[jrw]

Went to Comet and Currys yesterday and noticed that they have the new HD boxes in hooked up to a Sony 32" 1080i LCD and a Panny 26" 720 screens.

I put the BBC HD preview channel on and I have to say that it look pants. I couldn't tell the difference between normal sky channels and HD. The Sky box was plugged directly into the TV via hdmi cable and the Sky box was set to 1080 but the picture was quite blocky and not what I would expect from HD.

I remember seeing the HD demos that they used to have in Dixons when they first come out and these were much better. I thought that it might have been the set up but to be the same poor quality in both stores using different screens.

In fact all the LCD's in the shops looked rubbish, blocky and grainy (i know that the signal is shared) and this has really put me off buying an LCD TV in the future.

Has anyone else got experince of LCD TV's and picture quality? I was just reading Graham's thread and it seems that he is having similar problems!

 

[shiuming]

I've spent many an hour looking very closely at proper HD demos (on Blu Ray and whatever format Philips supports and uses to demo its screens) on Tottenham Court Road and with a decent source, they are eye-popping. However, as mentioned in Graham's thread, it's down to broadcasters currently favouring lots of channels, and having to use low bitrates to squeeze it all down the line, so to speak.

 

[Eden]

Im having Sky HD fitted Friday for £99 instead of £260....fitting is free...and getting 12months free lol

how you ask? promotional offer through my work lol

ill let you know the quality and difference friday as im currently on Sky+

 

[W36 EJO]

Went to Comet and Currys yesterday and noticed that they have the new HD boxes in hooked up to a Sony 32" 1080i LCD and a Panny 26" 720 screens.

I put the BBC HD preview channel on and I have to say that it look pants. I couldn't tell the difference between normal sky channels and HD. The Sky box was plugged directly into the TV via hdmi cable and the Sky box was set to 1080 but the picture was quite blocky and not what I would expect from HD.

I remember seeing the HD demos that they used to have in Dixons when they first come out and these were much better. I thought that it might have been the set up but to be the same poor quality in both stores using different screens.

In fact all the LCD's in the shops looked rubbish, blocky and grainy (i know that the signal is shared) and this has really put me off buying an LCD TV in the future.

Has anyone else got experince of LCD TV's and picture quality? I was just reading Graham's thread and it seems that he is having similar problems!

I can safely say, without trying out the better cables and rearranging my cables to cut down interfearance that on some channels LCD's are absolute pants. If you like pixalated blocks of colours then you will be in heaven. Hair on people looks like lots of sqaures, eyelashes up close on the make up ads look like a black blob of mess. If anyone moves fast, you'll have trails, much like mouse trails on your computer when you switch them off! You'll also notice the pixels dissapearing, and these are not small pixels.

This is working on a high speed, high contrast ratio Samsung panel.

Dread to think what the woolies ones are like.

Unless this new lead, or using composites work, I certainly wouldnt reccomend it. What your seeing in dixons is what you get. I too thought it was to do with them sharing a signal over 30 screens.....not so.

The only thing that probably would have made mine better would be to go for a 26" instead of 32". I just didnt want to come down from a 28" CRT! So on a bigger screen it's going to look worse. But I never expected such bad quality.

 

[jrw]

But surely they wouldn't be so popular if they were that bad a quality! Think that I will stick with my CRT for the near and far future then! Saying that, we have a 42" Panny plasma in our office which is running a USB DVB stick and the quality on that is excellent - much better than the shared signal demo plasma's in the shops. It is just a minefield!

 

[W36 EJO]

But surely they wouldn't be so popular if they were that bad a quality! Think that I will stick with my CRT for the near and far future then! Saying that, we have a 42" Panny plasma in our office which is running a USB DVB stick and the quality on that is excellent - much better than the shared signal demo plasma's in the shops. It is just a minefield!

Well the TV looks excellent cosmetically and takes up less space (though dont really make much difference as I have the DVD player etc underneath!). And I think that's the reasoning why they are so popular, plus the fact that people who know less are getting told that their signals are being switched off soon, so they need this TV.

Let's put it this way, if this scart cable and minor tweaking don't make it better, the CRT is going to be put back. The CRT quality is about 10x better and it's only a Bush 28" widescreen.

 

[jubbly]

Yeah buy a plasma, mine is great on sky HD pioneer 436 xde very nice!!

 

[MOB]

I have a Sony Bravia 40" LCD with Sky HD. QED cables.

The picture on HD is stunning - no blockyness at all, nearly perfect. And the picture on SD is also very good.

 

[diesel4]

I must say mine is fine on norm TV. I could tell a difference on DVD though, to the point that my 32" Trinitron CRT was much better. I upgraded the cables and that made a difference but after complaining and searching i found the real problem. My DVD player was going though my digi box to get to the TV, went straight to the TV and the pic was excellent again.

You are supposed to sit further away from LCD/Plasma then CRT and i think that is a lot of the prob that people have, they just chuck them where there norm tele was. My partners dad has a 54" Panasonic Viera and up close it is horrible, really bitty and grainy etc, but 8 Feet away (the min required distance) it is awesome. The xbox 360 on it gets my vote too.

Saying all that i am holding off upgrading the TV in my lounge to Plasma as Jan (apparently) sees the new generation which are supposed to 100x better.

 

[NikB]

Shuimi I'd be amazed if you've actually seen and blu ray demos cos
they can't get the discs working properly yet!! Demos that have been in
the shops are actually run from hard drives as there aren't any actual
HD-DVD or Blu Ray machines here yet.

As for Sky HD
in a shop don't expect it to look good. None of the tv's are setup
properly and the hd feed is being split between god knows how many tvs
so you can't expect it to look good. Its about time they learnt to set
things up properly but none of them are really interested or
knowledgeable.

 

[NikB]

Saying all that i am holding off upgrading the
TV in my lounge to Plasma as Jan (apparently) sees the new generation
which are supposed to 100x better.

Which
makes and models are supposedly this good? Each generation brings
slight improvements but don't expect massive leaps in terms of picture
quality. The screens that are going to make a difference are those with
a native 1080 lines however you can expect to pay around £5k for a 42"
screen as it stands.

 

[NikB]

But surely they wouldn't be so popular if they
were that bad a quality! Think that I will stick with my CRT for the
near and far future then! Saying that, we have a 42" Panny plasma in
our office which is running a USB DVB stick and the quality on that is
excellent - much better than the shared signal demo plasma's in the
shops. It is just a minefield!

LCD's are
largely popular because everyone wants to get on the bandwagon. The
majority of consumers aren't actually that discerning when it comes to
picture quality they just want an lcd to look good in the room. Only a
small minority of home cinema enthusiasts are reall that bothered about
how good the picture is. Certainly based on my circle of friends this
is the case.

 

[shiuming]

But surely they wouldn't be so popular if they were that bad a quality! Think that I will stick with my CRT for the near and far future then! Saying that, we have a 42" Panny plasma in our office which is running a USB DVB stick and the quality on that is excellent - much better than the shared signal demo plasma's in the shops. It is just a minefield!

LCD's are largely popular because everyone wants to get on the bandwagon. The majority of consumers aren't actually that discerning when it comes to picture quality they just want an lcd to look good in the room.

Nail on the head. This was the case when TFTs were becoming popular for computers, loads of people asked me why I still have this hulking great 21" CRT (a top of the range FD Trinitron professional display) and the answer was simple: 'cos the colours and overall picture quality on your fancy "slimline" TFT is pants in comparison. They've improved massively now, but as NikB said, the vast majority of consumers don't care for technical details and base many buying decisions on aesthetic value.

 

[shiuming]

Shuimi I'd be amazed if you've actually seen and blu ray demos cos they can't get the discs working properly yet!! Demos that have been in the shops are actually run from hard drives as there aren't any actual HD-DVD or Blu Ray machines here yet.

You could well be right there, I'll quiz them next time I go out to TCR, although my main point was that with suitably high quality source material, the definition on these HD sets is very impressive.

 

[jrw]

Shuimi I'd be amazed if you've actually seen and blu ray demos cos they can't get the discs working properly yet!! Demos that have been in the shops are actually run from hard drives as there aren't any actual HD-DVD or Blu Ray machines here yet.

As for Sky HD in a shop don't expect it to look good. None of the tv's are setup properly and the hd feed is being split between god knows how many tvs so you can't expect it to look good. Its about time they learnt to set things up properly but none of them are really interested or knowledgeable.

Thats my point the Sky+ HD demo box was running a direct feed to the LCD. Apparently Sony are paying Comet to display the Sony's on direct feeds!

 

[GreenBeast]

fed a proper source the current generation of LCDs perform fantastically, i watch HD versions of Lost and some ripped dvds from the states on my PC through DVI-HDMI on my toshiba and it looks absolutely amazing!

sky is not the best but very watchable especially now i'm used to it. its hard to compare these things over the net cos peoples standards of quality are different. my okish sky experience may be crap to graham, etc...

 

[W36 EJO]

fed a proper source the current generation of LCDs perform fantastically, i watch HD versions of Lost and some ripped dvds from the states on my PC through DVI-HDMI on my toshiba and it looks absolutely amazing!

sky is not the best but very watchable especially now i'm used to it. its hard to compare these things over the net cos peoples standards of quality are different. my okish sky experience may be crap to graham, etc...

So based on that, running a feed from the computer is better than the sky box. You must know mate, how you get sky to run through your computer?

 

[GreenBeast]

my pc feed is brilliant, with the right source files (divx can be a bit crap cos its compressed much the same with SKY)

you can get satellite receiving pci cards i believe but i don't know much about it. but it would still be getting the same signal as the sky box so if its just for a quality boost you may be left wanting.

 

[dieselinside]

Im having Sky HD fitted Friday for £99 instead of £260....fitting is free...and getting 12months free lol

how you ask? promotional offer through my work lol

ill let you know the quality and difference friday as im currently on Sky+

I got that offer at work too! It's quite tempting.,...