Just bought a new HDTV

TheAscension · Mar 27, 2008, 11:57 PM

I just bought a new 1080p LCD HDTV and I'm a little puzzled by the picture quality of standard DVDs. I know its a 480i source but I didn't think it would look that bad. Not that it looks THAT bad, but it just looks a little pixalated and the color quality is lame. I've changed the output on my DVD player to 16:9 AR but that didn't seem to help that much. I have it hooked up via component with progressive scan but that doesn't seem to do much either. I don't have HDMI yet, but my player does upconvert via HDMI so maybe that will help things a bit. Thoughts?

I've read that I need to adjust the picture settings on the TV but I'm not sure what to adjust them to. Does anyone have LCD HDTV settings that they would like to share? I'd love to try some different setups to see what works best.

[hobo]eclipse · Mar 28, 2008, 01:11 AM

its hard to say without seeing the menu's, just play around with it.

maybe dig around over at AVS Forum

btw dot pay $25+ for an HDMI from retail stores, look online. If in the US i suggest firefold cable. $4.99 for a firewire cable brought in the mail in 2 days. I think the HDMI are around 7.00 bucks plus shipping. Some family members just payed $35 for an HDMI in walmart

tullnd · Mar 28, 2008, 01:20 AM

There's monoprice as well for quality HDMI cables.

Most standard DVD players will upconvert over component cables as well. You do mean, component, and not composite, right? It shouldn't look bad. Some discs are better than others, but unless you bought a 120Hz LCD, you shouldn't have to mess with the menus to make standard DVD's look pretty darn good.

Judas · Mar 28, 2008, 09:29 AM

actually even with the 120hz hdtv's things work beautifully outa the box (unless the dvd player is the cause)..

using component connections, and a digital audio connection, setting up the dvdplayer to 16:9 and then the tv making sure it's 16:9 as well (as i've seen some come with 4x3 selected by default)

I've dealt with mostly panasonic/sony/samsung (my fav)/toshiba... usually they come in great working order

TheAscension · Mar 29, 2008, 11:11 AM

Yeah there was no way I was going to pay retail for an HDMI cable so I got one online for $7 shipped. I must have HDMI because my player does not upconvert through component, only HDMI.

I've double checked the 16:9 AR on both the player and the TV. It honestly doesn't look that bad, its just that it doesn't look nearly as good as an HD source. Maybe my expectations are too high. I can't wait to see what a DVD looks like upconverted, maybe that's what I'm looking for.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tullnd

Some discs are better than others

Are there really variations in DVD quality? Because I noticed that when I was watching a Star Trek TNG DVD, (scenes outside the ship in space) the blacks started getting shades of green and blue but then it would go away after a few seconds. However, this does not happen when I'm watching Aliens where there are space scenes and lots of black.

I also wanted to ask: what is a 120Hz HDTV?

***Veridian3*** · Mar 29, 2008, 08:06 PM

The quality of DVD's varies greatly, the best thing you can do to check out the picture quality of your DVD player is pick up a copy of Star Wars Episode 3 and play that through the system. Its a pretty great transfer and should show exactly what each connector is capable off...

tullnd · Mar 30, 2008, 01:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheAscension

I also wanted to ask: what is a 120Hz HDTV?

LCD's default to 60Hz. This results in an issue displaying video vs film. Video is about 30 frames per second(29.9 or something exactly). Film is 24fps. To get it to line up, they have to do some things with it about repeating frames and such to make sure it doesn't play back faster than the other. It does a 3:2 pattern. Frame 1 is played back 3 times, frame 2 twice. Frame 3 is played 3 times, frame 4 is played twice. And so on.

There's some processing involved in this and some players are better at it than others. Hence why you hear some people talk about the different chips in their players.

Now 120Hz tv's dont have as much of an issue with that, as a film(24fps) source can be converted in a 5:5 pulldown which means less processing and more fluid motion on the screen.

Drawback? 120hz LCD TV's are pretty new and most of them are still developing. They often don't perform as well for video sources due to the tuning that was done for film. Over time, this will surely be addressed(and maybe has been...i did my shopping back in october/november when 120hz LCD's were really just showing up). Some people reported display issues with some sources. Most seemed addressed by tweaking some of the options but that can be a pain if you have to keep changing the options for different playback sources.

[hobo]eclipse · Mar 30, 2008, 01:16 PM

good informative info there tullnd, thanks, i didnt know the specifics like that.