph S]

Use PBS, CBS, INHD, HDNET, DISC for any demo. Some older Sony HD sets would actually downres 720p to 480p, maybe that's the issue with ESPNHD at your location.

 

[Ryan Leemhuis]

yeah they are all hooked up via component. How do access this menu using the receivers remote? There is this selection between (SD:Normal) and (HD:Normal) we selected HD but it appears to have done nothing. where is the option to select 720 or 1080. One thing I have learned is that the people that setup these systems are so stupid. Trying to plug all the TV's in the store into one fuse....right.....and its left up to me to fix it. Thanks for your help, With some more specific instructions I will mess with it tomorrow night to see what I can do.

 

[RAF]

I'm not sure about the JVC box, but on my Dish Network HD box you get to this by moving your way through the MENU choosing

SYSTEM SETUP

then

DISPLAY SETUP

On the Display Setup you should be able to choose your output mode (my choices are 1080i, 720p, 480p and 480i. Your box should have something similar to this, perhaps using different terms on the menu.

Good luck.

 

[Jeff Gatie]

That Dish receiver is the JVC TU-DP811RU. I have looked it up on the Dish site and have found the following in the manual:

Setting the HDTV Resolution
Once the receiver has been activated with qualifying DISH Network programming, use the following steps to select the desired HDTV format:

1. Consult your HDTV user’s guide for the HD format that the TV supports (1080i, 720p or 480p). If required, set up the HDTV to display in the format you desire. Some HDTV's will automatically adjust to the resolution setting of the receiver.

2. Press MENU 6-1-9 on the receiver remote control to bring up the receiver HD Setup screen.

3. Select the HD format under TV type that matches the format your TV is set up to support. Press Save to save these settings.

4. If you were using the standard definition A/V input, switch your HDTV to display from it's DVI or YPBPR component inputs. Consult your HDTV user guide for instructions.

5. Confirm you are watching picture from the receiver over the HDTV connections.

Link to manual


P.S. I too worked in A/V sales and found out real quick (as I have in my personal life) that manuals are your friends.

 

[Ryan Leemhuis]

Hehe too bad since I am just a lowly salesman I could NEVER know as much as the big macho TV setup people ::rolls eyes::

Thanks for this help, what would happen if I set it to output 1080i and the TV was only capable of 480p or 720p?

 

[Wendy_L]

Opps...wrong thread. Gotta be a tech geek to come in here.

*makes a quick exit*

 

[Allen Hirsch]

The TV would scale the 1080i signal to 480p or 720p (should be 720p, if it's a HD set; some CRT HD sets will only take 1080i - not 720p. I found this out when using an upscaling DVD player - my Sony HDTV did not like the 720p signal I tried to give it, but 1080i works like a charm).

 

[Jeff Gatie]

Yeah, I would default it to 1080i. The number of 720p sets that cannot process 1080i is much less than the number of 1080i that cannot process 720p (i.e. some CRT sets), although both are rarer today than in the past.

As to the setup guys, do like I used to do. While they are busy setting up the set, steal the manual out of the box and file it away in the department. If you ask me "What if they start looking for the manual to help them setup the TV?" my reply is "Yeah, like that'll happen."

 

[Ryan Leemhuis]

ok I set it to 1080 with the previously mentioned 6-1-9 combination, worked great! All the TV's now say 1080i.

Next question, When a broadcast such as a basketball game or Law and order or something says HD when the program starts how do you get the HD content?

For instance today I turned on the Pistons vs. Spurs and at the beginning it said ABCHD in the corner for a bit(normally just ABC station). However, the TV's still displayed the standard def signal. Do you have to change it to a different channel or something?

 

[CaptDS9E]

There are two seperate network channels. One for ABC and one for ABCHD (this one is higher up the channel list)

capt

 

[RAF]

And if you have the set tuned to the HD channel for that station and still don't get an HD signal, you aren't necessarily doing anything wrong. Someone at the station or somewhere often forgets to throw the proper switch to turn on the HD signal. It's not happening as often as in the early days of HD but it still happens.

 

[Ryan Leemhuis]

I looked through the channels but I saw no ABCHD is that not included with Dish network? We get TNTHD and DiscHD and all that but no ABCHD as far as I could see