[rdmiller]

my hdtv experience has been crt, but now I am looking at a plasma or LCD ( a debate that is not for here) While at a retailer watching the HD feed static images looked decent , but not great and motion images pixleated to the point that I considered the image not acceptable. My HD source at home is HD-DVD and BD. I have never noticed this kind of distortion on my CRT HD sets. When I had HD through comcast it would pixelate some but nowhere near as bad as the demo sets, and it was all of the sets, plasma and LCD, lowest and highest price units. I remember 10 years ago I worked in a retail store in electronics and the analog signal would degrade the picture some. but Digital should not be susceptible to this. Unless the bitrate is low, but that would not make sense for a demo unit. Are all low to mid priced plasma and LCD units this bad for motion or is it the source. Id hate to buy a set and have all motion look like junk.


Richard

 

[EscapeVelocity]

Some models are better than others.


Plasma is better than LCD for motion blur.

 

[jjeff]

I know exactly what you're talking about. This is compounded by the fact that demo sets tend to run wide open. That is there setup for Vivid or max contrast.

If you go to a store like BB that uses digital RF for source you will see this a lot. If you go to a store that used component BR for a source you probably won't see this much.

If you watch most of your material from HD-DVD you'll probably want to do your comparing in a store using component source.

Not to get into a big debate, but IMO some of the best looking TVs for BR/HD-DVD source can really look quite poor using digital RF for the source. Personally I've been looking at Sony LCDs. While the top of the line XBR looked terrific using component BR for the source the same set using RF tended to pixelate or macroblock terribly. For that reason I actually stepped down a few sets and got the W4100 which may not have quite the punch on BR but macroblocks much less using RF for the source. Since I don't have BR or HD-DVD the choice was clear for me.

A friend has a XBR4 LCD and IMO when he watches cable HD I shudder. Frankly I think it looks awful with all the macroblocking. His BR source looks spectacular. I joke with him that his set is "too" good for RF

he's not bothered by it much and mostly watches BR.

Note he just had his set professionally calibrated and I must admit the macroblocking is less, but IMO his BR discs just don't have the punch they did before. He didn't want me touching his settings but personally I would have left his HDMI input more wide open while only toning down his RF input.

 

[rdmiller]

"Digital RF" as in radio frequency?


I also understand the sever limitations of retail displays. When I worked in that industry I was going to school at a Broadcast Tech program studying for SBE certification. Unfortunately I never followed though but since the calibration had became my friend.


thanks for the replies. seems that my BD & HD-DVD source is not even comparable to the HD feed that stores have.


as for keeping the CRT set. The current is a older Panasonic 46" that the convergence is just a tad off. not noticeable in movies bit a pain in games. the image is actually soft on the right side of the screen.


Im not going out tomorrow to purchase but within the next 6 months, possibly during christmas sales. Just planning ahead.

 

[jjeff]

Yes RF. Stores like BB tend to broadcast in house on a modulated HD channel. Just do a display on the set and if it says something like channel 14.1 etc. their feed is RF. You can also try and look behind the TV. If it only has a RF cable their using a modulated feed. If you see 3 component cables + audio they are using a probably superior feed that will tend to have less macroblocking. They could also use something like HDMI but I've never seen a large store display use HDMI for all their feeds. They tend to use component for whatever reason. You may see HDMI for specific TVs, example a Sony TV being fed by a dedicated BR player, but that's probably more the exception than the norm.