Non HD Quality on a Plasma TV

sbsi

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Apr 12, 2007
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On a big screen Plasma TV, does it suppose to look pixel, kind of blurry on non-HD channels.

I am not sure it is the TV set or the picture signal.

The tv is a Samsung Plasma 50 inch
 
I have 4 HD Tvs & a HD projector, 24"-120". PQ for SD varies from acceptable to lousy. Hardly ever watch SD, can't stand it!

Ed
 
MPEG4 SD is passable on most of the channels (the few that I still have to watch that way.) Heck, I'll even stretch it once in a while (only if it's letterboxed -- if it's full-screen 4:3, I watch it that way.) MPEG2 SD, on the other hand -- some of the channels used to be so bad, they should've been forbidden from selling them! (The ironic thing is, the MPEG4 channels are supposedly down-sampled to 480x480 to make them easier to compress or something. As far as I know, the MPEG2 channels are still 640 horizontally.)
 
Just my opinion... I think it depends on the TV and the native resolution too. It you are native 720, then they will look better. If it has to scale up to native 1080p, then it will look worse. I originally bought a vizio 1080p tv before I got HD and the SD was really bad. I replaced it with an HP 720 of the same size and it was better. Could have been that the HP was a better TV, but I think it was the native resolution. On my larger Samsung, the SD isn't that bad, but you can really tell that its SD and not HD.
 
On a big screen Plasma TV, does it suppose to look pixel, kind of blurry on non-HD channels.

I am not sure it is the TV set or the picture signal.

The tv is a Samsung Plasma 50 inch
Dish SD channels look like crap due to over-compression. The larger the display, the more noticeable the crap.

However, there are some things that can be done to reduce the crapiness. If you haven't changed any of the settings in the TV's "picture" menu, you need to immediately change from the torch-like setting that all brands are set to by default. It is usually called "Vivid" or "Dynamic". Change that immediately to "Standard" or "Normal" or "Neutral", something like that. Also, lower the Sharpness setting to no more than 3.

The "torch" mode and high sharpness settings can really accentuate the crap level of an SD image. You will find your HD images will look better now, too.
 
LOL people swear I have HD on my 42" Sanyo Plazma but I only have a 625. I have played with my settings and use the RCA inputs. SD does look good of you play with the settings of your TV.

No offense, but those people probably haven't seen HD :p . Why on Earth would you want to have a 4:3 544x480 overcompressed MPEG2 feed going to a 42" plasma when you could have a 16:9 1280x720 or 1920x1080 MPEG4 feed instead?? Upgrade to HD man, you don't know what you're missing! Even my 90-year-old Grandmother with cataracts can tell the difference! I remember back when I had my 625 hooked to just a 32" LCD, sheesh I preferred watching it on a 25" tube TV it was pretty bad. Though, the VIP722Ks I have do a lot better of a job at upscaling SD, so when there are SD-only shows/channels I must watch, they are at least acceptable, unlike when I was viewing via the 625...
 
papalittle said:
LOL people swear I have HD on my 42" Sanyo Plazma but I only have a 625. I have played with my settings and use the RCA inputs. SD does look good of you play with the settings of your TV.

How far back are you sitting from it to be looking so good?:)
 
What do you think I do all day? I install Dish. So yes I have seen plenty HD. I thought about upgrading to HD but I do not want to install a 722,622,922 because all I will be doing is getting pissed off at them because of the problems they have, IMHO it is not worth the headaches to install HD when my picture is pretty damn good on my old reliable 625.


No offense, but those people probably haven't seen HD :p . Why on Earth would you want to have a 4:3 544x480 overcompressed MPEG2 feed going to a 42" plasma when you could have a 16:9 1280x720 or 1920x1080 MPEG4 feed instead?? Upgrade to HD man, you don't know what you're missing! Even my 90-year-old Grandmother with cataracts can tell the difference! I remember back when I had my 625 hooked to just a 32" LCD, sheesh I preferred watching it on a 25" tube TV it was pretty bad. Though, the VIP722Ks I have do a lot better of a job at upscaling SD, so when there are SD-only shows/channels I must watch, they are at least acceptable, unlike when I was viewing via the 625...
 
Thanks for all the replies.

I was at a store that has a Vizio 32-40 inch TV with Dish Network and I remember the picture quality on non-HD looks like of blurry. Not sure was it a Plasma or LCD...I am not too familiar with Vizio TV sets.

The Plasma TV and my sofa is pretty close distance right now.

If I move the Plasma TV and sofa distance a little further, will the quality looks better? I just want to make sure it is not the TV giving the pixel fuzzy quality. I was having trouble with the colors setting (it looks dark when I open it) until I change it a little which looks a little better. And, I try to avoid the paying more on HD and installation service on non-locals I rarely watch.
 
What do you think I do all day? I install Dish. So yes I have seen plenty HD. I thought about upgrading to HD but I do not want to install a 722,622,922 because all I will be doing is getting pissed off at them because of the problems they have, IMHO it is not worth the headaches to install HD when my picture is pretty damn good on my old reliable 625.
WTF are talking about. What problems most have been fairly trouble free. If you are think that they are bad from the fact that there are problems listed on forum sites. Well think again, people come to this site to have problems solved. So what is here is not going to be representative of the mass.
 
Thanks for all the replies.

I was at a store that has a Vizio 32-40 inch TV with Dish Network and I remember the picture quality on non-HD looks like of blurry. Not sure was it a Plasma or LCD...I am not too familiar with Vizio TV sets.

The Plasma TV and my sofa is pretty close distance right now.

If I move the Plasma TV and sofa distance a little further, will the quality looks better? I just want to make sure it is not the TV giving the pixel fuzzy quality. I was having trouble with the colors setting (it looks dark when I open it) until I change it a little which looks a little better. And, I try to avoid the paying more on HD and installation service on non-locals I rarely watch.

People are just saying that if you sit further away, you won't see as much detail so it will look better. How do you have the TV connected to the DVR/STB? HDMI, RCA, Coax... ?
 
WTF are talking about. What problems most have been fairly trouble free. If you are think that they are bad from the fact that there are problems listed on forum sites. Well think again, people come to this site to have problems solved. So what is here is not going to be representative of the mass.

I keep track of all faulty receivers that I have to replace and 73% of all replacements are 722,622's and out of all receivers 722,622's account for only 35% total STB I have installed in 7+ years. I carry in my van 1 spare 625,222,211,311,322 and carry 3 spare 722's, 2- 612's and no 622's. In the last 2 years the 722 has really become a headache due to software and hardrives.
 
It is a Coax from TV2 which is not too good of a quality. I am planning to move the receiver connected to the Plasma and see how good is the quality from there. It should look sharper and a T.V. technician once told me Plasma, LCD big screen looks better with the cable box or receiver.
 

Wire Extension: Moving receiver to a new location

Problem pointing 1000+ with built in switch.

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