Thanks for the reply. What type of TV do you have? My son recently bought a 4K Samsung 43 inch and SD is terrible on it, even streaming. He tried watching the first season of family guy in SD off Hulu, the artifacts were horrible.
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Thanks for the reply. What type of TV do you have? My son recently bought a 4K Samsung 43 inch and SD is terrible on it, even streaming. He tried watching the first season of family guy in SD off Hulu, the artifacts were horrible.
Buying TVs on price can really ruin the experience. The first feature to suffer is perhaps the scaler (the part of the TV that handles resolution conversion). Then HDR/WCG gets compromised (or left out altogether in many cases). Quality backlighting is perhaps in the top three sacrifices when the price seems too good to be true.
If a TV is priced the same as an HD equivalent, it is most likely because its performance is, at best, no better than the HD equivalent.
That said, if you're going to play the price game, you are going to need to look at the value brands (TCL, Hisense) and stay away from the name brands as the value brands are less likely to cut corners on features to make the price point.
Those who watch a lot of SD content really need to pay more to obtain a quality scaler so that the experience isn't insufferable. I suggest that they audition their TVs with SD content (I usually bring some with me on a flash drive). If the showroom TVs are connected to a cable service or DIRECTV, there is usually plenty of horrible quality SD to be had -- especially the diginets.
If a TV is priced the same as an HD equivalent, it is most likely because its performance is, at best, no better than the HD equivalent.
That said, if you're going to play the price game, you are going to need to look at the value brands (TCL, Hisense) and stay away from the name brands as the value brands are less likely to cut corners on features to make the price point.
Those who watch a lot of SD content really need to pay more to obtain a quality scaler so that the experience isn't insufferable. I suggest that they audition their TVs with SD content (I usually bring some with me on a flash drive). If the showroom TVs are connected to a cable service or DIRECTV, there is usually plenty of horrible quality SD to be had -- especially the diginets.
Sony and LG's. I'm not sure on the exact model numbers.
75in Sony xbr900E
75in LG SK (I think)
65in LG UH (I think)
The 65 was an entry level model around 3 yrs ago. The 75in Sony is 2 yrs old and the 75in LG I got last year at Christmas after a storm zapped an older 65in Insignia I had in my office. The 65in LG is in there now and the 2 75in tvs are the main tv's of use.
I watched 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea on my 65" LG OLED and had no complaints. The TV does a good job at "up-scaling". Also pushing D+ through a Shield Pro 2019. BTW, 73 years young.
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20,000 Leagues is HD on Plus, lot different up-converting HD then SD.
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Anyone with LG OS having problems with audio dropouts? None on Roku. I removed app, then reinstalled. Was fine for about an hour, then started again.
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Is that information for sure? I've tried verifying that Friday is a new product day but am having no luck.
Several years ago I bought I bought a Toshiba 32" 720p set. I compared in SD to my old Toshiba 30" widescreen 480p. There isn't much difference, a slight difference being an LCD over the CRT, but very little. The pq with the old CRT is one the best I have seen. So the 720p on the new set works well on SD and still looks good on HD. But I think I am staying with this, especially blowing up SD on big screens does not look great. At least I have never seen one that looked that good.
One issue I have had tonight with Disney+, I was watching a new edition this month (January) a movie called "Hacksaw" from 1971. Well, a few minutes into the movie, the picture dropped down to a small like PIP, and the info on the screen said "Another movie you might like is...." Like the end of the movie, but this was 4-5 minutes into the film. I clicked on the PIP and up popped the wide screen picture again. Weird. I started the movie over and low and behold it did it again. I checked another movie "Sammy The Way Out Seal" and it was fine. Anyone else having this issue?
I think my son bought a Samsung as he has a lot of Samsung stuff. I like Toshiba myself.
Better TVs generally include much better scalers. I've seen standalone scalers ($$$) that do a pretty good job with SD content on a 96" 1080p projector.
There are big sacrifices that come with shopping on price such that cheaping out can burn down the whole "upgrade".
Toshiba stopped making TVs for the US market five years ago. They bowed out of TVs entirely in November 2017 when they sold their TV line to Hisense (who also owned the Sharp TV brand). They have walked away from several of their product lines including their well-respected business phone systems in 2018. They even stepped away from making home computers for a while between 2016 and 2018.
Come to think of it, buying on brand certainly isn't what it used to be either. This story from Consumer Reports is no longer up-to-date but it gives a snapshot of what was going on a year and a half ago:
TV Brands Aren't Always What They Seem - Consumer Reports
Many shoppers find comfort in familiar TV brands, but those brands are often licensed to companies you may not know. Consumer Reports tells you who made your TV.
More recently, it is reported that Sharp is getting back into the TV business after a legal battle with Hisense over sullying Sharp's reputation with low-quality products.
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There are several good sites to read professional reviews of many new TV sets offered. They use sophisticated testing equipment that look at components that deliver PQ. Choose a couple of sets and exact models that look good to you, then price shop among your top choices. Keep in mind that different displays within the same brand can differ. Even the same model in different sizes can differ. It's unlikely that you will find anything over 50" that does not include 4K and smartness.
Those who are steadfastly committed to gouging out their eyeballs can still find 55" 720p TVs. Best Buy offers a house brand (Insignia) flat screen and a number of 720p projectors. They also offer a good number of 1080p TVs (including all of their outdoor offerings).
I think it is probably okay to name rtings.com Reviews and Ratings. They're arguably the "big gun" in TV ratings and many reviews reference their reviews. Consumer Report's reviews are seemingly rife with rebuttals from subscribers and that vexes me. That said, perhaps only Consumer Reports is going to do reviews on truly crappy televisions in the interest of completeness.
As for "smartness" few SMART devices (TVs and disc players) are "smart" for more than three years. Things may improve with Roku and Android on the scene, but I'm not convinced.
Better TVs generally include much better scalers. I've seen standalone scalers ($$$) that do a pretty good job with SD content on a 96" 1080p projector.
There are big sacrifices that come with shopping on price such that cheaping out can burn down the whole "upgrade".
Toshiba stopped making TVs for the US market five years ago. They bowed out of TVs entirely in November 2017 when they sold their TV line to Hisense (who also owned the Sharp TV brand). They have walked away from several of their product lines including their well-respected business phone systems in 2018. They even stepped away from making home computers for a while between 2016 and 2018.
Come to think of it, buying on brand certainly isn't what it used to be either. This story from Consumer Reports is no longer up-to-date but it gives a snapshot of what was going on a year and a half ago:
TV Brands Aren't Always What They Seem - Consumer Reports
Many shoppers find comfort in familiar TV brands, but those brands are often licensed to companies you may not know. Consumer Reports tells you who made your TV.www.consumerreports.org
More recently, it is reported that Sharp is getting back into the TV business after a legal battle with Hisense over sullying Sharp's reputation with low-quality products.
Thanks for the advice. Can you advice on like a 40-43 inch TV that looks good in SD, then? I would like something a bit bigger than the 32 I am using. I watch a lot of SD, via DVD's, steaming, OTA, Dish, etc, so I need a good SD picture. In the old says, Sony always looked the best in SD, but that was years ago. Right now the 32 inch Toshiba does well. I had heard Toshiba got out of the TV business, which is a shame. I have a lot of Toshiba equipment, my laptop, dual deck, DVD recorder, etc. I moved from Pioneer to Toshiba when Pioneer started having their product make in China. The quality fell apart. Before that when it was made in Japan, it was top-notch.
"Looks good" is entirely in the eye of the beholder (especially if the eyes are equipped with money blinders).
rtings.com does reviews of smaller TVs as well. As they point out, you don't get most of the high-end features (great scalers) in that size range. To reach the SD performance evaluation of a particular model, you need to go to the review of the specific TV and then jump to the heading of "480p input" (accompanied by pictures of day cruiser sailboats). There, the discuss the performance (or lack thereof) with SD sources. Since some SD sources go as low as 320x240, a personal evaluation with the lowest quality content you watch is most important in this size range due to skimping on scalers in this size class.
Did I mention that you shouldn't buy without having personally auditioned the model in question? Your basic viewing preferences (brightness, contrast) may have a significant impact on the TV's performance with respect to backlighting and flicker.
One place we sometimes ignore when it comes to gathering information on TV's is good old Google. If you're looking at a specific size range just type in 43 inch TV's, then look at several heading referring to what grabs your attention. You'll probably see reviews from rating.com, CNET, Sound and Vision Magazine, Consumer Reports, and several others. Perhaps the best site of all is AVS Forum. That is my bible for all things Home Entertainment.
Google searches became compromised when re-bloggers became a thing. Re-bloggers are sites that post other site's findings rather than doing any serious research themselves.
