Mott441
04-22-2002, 04:05 PM
I guess when I looked into purchasing the HDTV I really hadn't givin the NTSC signal conversion much thought, I guess I just assumed it would look as good as it did on my old 26" TV. UGHHH!
I'm seeing alot of blurred images and bity ones too(especially up close). I own the RCA 38" HDTV and am mesmerized by the DVD images as well as the HD channels, both from the OTA and DirectTV, but when I change the channel to watch a converted signal my eyes are thrown into a tizzy. Could it be my RCA set or is this just natural?
I'm thinking the same thing - I just bought a new Hitachi HDTV monitor and it produces a stunning picture with DVDs and Xbox games, but there is a noticeable blur when I watch TV via Dish Network. I figured that the picture for regular TV would be at least as good as my old 36" analog, but it's clearly not. This is most noticeable when watching sports. I know I'm not the only one experiencing this - I have seen my brother's 65" Mitsubishi and his picture looks even worse.
Any tips to improve picture quality?
zarlor
04-29-2002, 01:26 PM
What you are seeing is your set, or tuner's attempt to upconvert the image to the resolution of your TV set. This is going to do two thing. First, in order to get rid of the "jaggies" (think of a computer picture taken a 640x480 resolution that you blow-up to 1920x1080, you only have 640x480 of information in that higher resolution so the bigger picture would normally just have jagged edges, or a stair-stepping effect) the decoder will scale and do some form of "anti-aliasing" on the image. Most people will find that this process makes a picture "soft" or "fuzzy".
The second thing is that when you blow up what looked like a great picture on your 36" set to the size of a 65" set (or 26" to 38", as the case may be and to a lesser degree) it is MUCH easier to see all the flaws of the souce material. Something which looks good when it is small could really look bad when blown up. Think of looking at a newspaper picture with a magnifying glass and you get the idea. Refer back to the first paragraph to see how your set or tuner tries to rectify this problem.
Options to fix the problem:
1) Learn to live with it. I know it isn't the answer you were looking for, but it should all start looking better the more broadcaster begin sending us HD material, start getting better grade source material and start doing some of the conversion of low-resolution material for us. They stuff they have at the studios are phenominally better at doing those upconversions than the one in your set or tuner and can probably get you something that looks as good as your DVDs do. Plus you won't have to deal with seeing all those analog problems so much easier at your bigger size, such as snow and static and moire effects, and so on, that often plague analog signals and are greatly magnified on a large screen set.
2) Use an "unmodified" input. Some sets have a connector that does not convert the signal. My stepfather's RCA, for example, does not perform any kind of conversion on the Component inputs. So all of the DVDs he watches through that input don't get converted to that softer picture. Of course It annoys the living daylights out of me because it is so much easier to see the line structure of the picture that way. It looks like one big line across the screen of picture followed by a big black line, all the way down the screen. Blech. I'll take the upconversion any day, but he prefers it like that because he doesn't see the lines. (Some people don't, or are just very good at ignoring them.) This is, effectively, the same as using an analog tv set of the same size as your digital set.
3) If you are using an external tuner, connect the S-Video connection up and switch your tuner to analog mode when you are not watching HDTV material. You set may still do the upconversion, unless this is one of those unmodified connection points, BUT maybe the converter in your set is better than the converter on your tuner. In that case it should look better if you don't use the HD output on your tuner when watching non-HD material and let your set do it, instead.
4) Use a PC. Sounds kind of strange, I know, but if you have a PC Tuner card, DVD player and/or a few good video inputs with a good video card on your PC, this could be the single best item you've ever added to your home theater. The reason is that you would be putting the power of your PC to work doing all of that scaling of all that video to the resolution you want it to be on your screen. High-End home theater enthusiasts will pay several hundred dollars for a progressive-scan DVD player and several thousand for a scaler to do what any decent computer with the right video card and a DVD drive can do. (A computer is naturally a progressive-scanned DVD player, yes even with those $60 DVD drives).
With a Home Theater PC (or HTPC) your computer will do the scaling at the resolution you prefer. For example, my TV set will convert most inputs it has to 1920x1080 interlaced. But I find that DVDs and most upconverted material looks MUCH better if I use the progressive-scanned format of that resolution, or 1920x540 progressive. If your set can do 1080i it also knows how to do 540p. (Same for a 720p set, they can also do 1440i). With my PC I can choose what resolution I want to watch at depending on my personal tastes for that material. Plus you can always use that PC as a form of TIVO machine, as well. (One of the few ways to record HD, although mostly only the OTA stuff, not sattelite HD.)
The only thing about this option, though, is that it doesn't hurt to be at least somewhat computer literate. Some of the programs used and hardware that you might install sometimes takes someone who is not afraid to get their hands a little dirty working with it, but it's really not that hard. In fact some places offer some all-in-one HTPC solutions. (I think you can find some at http://www.avscience.com, if I remember correctly.)
Oh, and speaking of Scalers, I should add one last option...
5) Get a scaler. You could always buy a dedicated scaler to get that look that is close to what it looks like when the broadcasters do the upconversion for you. The most popular seem to be the ones made by a company called Faroudja. Expect to pay big bucks, though. I doubt they have anything decent for less than $500, and you'll probably be looking at closer to $2,000. (That HTPC doesn't look so bad now, does it. ;))
Best of luck and I hope that helps, at least a little.
Thanks for the response Lenny.
