Disappointed with LCD TV picture quality when watching DVDs

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Regs

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Snowflake

#421306 24-Dec-2010 12:05

timmmay:
illicit:
timmmay: Buy an upscaling DVD player

Why?!

Instead of the TV doing the upscaling, you suggest getting a dvd player to do it?
Unless its an expensive DVD player, it probably wont perform as well as the TV at upscaling....

I guess it doesn't matter where the upscaling happens. I just assumed a DVD player would be better at it that a TV, especially a cheap TV, but it's hard to say.

it becomes especially important if you are sending the sound to a home theatre amp. if you send the sound to the amp in real time and a non-upscaled image to the TV, the TV will end up slowing the image slightly as it processes it and you'll get your audio ahead of the picture. if you do the upscaling in the player then they tend to lag the audio out to compensate (unless they're a really sheety dvd player). this might be less noticable in higher end tv's with faster image processing though

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richms

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#421324 24-Dec-2010 13:30

The only time I have had a problem with lag was with all the other processing crap turned on in the TV, the stuff that made it look like drunk vision etc like the more hertz and other processing crap. With that off, no lag, no problem.

Also, IME the TVs do much better jobs of it, particularly the crap deinterlacers in digital tv boxes, which are typically the same image processing chips used in cheap dvd players, the ticker at the bottom of C4 is constantly being deinterlaced in film mode so jagged when I have the freeview set to anything but 576i output. It just doesnt get it right. The one in the tv never mistakes it for film content, the rest of the picture looks a little softer, but its only 576 lines anyway, so it may be more accurate vs the oversharpened output from the freeview box.

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#421334 24-Dec-2010 14:04

set sharpness to lowest (zero)

wreck90

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#421339 24-Dec-2010 14:19

DVD and other standard definition sources (SD) don't look great on HD sets.

Upscaling supposedly can help but depends on the quality of the upscaling circuitry - eg, my receiver does a terrible job SD to HD.

Unfortunately the networks are slow to switch to HD. Sky still considers HD to be a premium product when just about every TV in the shops is HD capable.

I'd say, HD is a minimum service now, while SD should be considered low quality.

richms

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#421361 24-Dec-2010 15:37

wreck90: DVD and other standard definition sources (SD) don't look great on HD sets.

Upscaling supposedly can help but depends on the quality of the upscaling circuitry - eg, my receiver does a terrible job SD to HD.

Unfortunately the networks are slow to switch to HD. Sky still considers HD to be a premium product when just about every TV in the shops is HD capable.

I'd say, HD is a minimum service now, while SD should be considered low quality.

More of a problem is they seem to think widescreen is still a premium product and are still pushing out content that will not fit properly on any TV available.

IMO, HD should have become the norm when 32" tvs were the norm, 1080 is about right for that screensize, and is not enough for the monster screens that are the norm now. SD pal etc is best left to the 21" philips K9 era displays, since anything made since then is able to resolve more detail that, yet so much of what is screened on TV is converted up from some horrid old video standard that has no place being used these days.

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#421398 24-Dec-2010 18:33

Dunnersfella:
bfginger:

Don't buy a new DVD player when Blu-ray players aren't much more expensive. A Blu-ray player can play and upscale DVDs. The quality of Blu-rays is vastly superior to DVDs.

What he said!
A BluRay player + HDMI cable will probably cost... what... $220 (including an HDMI) come Boxing Day?
Why buy a technology that'll be obsolete in a few years time, when you can spend just a little more today?
Panasonic BD45 + HDMI would be my pick for the money.

Definetly agree.

clevedon

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#421399 24-Dec-2010 18:33

Dunnersfella:
bfginger:

Don't buy a new DVD player when Blu-ray players aren't much more expensive. A Blu-ray player can play and upscale DVDs. The quality of Blu-rays is vastly superior to DVDs.

What he said!
A BluRay player + HDMI cable will probably cost... what... $220 (including an HDMI) come Boxing Day?
Why buy a technology that'll be obsolete in a few years time, when you can spend just a little more today?
Panasonic BD45 + HDMI would be my pick for the money.

Definetly agree.

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JimmyH

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#421404 24-Dec-2010 18:56

I had a good run with an upscaling DVD player that I got from DSE for $99, and that they still have at that price (Product Code: G3086). Hooked up to a 32" CRT in my bedroom, and DVD's look pretty good on it. It also copes well with sky recordings on DVD-RW from the living room, where the brand-name player I used to use didn't.

+1 on the advice not to overpay for an HDMI cable. If its only a short run they the ones that Jaycar sell at three for $40 ($13 each) should be fine. Paying $100+ for an HDMI cable less than 5m long is just nuts.

Personally, after getting burnt by buying a DVD player when prices fell to $500, and then having to junk it and replace it with a sub-$100 multi-zone cheapie because it wouldn't play region 1 discs, I am holding off on blu ray as I buy discs from Amazon (pricing and superior release window/catalogue). Wake me when blu ray machines that will cope with Zone A discs and/or recorders at around the $700 price point become available, and I might be interested.

Loismustdye

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#421421 24-Dec-2010 21:00

As everyone is saying, get an upscaling dvd player or a Bluray player for the better picture.
I've got the same TV and running Bluray or ps3 games via HDMI gives a great image, to my eye it is comparable to some of the far more expensive panels that I looked at.

wmoore

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#421999 27-Dec-2010 23:50

joker97: set sharpness to lowest (zero)

I find if I set my sharpness to 0 I get too much of a softness around edges of things. (faces, buildings etc)
I usually set it very low about 2 or 3 and that just seems to take the softness away.
But the thing is we all like our TV's set up different ways.

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richms

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#422001 28-Dec-2010 00:20

Yeah, its just a shame that you cant undo what the tv broadcasters do with some of their upscaling efforts. Ringing so bad around some of the news readers etc they look like they have been outlined or dropshadowed in photoshop sometimes.

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#422014 28-Dec-2010 02:58

i was just trying to help the OP in case he wanted to keep the very old technology, this is one way to improve PQ

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