Sharp LC46D64U?

I bought this tv last week and I returned it the very next day.

why? because the picture (viewing 1080i content) had way too much grain for my likes. it was like looking at a 46" wide picture of 80 grit sandpaper. lol

my suggestion would be towards the Sony XBR3 or XBR4 line. I know they're more expensive, but I don't believe in bargain basement shopping for something if it's going to look like junk.

yeah i also noticed a significant amount of grain on 1080i content and even 1080p. I can bear with it because i am too lazy to return it especially after fighting tooth and nail for it on bf.

There should be absolutely NO GRAIN if you are feeding the panel HD and using Dot Mode to view. I have a 57" at 8.5' and ZERO grain or noise - I have to get within inches before seeing pixel structure on HD and the same goes for the 45" Sharp I own. Are you sure your not seeing compression which is not induced by the panel? Dot Mode with HD feed should be pristine.

My SD viewing is superior on the Sharp 57" versus the Panny Plasma 50" and SXRD 60" I also owned. Better SD than any HT Size panel I've owned so I don't know what you folks are viewing and you fail to tell us what you viewed. Even the Turner Classic Movies comes in quite good and it's SD 480i. I challenge you to place Ultra Violet via BD or HD and tell me there is any grain - pictures please to prove it. You folks need to learn the difference between compression and upscaling versus true HD source and content.

You do realize that though your TV may say 1080i on an HD channel that quite a bit is actually upscaled SD falsely by HD channels, e.g; God Father on AE HD - there is no HD version that has been created yet as it's in the process of being done for HD DVD but AE broadcast it when in fact it isn't HD material and so noise results since the material is not actually HD yet. Many HD channels upscale material that has not been converted yet. Often you may be viewing SD being broadcast via an HD channel.

Sorry, but I've witnessed a number of newbies coming into this forum due to black Friday specials that have no background or experience to properly determine the difference between source, cable connections, compression, and lack knowledge to even understand the difference. Recommend you view the D64 poll and separate it's results or check out the actual owners of panels in numbers on this forum or CNet, CC or Amazonbuyers and then bottom line rely on what your eyes see and please your viewing experience.

Westa, well said thanks. What is your source for HD television? I have Cablevision but don't have an HD box, so have been plugging the cable directly into the TV and using the QAM tuner to pick up some HD channels. I have noticed grain here and there on some HD programming (ABCHD, CBSHD, etc). I assume its just the source. Do you think it will improve when i have the HD box and run HDMI to the TV?

Unfortunately, a bad source is a bad source. The cable box will not do any better at tuning the channels, and in fact may result in more artifacts due to an extra step of processing, especially if you are using the pvr box. The good news is that things will only get better with time, since more and more programming is being created with HD in mind.

Is this something that installing a $30 signal amplifier would help?

Have you tried to tweak the settings too? There is a thread here specifically for the 64u. http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...=905095&page=6

I have to admit, out of the box, I thought my lc46d46u looked a little grainey, but I immediately tweaked the settings and upgraded the firmware and the TV looks absolutely spectacular. You certainly cannot see any grain. I honestly don't know what change made the biggest difference, because I knew the TV out of the box didn't represent what it is suppose to look like. So I didn't really check the picture until I was finished with the whole process. Once there are new HD versions of the Calibration DVDs available, I will go back and try to make it even better. But simply using the settings from HansB in the tweaks thread as made my set look great.

Hard to tell. If infact your cable signal strength is low, then an amp might help (but I would really make the cable company fix the problem). If the signal strength is good, but just compressed or just generally bad, adding a amp could make the picture worse. All an amp does is increase the signal, so if your picture is strong, but just stinks, magnifying it simply makes the picture worse.

It's like trying to take a photocopy of a bad photocopy, each copy gets progressively worse. Adding signal strength to a bad broadcast picture just makes the picture worse.