best lcd for sd ?

Depends on the signal at BB which I assume is pretty awful, distance from the screen, type of programming etc. Just because it as awful there does not mean it would be at home. However as they say...crap in...crap out. I believe SD on Sonys is pretty good.

SD PQ on a HDreceiver will look much better than SD PQ on a SDreceiver or analog cable.

DVD PQ on a blurayplayer will look much better then dvd PQ on a dvdplayer.

Analog cable will suck on all LCD's.

So what's the solution when analog cable is all you have available? For me to get digital reception, I have to rewire with Cat 5 cable, which is essentially impossible since all the coax was wired when the house was built and there is no way to run new cabling without having it tacked to the baseboards, which I refuse to do in a new home. Also, all digital cable runs have to terminate at a router located inside the house, which is also going to be impossible with no utility areas to hide it in.

My other huge gripe with digital is that the cable company makes you use their receiver box, which negates the tuner in the TV and makes you juggle two remotes just to watch TV.

Satellite's not an option.

What kind of SD signal did they show you? (IE composite from a DVD player or something else?). Also what kind of SD signal are you planning on viewing (DVD or receiver of some kind?).

I find DVD's look pretty good (especially with a component cable), I can't see a receiver would be that much different than a DVD.

One thing to keep in mind is that showrooms tend to put you too close to the TV compared to at home viewing. Yes, at 2 ft away SD looks awful. Try 10 ft away and it will still look SD but generally I find it looks better.

Buy a crt.

I have digital cable (Scientific Atlantic 8300HD Cablebox) with a HDMI connection to my Sony XBR9 (with the Bravia 3 engine), and the standard definition channels are generally fair to good in picture quality (depending on the channel in question).

Tell us your budget and what size screen you want and we might be able to make some recommendations. SD picture quality is not consistent among all models of any particular brand. You have to find out about specific models in the size you are going to get.

Consider a 37 or 42 inch Pioneer or Panasonic plasma instead of LCD.

Panasonic has poor processing. Do not buy a Panasonic for SD, whether LCD or PDP. Pioneer is better than Panasonic, but Samsung beats them both when doing SD. Lower to mid-range Sonys do not have that good of processing either.

I would say go with a Samsung 6 series or above.

I don't know where you get your information, (probably CNet), but your generalizations do not hold true from other reviews of most of the sets you mention.

An example is that the Samsung LN40B750 rates only Very Good for Picture Quality while many sets from both Panasonic and Sony rate Excellent with SD source material.

I get my information from watching them side by side. I happen to have three displays in my living room at this moment---a Pioneer, a Panasonic, and a Samsung, and I have an HDMI splitter.

I also have spent many hours comparing them side by side in the stores, and I also take into account reviews that I've read. The reviews pretty much support the conclusions that I've come to.

If you can't tell that the Panasonics lag far behind the Samsungs on SD processing, you are just plain ignorant. You have obviously not spent much time observing them side by side, running the same content, and you must not have read a wide variety of reviews.

Here are just a few recent samplings that show how the Panasonic is a laggard and the Samsung is praised for its processing and the Sony mid-range sets are just ho-hum. This jives exactly with what I've seen with my own eyes.


CNET Review of Panasonic G25:

Standard-definition: The 2010 G series is one of the worst standard-def performers we've tested recently. It didn't quite resolve all of the horizontal detail of the DVD format, and the shots of the stone bridge and grass appeared a bit soft. Jaggies in moving diagonal lines and a waving American flag were more prevalent on the G20/25 than on the Samsung or LG plasmas. Noise reduction was also less effective; in the Panasonic's strongest setting, we still saw motes and video noise in low-quality shots of skies and sunsets. The TV passed the 2:3 pull-down test in "On" mode, but the default "Auto" was again ineffective.

HDTVtest review of Sony EX500 series:

Standard Definition
When we ran our video deinterlacing (diagonal interpolation) tests on the Sony KDL40EX503, we were disappointed to see that the LCD TV was not doing a very effective job of suppressing jaggies during the deinterlacing process. In real world content, this would logically manifest itself as flicker. In reality, this is not as big an issue as it could have been, because most SD content has such low resolution (typically far beyond what standard def formats are capable of), which effectively hides any flicker which might have occurred due to this TV limitation.

HDTVtest review of Samsung C650:

Standard Definition
Like most of the Samsung range, the LE40C650 uses the company's edge-adaptive scaling engine to produce very natural-looking upscaled video. It would appear that the system has been configured to reduce aliasing (a form of jaggedness) as much as possible, meaning that SD images do not look quite as immediately crisp as some other scaling solutions. However, the up-side of this is that MPEG compression artefacts in over-compressed Digital TV signals are not as visible as on TVs featuring crisper scaling.

Video deinterlacing performance is essentially perfect, with almost no jaggedness present. Film cadence detection is also wonderful: the 2-2 PAL cadence test passed, as did the 3-2 and several other NTSC cadence tests. This is better performance than the video processing found in some upscaling DVD players!

Who are you trying to kid? Here is what CNET said about the LN40B750:

CNET Review of LN40B750:

Standard definition: The LNB750 evinced generally solid standard-def picture quality. According to our tests the display handled every line of a DVD source and the shots of grass and steps from the detail test looked good. The set eliminated jaggies from video-based sources well, and its noise reduction cleaned up the lowest-quality shots of skies and sunset with aplomb. Finally the LNB750 passed 2:3 pull-down test by eliminating moire from the stands behind the racecar.

Now, let's contrast that with CNET's review of the high-end V10.

CNET Review of TC-PV10:

Standard-definition: The TC-PV10 series was a mediocre performer with standard-def material. It resolved every line of the DVD format, although details weren't quite as sharp as on the Samsung, for example. The V10 did a sub-par job with moving diagonal lines and stripes on the waving American flag, leaving plenty of jaggies along the edges. Noise reduction was solid, on the other hand, and both Video NR and MPEG NR settings contributed to removing moving motes and snow from low-quality shots of skies and sunsets. Finally, the set properly engaged 2:3 pulldown to remove moiré from the grandstands behind the racecar.

The HDTVtest verdict on the Sony KDL32EX403 was very favorable. Here is the conclusion:

The Sony KDL32EX403 is a very serviceable 32″ LCD HDTV. From our point of view as image quality enthusiasts, its stand-out features are its deep black level and high contrast ratio, which are unusually good for an LCD TV in this price range. Its Greyscale tracking is mostly good, and its Gamma and Colour accuracy are all very good, which is fairly consistent with other TVs that we've recently seen in this price category (although there is room for improvement). Its handling of SD content, while not perfect, does have its strengths with Film material, which will be of note to anyone who watches a lot of films from a standard definition source (such as standard definition TV, or an older non-upscaling DVD player).

Its biggest down-sides are the slightly limited viewing angle (not something Sony can really avoid, given that this is an LCD TV) and its slightly high price, which may, for some users, be justified by its internet video and DNLA networking capabilities. Users looking for a smaller TV will find the Sony KDL32EX403 to be a solid choice that sits comfortably within the limitations and strengths of LCD technology.