New 722, Poor picture quality with HDMI

kws

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Original poster
Jun 10, 2008
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We just received our service, and it was set up with component cables, which worked great. We were told by many people and by reading many things that HDMI was the way to go. BTW, we have a brand new Samsung 46" LCD (4665). We purchased a Monster HDMI cable and hooked it up. The picture looks fine on HD channels but horrible with SD channels. It is very "pixelized", particularly when objects or people are moving. It also seems very washed out color-wise. We decided to also reconnect the component so we could switch back and forth, due to the poor picture. Well, for some reason, this picture quality went south too - pixelation, albeit not as horrible as with HDMI. In particular, the edges are very grainy and there is the same issue with movement. As another test, I connected S-Video - no pixelation, just dull, drab color and overall not good (but watchable, definitely).

I've tried playing with the picture settings a bit, but not that much. Would this help, or is there a deeper problem here? The TV has 1080i resolution, so I would think there wouldn't be an issue. I'm new to all this, so forgive me if I've left out vital info or sound totally lost!
 
although i cannot help you there I would suggest you return that Monster cable and get your money back. You can get better from monoprice.com for around 5 dollars if my memory is right. Monster is the biggest sham ever.
 
They are set to 1080i. I've checked that a million times.....it is very frustrating.
 
Dish's SD channels are very over-compressed for the most part, so watching them on a 46" screen isn't going to be optimal, and a digital screen (where the pixels don't blend together as smoothly as on a CRT, except at large distances) even less so. You may be able to clear the picture up some by adjusting the contrast and sharpness way down (they're not supposed to be up all the way anyway, even with an all-analog picture), although on your Samsung the sharpness control may not actually do anything! (It doesn't on my 4661, but Samsung has released several versions of hardware with the same model numbers on the 61 and 65 series, which is a very stupid thing to do, and then released several versions of the firmware to support each one, so it's hard to tell what exactly you have.) But the best solution, unfortunately, is to watch HD channels wherever possible. For example, The Travel Channel is almost unwatchable in SD on a big screen, SciFi SD has some programs that are too dark, and the satellite-delivered local SD channels tend to be much softer than anything else on Dish (other than Travel SD).

I don't know why it didn't improve when you switched back to component cables, but on the other hand I can't tell any difference between component and HDMI when I've got them both calibrated the way I like them. But remember, your Samsung not only stores different settings for each input, it also stores different settings for each input in Standard, Movie, and Dynamic modes. (Dynamic is about useless for realistic pictures, BTW.) Also, you did pay attention to the initial setup screens and take it out of shop mode, didn't you? If not, all the settings will reset themselves every time you turn it off.

Finally, never buy Monster anything. The cheapest HDMI cable you can find (try monoprice.com) will work as well as the most expensive, for any reasonable length of cable.
 
Ditto regarding Monster cable and Monoprice. Since you are brand new to the HDTV world, you have realized the first down side to HD...SD. Most SD channels look worse on an HDTV than on your old SDTV. Regarding cables, there is really no difference between component and HDMI as far as PQ is concerned, although forced Digital Rights Management, if it happens, would require HDMI. As suggested above, return the Monster if you can and go to HDMI Cable, Home Theater Accessories, HDMI Products, Cables, Adapters, Video/Audio Switch, Networking, USB, Firewire, Printer Toner, and more!. Also, on your Samsung (I have a plasma) you should have an HDMI level control. You might want to play with the settings. No such settings for component.
 
Thanks for the help! Two questions:

1. How do I access the HDMI controls, and what do they do? What could I do to improve this issue?

2. How do I access the Shop Mode? It doesn't seem like things change everytime I turn the tv on and off, but I may as well check!

So this issue is "normal" in some respect with the HDMI? Frustrating. And as far as component, maybe adjusting settings will help?
 
i think your tv is 1080p not 1080i. i have the same tv sd. pq. ok i think hd pq is great. vip 622 with hdmi hook up.
 
Have you made an attempt to calibrate your "brand new Samsung 46" LCD"?? I bought a 46" Sony LCD a few months ago and I couldn't believe how much it looked like crap right out of the box.

Check out this forum at AVS to find a calibration thread for your model. I used some settings posted in a thread for my model and it made a huge difference in the picture!!

LCD Flat Panel Displays - AVS Forum
 
No, didn't do any calibration. It is weird b/c the picture looked great initially, now it looks bad. But, I'll try anything. Thanks for the tip.
 
No, didn't do any calibration. It is weird b/c the picture looked great initially, now it looks bad. But, I'll try anything. Thanks for the tip.
That may have depended on what you were watching initially.

Here's a post from a long thread at AVS that gives you a starting point. You'll probably tweak some of the settings, but you'll also most likely end up closer to a better picture than you have now.... ;)

AVS Forum - View Single Post - Samsung LNTXX61/65/66 Calibration Settings
 
I noticed, and not sure if this makes any difference, that my tv has 1080p resolution, but I can't put that as a setting in the Dish setup, only 1080i. I thought the tv was 1080i because of this.....does this matter at all? And if so, why can't I use the 1080p setting?
 
Nobody is broadcasting in 1080P so forget about that at this time.

The only thing you can do with true 1080P is watch HD-DVD, Blu Ray and play HD video games. Nothing else.
 
Thanks everyone. I looked at the calibration threads and found some settings that definitely made them better with HDMI. Turns out that it varies depending on which channel I'm watching. Perhaps different networks broadcast differently? Animal Planet looks great without HD, while Comedy Central still isn't that amazing. But, regardless, they are all better than before. Thanks!
 
You can buy calibration DVDs from ISF (Imaging Science Foundation) but you need to connect your DVD to every input you want to calibrate.

Remember as a child how great a $10 bill was? Now that you've held $100 bills, the $10 bills don't seem so great even though they haven't changed much. HD makes SD seem like an old $10 bill.
 
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