[SVOGT]

Hi, I just bought a Panasonic PT-50LC14 LCD TV hoping to have friends over to watch NFL games on DirecTV. Well the games are so blurry, I prefer watching them on my 11 year old 27" CRT. Is this how it is with these or can I do something? Regular shows & commercials look OK & DVD's are fine?

Any suggestions??

 

[Dallas_Jose]

what type of signal?

 

[SVOGT]

Quote:

Originally posted by Dallas_Jose what type of signal?

Standard DirecTV......... Not High Def.

 

[mklaessy]

This seems pretty strange to me, it could be that the signal you were receiving or the broadcast of that game was poor. I had some firsthand experience with the PT-50 and thought that the SD on it was TERRIFIC, probably better than my GWIV. Was this just one game/station, or do all sports (soccer, hockey, football) on different't stations look bad? If that's the case it might be a problem with the TV.


If this was just one case, I'd give it a little time. Good luck!

 

[SVOGT]

Quote:

Originally posted by mklaessy This seems pretty strange to me, it could be that the signal you were receiving or the broadcast of that game was poor. I had some firsthand experience with the PT-50 and thought that the SD on it was TERRIFIC, probably better than my GWIV. Was this just one game/station, or do all sports (soccer, hockey, football) on different't stations look bad? If that's the case it might be a problem with the TV. If this was just one case, I'd give it a little time. Good luck!

Thanks....

Baseball looks OK, its football, specifically NFL games on either the Sunday Ticket, or on digital cable, both non-HiDef. look terrible. Very blurry, especially wide shots, on kickoffs, you can't determine which team is which. The crowd is one big blurr. Script on TV is blurry with edges very 'noisy'. Close-ups look OK but overall, I am unimpressed.

 

[zero the hero]

I remember reading a post about this in Amazon, about a user having the same problem and how he fixed it, because I was looking to get the same set. I'll see if i can find the info

 

[zero the hero]

Copied from a post in Amazon from "An electronics fan" 12/03


"Please note that digital cable and satellite does not equal HDTV. In reality, there are about four HDTV channels in my cable area. Digital cable picture quality ranges from Good to Poor. I was able to improve the picture quality by tweaking the Picture adjustments. First, change the Picture menu default to Cinema. I keep the Color Temp at Normal. The Picture Adjust allows you to fine tune the Color, Tint, Brightness and Sharpness. (NOTE: Normal is the reset - I learned the hard way). I keep all these settings below the mid-line in various positions (Set to your own liking). The greatest change was noted when I finally turned the Picture adjustment down. The non - HDTV channel grain was decreased quite a bit. With all the changes, the picture is darkened some, but still looks fine. "


Don't know if that'll help any, but please let me know as I'm still trying to decide on this TV

 

[ndahbar]

Do yourself a favor and go to the local Radioshack store, pick up a $30-$40 hi-def OTA antenna. I've been enjoying the Patriots and Red Sox kickin' a$$ in glorious HDTV this whole month.


Note that you need to learn what channels broadcast in 720p vs 1080i, because if you choose 1080i output from your receiver, and the broadcast is in 720p, it is most likely gonna "bounce" a little, which is annoying.


On channels that broadcast in 1080i, looks absolutely stunning, even OTA from a cheapo Radioshack indoor antenna like mine. I catch about ~15 channels with it OTA.


FYI my TV is an HD2+ DLP. 52 inch.

 

[Zimberto]

I was in Circuit City today and was looking at a PT-60LC14. It was showing a football game in SD and it looked bad. Any fast movement resulted in a blur. I'm no expert but from what I've read, this smearing is a feature of LCD technology and is a consequence of the relatively high response time of liquid crystal. Apparently DLP handles fast movement much better, but has the potential rainbow problem.


That said, I'd wait and watch football on a few different channels before coming to any conclusions.

 

[ranster]

It is not true that SD on the LC14s look poor. I watched football on my 50LC13 is SD yesterday and it looked fine. Of course, the HD was stunning. IMO, DLP looks worse with SD, but I haven't done an A/B comparo in my house. Also, I have bought multiple $15 line amps for all of my main TVs to use to amplify my cable signal. This has been the single biggest improvement for my cable TV viewing. Good luck.

 

[KDCane]

I have the 43" of this set, using Directv and the Samsung HD box. On all but one of my locals off the sat the SD signal looks fine. I have no blurring or anything.


How far are you sitting away from this set? I think that you need to be back further on SD than HD? Also are you watching the screen in the Pillar Box or are you stretching?

 

[NVboy]

Quote:

Originally posted by Zimberto I'm no expert but from what I've read, this smearing is a feature of LCD technology and is a consequence of the relatively high response time of liquid crystal. Apparently DLP handles fast movement much better, but has the potential rainbow problem.

No, the problem lies with the signal, not the set. The only motion related (negative) posts on this forum with the Panny deal with lots of compression of the signal being watched. It really is hit or miss, more so with HD than SD. SD should look simply ok, but HD should look fantastic. Case in point: the Olympic feed was horrible, but that had nothing to do with the tv.

 

[ileff]

I love my 50lc14, it is awesome for football.


I have HD DirectTV and Sunday night football on ESPN is Stunning! I also watch HD football on cbs/fox/abc via ota antenna.


I also remember my worries the first week I owned this set and I didnt have an HD signal yet. Once my directv was upgraded to HD, WOW!!!!


If you have a gamecube, get the component cable from nintendo.

 

[xmr405o]

Quote:

Do yourself a favor and go to the local Radioshack store, pick up a $30-$40 hi-def OTA antenna. I've been enjoying the Patriots and Red Sox kickin' a$$ in glorious HDTV this whole month.

I have been thinking of getting one of those antennas. Do you need a set top box to have it work or can you just attach it through Ant A/B? Let me know. Thank you

 

[Robdoggz]

Hey ive got that exact set i was kinda horrified when i first got it cause i had no cable or sat. It looked like crap with analog off air stuff. Do yourself a favor and get some hdtv material on that screen you should love it i know i do. I use Dish hdtv its pretty nice off air hdtv looks awsome. Once you get some hdtv let us know how you like it hope you get hdtv cause then its kinda sad to get that nice tv and no hd Good luck!!

 

[ndahbar]

Quote:

Originally posted by xmr405o I have been thinking of getting one of those antennas. Do you need a set top box to have it work or can you just attach it through Ant A/B? Let me know. Thank you

It will work just fine w/o a STB. I just stick it into mine so that I have all my locals off the satellite right next to the off-air digital ones in one place.

 

[mklaessy]

Quote:

Originally posted by xmr405o I have been thinking of getting one of those antennas. Do you need a set top box to have it work or can you just attach it through Ant A/B? Let me know. Thank you

You should be able to pick up local cable channels with the TV's NTSC (Standard analog broadcasts) tuner, but the Panny LC14s don't have an ATSC/QAM (SDTV and HDTV broadcasts) tuner so you would need a set top box to pick these up.