I recently purchased a Panasonic Viera TH-42PX80U and had it installed last night, but I don't understand why the picture is not as clear as what I saw at the store. I'm not electronic savvy, so I'm really lost when it comes to the technical terms. According to the installer, he said the reason was because I have an old dish network receiver and Tivo, therefore the picture quality is not going to be very good and will only upcovert to 480 max and not 720. True, my receiver and Tivo are over 8 years old, but does this really make a difference? I was told I need to upgrade to a HD receiver, but I can't afford to upgrade at this time. Are there any suggestions on what I can do to correct this without have to upgrade or was I misinformed? All your help would be greatly appreciated.

SD is just not going to look good on a large HD set, been discussed multiple times here, you need to upgrade to HD equipment if you want an HD picture.

Check the Plasma section for help setting up your display to get the best PQ out of it for SD, just don't expect any miracles.

Try hooking up an antenna to that RF input and running a channel scan. If you get anything local, it should look a lot better.

Do you still have the 42" Viera?
How does it looks 3 years later?

Considering he just bought it last month, I think it's gonna be hard to answer that...

If you need assistance or advice on a plasma, check the Flat Panel Plasma section.