Maybe I should stick with my 10 y.o. 27"?

[maxtaffey]

A friend of mine just bought a 50" Samsung HLM507W. I couldn't wait to have a look, but I must admit, I was disappointed. The TV is beautiful, super bright, great contrast. The problem, I think, is that these televisions are too good for the current technology. For instance, regular satellite broadcasts look like crap...jagged pixelated images. Is Hi def a must with these boxes?

Secondly, we watched a DVD (Big Fish), and I couldn't believe how bad it looked. Every flaw stuck out like a sore thumb...interior colours had obvious, chunky gradients instead of smooth blending, and there looked like there was a dull film over the entire picture at times.

I'm wondering if this stuff is just not as apparent on my 10 year old 27" Hitachi? It was really distracting, and is making me rethink the purchase of a big screen TV, because they may be just too good.

[chlngr1970]

what you may consider using with a current generation HDTV, is a good line doubler/scaler. I am willing to bet, the line doubler they use in some of these sets ( even the DLP's ) isn't the best in the world.

One question I didn't ask...

Was your friend using a progressive scan DVD Player?

j

[chipmac]

It's a combination of things really. Yes its true that a large screen HDTV will magnify and show every flaw in a standard def signal. This is compounded by the extra compression typically used from the source on digital broadcasts from the small dish companies and some cable companies. But for good signals and DVDs these sets are great although how great an HDTV will show a SD signal can have a lot to do with the built in line doubler and scaler that is used to convert the 480 interlaced signal to whatever the display resolution is. So for many people its a trade off. They'll except a poor image in some cases so that their DVDs and HD signals look great.

[RedBaronF2001]

Originally Posted by chlngr1970

what you may consider using with a current generation HDTV, is a good line doubler/scaler. I am willing to bet, the line doubler they use in some of these sets ( even the DLP's ) isn't the best in the world.

One question I didn't ask...

Was your friend using a progressive scan DVD Player?

j

Actually, these DLPTVs from Samsung use the venerable Faroudja FL2310s to scale and de-interlace. This is about as good as it gets without dropping a ton of money on an outboard scaler/de-interlacer.

The problem with current HDTVs is that most people feed it garbage and expect miracles. Garbage in, garbage out. Cable, running through coaxial/RG-6 cable into the ANT input is not going to look good. DLPTVs have no mercy for SD material this way. I find SD channels (SPEED, for example) look just fine in their native 4x3 format fed through component from my Voom STB.

Tell your friend to sign up with Voom and feed that DLPTV a 720p signal through DVI. I guarantee it will blow you away (with some minor user adjustment tweaking).

Ever play a 320 x 180 MPEG file on your PC and then expand it to fill up your screen at say 1280 x 960? This is essentially what most people are doing to their HDTVs.

[I 8 Piglet]

Yeah, I pretty much only watch HD and DVDs on my PJ now adays. Even with its onboard Farudja, the majority of SD broadcasts are just crap (to be fair they look just as crappy on my 27" vega). Some are better than others. Disovery is not too bad, HBO is probably the best, but I get that in HD anyway. There are others that are good youll find them with time. But I think even the worst DVD still look fantastic on the big screen, and anything they boradcast over the HD channels, even the non-hd stuff looks excellent as well.

Its funny, I was just talking to my sister about this last night. I watched the entire first run of BoB on HBO back when I was still in college up in Albany. Back then all I had was my Vega, and I loved every second of it. Now its one of my favorite demos for my PJ and sound system. Last night I was in the office/ second bedroom, and I caught the second epsiode on the history channel (another one that looks pretty good even on the big screen) and I realized how terrible it was to sit there and try and watch something like this on such a small display. You loose so much of the experience. And this wasnt even meant to be shown on the big screen.

Im not saying everyone needs a $50K projector and a 10' screen to enjoy a dvd, but I think the dvd/ movie experience (IMHO) far out wieghs the crappy SD broadcasts, when considering whether to upgrade to an HD (ready) set.

[Iguana Man]

Originally Posted by RedBaronF2001

I find SD channels (SPEED, for example) look just fine in their native 4x3 format fed through component from my Voom STB.

Can you tell us more about this Voom STB please?

[I 8 Piglet]

Voom is a sat service that has like 40 HD channels. I have read a little about it, but it pretty expensive, and alot of guys over at AVS are not too happy with their subscriptions.

heres a link. Im not certain but another drawback is that I think you still need regular cable for the other (presumably non HD) tvs in the house.

[Iguana Man]

Originally Posted by I 8 Piglet

Voom is a sat service that has like 40 HD channels. I have read a little about it, but it pretty expensive, and alot of guys over at AVS are not too happy with their subscriptions.

heres a link. Im not certain but another drawback is that I think you still need regular cable for the other (presumably non HD) tvs in the house.

Thanks man!

[RedBaronF2001]

Originally Posted by I 8 Piglet

Voom is a sat service that has like 40 HD channels. I have read a little about it, but it pretty expensive, and alot of guys over at AVS are not too happy with their subscriptions.

heres a link. Im not certain but another drawback is that I think you still need regular cable for the other (presumably non HD) tvs in the house.

The Voom STB is a Motorola DSR-550 with composite, s-video, component, and DVI video outputs. They are ALL active at the same time. This unit also has analog audio out (stereo of course), optical and coaxial digital outputs.

Voom has now, over 40 HD channels. In addition, I have 90% of the "regular" cable channels (SPEED, MTV, VH-1, SPIKE, etc). They just recently added 5 ESPN channels (HD, 2, etc).

With the HBO HD package I am paying $65/month (with tax). I dropped my cable provider because they were $72.95/mo for "digital cable," plus $7.50/mo for the 5 HD channels (INHD1, INHD2, HBO HD, SHOW HD, and ESPN HD), plus receiver rental (which did not have DVI, nor did it allow you to adjust aspect ratio, with the DSR-550 does to prevent burn-in on susceptible displays).

I think Voom is the way to go. No complaints here. Then again, I'm not as nit picky as the AVS guys who do nothing BUT complain more often than not. Zero dropouts here, amazing PQ, DVI works wonders on my DLPTV, and it's CHEAPER than my local cable provider. In addition, I get ALL my local HD channels with the PROVIDED OTA antenna (the Voom STB acts as the tuner).

/end commercial.

Seriously though, give it a try. Right now they are offering it for $0 down and no risk trial.

[plissken99]

Originally Posted by maxtaffey

A friend of mine just bought a 50" Samsung HLM507W. I couldn't wait to have a look, but I must admit, I was disappointed. The TV is beautiful, super bright, great contrast. The problem, I think, is that these televisions are too good for the current technology. For instance, regular satellite broadcasts look like crap...jagged pixelated images. Is Hi def a must with these boxes?

Secondly, we watched a DVD (Big Fish), and I couldn't believe how bad it looked. Every flaw stuck out like a sore thumb...interior colours had obvious, chunky gradients instead of smooth blending, and there looked like there was a dull film over the entire picture at times.

I'm wondering if this stuff is just not as apparent on my 10 year old 27" Hitachi? It was really distracting, and is making me rethink the purchase of a big screen TV, because they may be just too good.

There are a few things about that. #1, I'm not satisfied with current digital sets, DLP or otherwise. It's the digital, thats causing the "dull film over the entire picture at times". Thats the screendoor effect, which is the pixel grid. The way to go for the moment is CRT IMO. CRT PRTVs look much better than DLP or LCD. Not to mention digitials contrast is lousy. The best DLP contrast rating(last I looked) is 3000:1. Where a good CRT would rate more like 10000:1. Digitals have to use colors to make black, where CRT uses the lack of light.

And as others stated, "garbage in, garbage out". If you want a big screen, you need a good DVD player, and at least S-video with satalite. I play DVDs on my HTPC, which drives my Barco 808 CRT projector on a 120in screen. I use a 1440x720 resolution(a good multiple with DVD), and I tell ya, it looks absolutley amazing. Satalite still looks like crap, but you must remember it's the same information your 27in TV gets, just blown up. All the flaws are still in the same place, but are bigger. But with DVD I get a smooth film-like image. I've had people comment that it's as clear as movies at the Imax!