Achieving Best Picture Quality on LED TV

bsvprasad

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All,

I recently bought a new Toshiba 40" LED TV (40PS200ZE). I have a hathway cable connection with a digital settop box. Many channels look terrible on the new TV. Is there any way to make the resolution better without chanding the settop box or the vendor?
 
All,

I recently bought a new Toshiba 40" LED TV (40PS200ZE). I have a hathway cable connection with a digital settop box. Many channels look terrible on the new TV. Is there any way to make the resolution better without chanding the settop box or the vendor?

What is the issue? Dark picure? Bright picture? or quality of SD channels?
 
I am facing the exact same problem while using a FastWay Cable connection with Set top Box with my Toshiba 32" PU200 LED TV. It seems to be a problem only for fast moving images like Sports channels, Dance performances, etc. I have tried various combinations for sharpness, color and tint but it still remains the same. I think the best way to do a comparison will be to connect it to a DTH provider like Dish, Tata Sky or Airtel etc.

I will try and do that. In the meanwhile, if there are any other suggestions, Kindly share.
 
You can't make SD channels look better beyond a limit. Now if you have an upscaling AVR, you could connect the SD feed to the AVR and AVR connected to TV via HDMI. Not all AVRs can upscale - the lower-mid end AVR just do pass-through. Even here, the upscaling capability of AVRs (of those who do) is not something to rave about. As the saying goes - Garbage in = Garbage out.

However, you can somewhat improve the other settings for picture such as contrast, brightness, backlight (if available to control), colour, tint and sharpness.

If you have not subscribed to HD, I recommend that you do.
 
I think he is talking about signal resolution.
He would be seeing lot of blocky artifacts on screen.

BSV, for your problems you have got only two choices: either change your set top box operator, or ask your existing operator to give HD box.

OR there is one more free alternative: watch the TV from a distance!

You can't make SD channels look better beyond a limit. Now if you have an upscaling AVR, you could connect the SD feed to the AVR and AVR connected to TV via HDMI. Not all AVRs can upscale - the lower-mid end AVR just do pass-through. Even here, the upscaling capability of AVRs (of those who do) is not something to rave about. As the saying goes - Garbage in = Garbage out.

However, you can somewhat improve the other settings for picture such as contrast, brightness, backlight (if available to control), colour, tint and sharpness.

If you have not subscribed to HD, I recommend that you do.
Some channels are so poor, I would not call them SD! They remind me of the days when super fast internet meant 128 kbps, when we used to watch movies on VCD. Yes that's exactly what I would call these channels = VCD quality, only up scaled to SD.

(Just the same way many HD channels are nothing but SD up scaled!)
 
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I think he is talking about signal resolution.
He would be seeing lot of blocky artifacts on screen.

BSV, for your problems you have got only two choices: either change your set top box operator, or ask your existing operator to give HD box.

OR there is one more free alternative: watch the TV from a distance!


Some channels are so poor, I would not call them SD! They remind me of the days when super fast internet meant 128 kbps, when we used to watch movies on VCD. Yes that's exactly what I would call these channels = VCD quality, only up scaled to SD.

(Just the same way many HD channels are nothing but SD up scaled!)
What you say is true. SD is supposed to be DVD quality. But if I watch DVDs on my TV (via a non-upscaling DVD player and connected by composite AV), and the SD channels from TataSky HD box (connected by HDMI), the DVDs are twice as much better.
 
Yes, as Kix mentioned nothing can be done about the SD channels. However there might be marginal improvement when you watch it through DTH rather than cable settop box. The colors are bland in the cable settop box but the same looks much better in DTH.
 
As the saying goes - Garbage in = Garbage out.................totally accurate!!!

Your signal is only as good as the source. If the source is garbage no tv in the world is going to be able to make it look like HD. SD will always get upscaled to the tv's native resolution which could be 720p or 1080p. Depending on the tv's video engine, SD might get deteriorated due to upscaling, and if the source is poor that's a double whammy. The reason why SD looks good on some HDTVs is due to superior upscaling. Top end tv's generally do a better job of upscaling SD than entry level tv's. Also SD would look better on a 720p panel vs 1080p panel due to less video processing.

Suggest to go with a HD box and hook it up via HDMI. SD will never look like HD but using HDMI would make a bit of difference.
 
There is no alternative for SD channels other than CRT. ....even if any company markets their processor as the best upscaler in the world.

Target will never be better than the source. (Physics law)

Instead of throwing your old CRT use if couple of more years to watch normal cable and keep you flat screen restricted to HD content. .........That's what I do:)
 
There is no alternative for SD channels other than CRT. ....even if any company markets their processor as the best upscaler in the world.

Target will never be better than the source. (Physics law)

Instead of throwing your old CRT use if couple of more years to watch normal cable and keep you flat screen restricted to HD content. .........That's what I do:)

+1 I do the same, Have my CRT for SD.

But many SD channels look very much watchable on DTH. There are some that I avoid like the plague though.

Waiting for the day when everything will be HD! :D
 
Turn sharpness to minimum, I keep it 0... That shud improve sd, pls note leds produce artificial edges hence one should reduce sharpness... Try it and let me know ...
 
Turn sharpness to minimum, I keep it 0... That shud improve sd, pls note leds produce artificial edges hence one should reduce sharpness... Try it and let me know ...

This is one really important point for SD .
Results in an overall smooth sd picture reducing jaggies.
 
All,

Many thanks you your replies! Unfortunately I gave away my old Sony TV so I don't have that option!

However, one option on which I invite opinions & advise is: is there a way to produce a pixel-to-pixel mapped picture? This should be theoretically possible on a digital LED TV. I tried the 4:3 aspect ratio selection on the TV, but it looks nearly as bad as the wide body picture. Thanks,

BSV Prasad
 
All,

Many thanks you your replies! Unfortunately I gave away my old Sony TV so I don't have that option!

However, one option on which I invite opinions & advise is: is there a way to produce a pixel-to-pixel mapped picture? This should be theoretically possible on a digital LED TV. I tried the 4:3 aspect ratio selection on the TV, but it looks nearly as bad as the wide body picture. Thanks,

BSV Prasad
As I said before, there is not much improvement possible because the SD quality in DTH or cable is really bad. Even though SD is supposed to 576i, the compression is so high and the sampling bitrate is so low that the overall quality suffers a great deal. As I said, pure DVD (SD) is better than cable/DTH (SD). Hence I advise many people to base their PQ judgment and "buy" decision on a lot of viewing of SD channels. Unfortunately, most people are blown away by the "reference quality HD video" that they see in the showroom.

This "reference quality HD video" is usually a sample blu-ray showing some mediterranean town with brightly coloured home with equally shining roof tops, pristine and deep blue waters, wonderfully green grass/trees, brilliantly coloured folliage and flowers, deep blue skies with an eagle soaring, etc.

Unfortunately, that kind of video is not what we see at home. We see mostly SD channels which are poor in quality. Now some DTH providers (like TataSky) do a better job on SD PQ. Some don't. Cable TV is usually the worst. Then again, some TVs do a better job of adjusting and scaling the SD content to the native resolution and showing it slightly better than it really is. In this case, CRT/576i TV will be best because the picture can be shown as is, 720p TV will do OK as there is less "adjustment" to be done, while 1080p TVs will be the worst farers.
 
I believe you are still watching in factory settings which is typically in torch mode with most settings maxed out.

Reduce the sharpness and backlight settings.It should help.Not sure how much compression your cable tv operator is doing but from what i have seen DTH usually have better PQ.
 
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