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New member Username: Agent51Post Number: 1 Registered: Aug-06 | To make a LONG story short (kind of, lol), I have been looking into a flat panel HDTV for awhile now, trying to chose between plasma and LCD and getting increasingly frustrated at websites contradicting each other with all of the info surrounding the two styles. So I decided that instead of just going out and spending $1,500+ on one or the other only to find out I don't like it, I would go to Rent-A-Center and rent one of each for a few weeks and see which I like better. Well, the 42" plasma (the biggest they carry) I decided on wouldn't be in for a few weeks, so I grabbed a 37" LCD (also the biggest they carry) today. There were two 37" models there, and I chose the ProView over the Magnavox because it has better features (like Picture in Picture, etc). The model I got was the ProView PA-37JK1A (Specs here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16889251004 ). I'll start by saying it looks very good asthetically, I like the all black TVs much more than the silver ones. I was pretty excited and couldn't wait to hook it up. That;s when the problems started. I hooked my cable up and was INSTANTLY dissappointed. It looked WORSE than it did on my current 27" SDTV! I'm talking the quality was like VHS qualty, no kidding. There were those backround "lines" through everything and it just wasn't very crisp, it was kind of soft around the edges and a tad blurry. I even went into the settings and put the sharpness all the way up and it still did that. Then I took another coaxial wire and put it back on my old TV and put that one on the same channel to compare the pictures. The standard def 27" TV had better, richer colors/contrasts, and a MUCH clearer/crisper picture. I didn't expect the TV to turn non-HD signals into HD signals, but I DEFINATELY expected it to be at LEAST the same quality as my current, non-HD TV, but that was not the case I have COX Communications as my provider, and I have digital cable with a Motorolla digital reciever. I had it hooked up with the plain old coaxial hookup and I figured maybe the composite RCA way would make it clearer, so I tried that, but that was even worse. There is also an S-Video connection on the reciever but I don't have an S-Video cable so I couldn't try that way. There are no component hookups on my digital cable reciever, so that's not an option. Discouraged, I hooked up my XBox 360 (via compnoent hookups) to check that out. That, of course, looked great, MUCH better than my standard def TV. So I tried my Playstation 2, again, it looked WORSE than my standard TV. I played NCAA Football 07 on it and at first it looked normal, but everytime the players moved the names and numbers on their jersey (and even the players themselves) would just blur and "wash out". On my normal TV they never did that, they were always nice and clear and readable. I tried switching all the picture modes, from full screen to widescreen to zoom to normal (4:3) and it did it in all of them (the same thing applies to the cable problem, it still looked worse in all of the different modes). An interesting note would be that when I use Picture In Picture and make it so the two images are side by side (split-screen style), NCAA looks fine, no blurring or anything, and everything is readable, it's very odd. I thought this could have something to do with the resolution, like maybe the tv was at 1080i and it was too much for PS2 and normal digital cable, but I searched the settings and found no way to change the resolution down to 720p or 480i/p, and there is nothing in the manual about it either. Now I looked into the HD service from my provider but all it says is for $10 more a month you get 9 channels of HD. Does this mean JUST those 9 channels will be crisp and clear and the rest will still look crappy like they do now, or will the HD package give me those 9 channels in HD PLUS make all the other channels look clearer (although not actually HD quality)? I'm pretty mad because the only thing that looks better, hell, the only thing that looks good PERIOD, is the XBox 360, and I'm not gonna spend $1,500+ on a TV just so my 360 can look way better but my cable and PS2 get DOWNGRADED in quality. The PS2 issue sucks but it's not THAT big a deal, but I watch TV everyday (especially with football season coming) so the cable issue is REALLY bothering me. I thought the TV was a good one, it's 37", it's got PIP and a bunch of other features, 2 HDMI connections, plus 2 component, 2 composite, an S-Video, and a VGA hookup, so it has room for TONS of electronic equipment (video game systems, surround sound, DVD player, etc) plus tons of hookup possiblilites, but the cable thing is REALLY bothering me, I never expected to buy a BETTER, HIGH DEF TV and have my digital cable get DOWNGRADED to VHS quality. Again, I wasn't expecting it to upconvert the cable to HD but I was just assuming the quality would be the same as my SDTV, or if anything maybe be a little clearer, not MUCH worse! Anyway, I'm sorry for the long post, and if anyone reads this far I appreciate it. Also, if anyone can give me advice/solutions to my problem(s), I'd GREATLY appreciate it. |
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Bronze Member Username: Hallen1007Charlotte, North Carolina USA Post Number: 45 Registered: Jul-05 | The problem you are running into is common. A good HDTV will magnify the ugly parts of SDTV, so it will most of the time look worse on a HDTV than on a regular tv set. Try to watch more of the HD feeds and you will not be dissapointed. |