Quote:
Originally Posted by
hiyman 
I have the 6187 and was wondering if SD was supposed to be automatically upconverted by the TV. My SD quality is very poor from what it used to be with a Hitachi 53" RPTV. Are there any settings that make the SD look better? HD looks awesome, but I just don't get enough channels in HD, so I need to make the SD look a little better. I thought this TV upconverted everything, but I didn't read one word about it in the owners manual.
My suggestions for improving SD quality are, in the order specified:
1) Check all your internal home connections. Check that screw type are tight, but don't use tool to tighten. Try swapping cables to see if there is an improvement. If you have a splitter, try bypassing it and replace if necessary. Try making your signal path as short as possible by removing video recorder or AV receiver from source signal path. Consider Stabilant 22 for non-optical connections
www.stabilant.com/appnt45h.htm.
2) If you use an outdoor antenna, check to see if it is old and needs to be replace. Consider replacing cable too.
If your source is cable, then have your cable company check your outside connections. Two weeks ago I lost 6 digital TV channels. A cable tv service tech came to check it out. He replaced the four cable connectors and splitter where the signals (2 tv and 1 internet) enter my home. He then replaced the connector for my cable service in the pod in the front yard. He did not do anything else and nothing was changed inside my home.
Checking the old connectors showed that moisture had created a patina on the copper conductors that he removed. The new connectors have two rubber seals that keep moisture out of the connection.
Have all channels now and a better internet connection. Applied Stabilant 22 on my outside connections (except in pod) after tech left.
3) Consider buying a Video Processor. Google search for HDTV video processor or the AVSForum's Video Processor forum are starting places
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forum...aysprune=&f=37.
My previous posts in this thread about my VP:
Quote:
Originally Posted by
JRWalker
When I first got my 5689 I was impressed by the HD picture that it produced from my SA8300HD cable box. But I was very disappointed with SD pictures. After a week of research I bought a Calibre Vantage-HD video processor. It makes SD almost HD and HD noticeably better.
My wife thought that I was crazy to spend so much on an accessory. When I hooked it up I asked her how she would rate the picture 1 to 10. She said 15. After turning off all 5689 video processing and tweaking the Vantage-HD she said "now it's a 20."
Quote:
Originally Posted by
JRWalker
Yes, my 5689 only sees a 1080p @ 60 HDMI input. It does not have to de-interlace 1080i. When de-interlacing 1080i, built-in VPs throw away some HD information, to be able to process the video stream in real time. The Calibre Vantage-HD has a 1 trillion operations per second processor that can process all the HD information in the video stream.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
JRWalker
The Realta HQV video processor chip in the Vantage HD and new HD2 match the performance of Teranex's $60,000 video processor
http://www.hqv.com/technology/index1...TOKEN=65981011. The Realta HQV video processor does 1 trillion floating point operations per second, which was considered in the super computer range not that many years ago. Good discounts are available, so don't pay MSRP. Best I have seen for an HD was about 25% off MSRP, but haven't searched lately.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
JRWalker
Your last question first. With your setup, the best way to pass surround sound to your audio receiver is via the TV's Optical Digital Audio Output. Unfortunately, Samsung has blocked this signal when a TV source from HDMI is selected. Please read
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...3#post11409693 for explaination and what you can do to help fix this problem.
If you run the audio from the Sat box to the JVC receiver there will be lip sync errors because the processing time the TV requires to de-interlace the signal. This error is compensated for in the TV's analog output and the optical digital output (if the latter were available from HDMI sources).
http://www.hqv.com/technology/index1...TOKEN=65981011 has an excellent video on 1080i de-interlacing and
http://www.hqv.com/technology.cfm?CF...OKEN=65981011d is an index to related topics.
At this time your choices for audio with HDMI cable are:
1) Use the TV's speakers without real surround sound.
2) Use the TV's 2 channel analog output to your receiver. Again, no surround sound.
3) Use the Sat box's optical digital audio output to the receiver. There will be lip sync errors and TV source switching complexity.
4) Buy a Video Processor. I own a Calibre Vantage HD and love it.
http://www.calibreuk.com/home_theater.php describes the Vantage HD and you can download an interactive manual from
http://www.calibreuk.com/Vantage_manual.htm. The Video Processor forum
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forum...aysprune=&f=37 offers information about VPs in general and other brands.
I find the advantages of my Vantage HD are: 1) Surpurb picture quality on SD and HD because of Silicon Optix HQV processing
http://www.hqv.com/technology/index1...TOKEN=65981011. SD becomes almost HD and a photograph of the TV screen can not show the improvement seen in an HD picture with moving objects. Like when watching tennis and the camera pans the court, the thin white lines are displayed as thin white lines and there are no blurs to moving objects. Your eye is not pulled to the top of the net by processing artifacts. The TV always sees a 1080p signal so you turn off all the TV's video processing and display the picture as received from the VP. 2) Digital Audio Output (optical and coax) is available from all HDMI sources. Lip sync error is automatically corrected and manual tweaking is available if the source is out of sync. 3) Source switching could not be easier. One remote control button is assigned to each configurable video/audio source combination.
The only downside is $$$$. But consider this, all high end computer motherboards come with an onboard video processor and VGA output. Yet, many people buy a graphics card or cards that cost more than, in some cases several times the cost of, the motherboard. Why? Because the video improvements they see are worth the price.
From Vantage HD website:
"So many home theater viewers find that their new projector, plasma or LCD doesn't provide the expected increase in image quality and may even appear more noisy or less clear than their old SD system or CRT set.
Few people realize when they purchase their first hi-definition TV set that the majority of TV programming is still delivered as standard definition. Even true HDTV transmissions, Blu-Ray and HD-DVD sources are often still interlaced or have significant noise, or may contain artifacts due to the original recording medium.
To make matters worse, in order to fill a high resolution HDTV screen, the SD image has to be enlarged but then all the flaws in the original image are enlarged too.
The video processing built into most home theater displays and progressive-scan DVD players has limited processing ability and runs basic algorithms." . . .
www.calibreuk.com/home_theater.php and
www.calibreuk.com/downloads/vantage-hd.pdf
