[Closed] Any TV experts around?

Get another 42 inch screen, or sit further away.

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Some TVs really show how crap SD is but CaptJon has a point.

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On the sky planner there is an HD option (along with Entertainment, Sports, Comedy etc).

While my TV is only 37" I tend to find SD content is crap on it. At 50" I'm sure that is amplified.

There are pages on avforums for what settings to adjust your set to, worth checking on there. I had to remove intelligent frame creation on mine as it made movements too fast and it didn't seem like TV/Movie content any more, it was more like home video.

All the upscaling in the world isn't going to add detail that isn't there. The fundamental problem is that the SD broadcast is often crap (in fact, I'm convinced it's worse on channels which have an alternative HD feed, it's almost like they do it intentionally).

Your old TV probably hid the flaws better whereas the bigger screen makes it more obvious. On my 42" Tosh, SD broadcasts look ok from the back of the room but bloody awful if you're four feet away.

(I do recall asking you what 4K sources you were going to be using with your 4K display... 🙂 )

as HD channels aren't grouped on Sky

Yes they are, "3D and HD" is the second menu tab in the planner. You can also roll your own with the Favourites menu.

Picked up a 2014 Sony 42W750 cheaply a few weeks ago.

Picture is great, but it has the worst menu system and the remote is so counter intuitive it's untrue.

Pana stopped making their own screens a couple of years ago apparantly
Their software is amazing - all the catchup channels and easy to use.
Picture quality put me off - I thought the Samsungs had the best HD picture, closely followed by Sony, then LG, then Pana.

Spent ages annoying staff and pissing about, but fancied the Sony because of the very low lag for gaming.

4k next time.

4k next time.

Why?

Forget the BS about recommended screen size vs. distance from the screen. A TV screen can only ever be too small, never too large, and they always shrink over time - what seems massive on day 1, seems normal or too small a few months down the line and you'll kick yourself you didn't go bigger. Get the biggest screen you can afford/fit in your room.

SD picture will never be as good as HD so you just have to accept that. Though I find the SD picture on my 65" Panasonic Plasma on Sky, and my borthers 55" Panasonic LCD on Freesat, to be very good and acceptable for normal viewing, though obviously not as good as HD. On Sky I also find a big variation on the picture quality between different SD and HD channels - not all channels are piping the best quality picture to you on either HD or SD flavours. On Sky I find the SD quality of BBC channels to be far better than other channels.

I've said before on these threads, 4k is fudamentally a waste of time at the moment. When I bought my TV I was torn between the HD plasma and new 4k. After spending a good hour and a half on a back to back trial I found the HD plasma outperformed the 4k set on upscaling of SD and playing HD via BR. The only time the 4k picture was better was when playing a proper native format 4k picture - whcih you can't actually get at them moment - not even Netflix is not true native 4k. Give it a good 5 to 8 years and 4k might be where HD is now - i.e. a handful of channels and a 4k format BR system (currently being developed I beleive).

I suspect by then it will not just be about 4k but a whole new screen technology too. LCD is just not as good as Plasma, OLED is too expensive at the mo. And those Pesky Japanese are developing an even higher resolution format than 4k.

I assumed it would be ubiquitous by the time this new one goes pop?

Many of the 4k sets I saw under £500 were old stock with already outdated HDMI ports.

Don't really do the early adopter thing.
Was impressed with the 4k I did see though, but not by the curved screens.

Many of the 4k sets I saw under £500 were old stock with already outdated HDMI ports.

Yup. 4K is on the limit of what current HDMI can cope with, and HDMI2 isn't ratified yet. Whilst there's a questionable argument for future proofing, by the time 4K is commonplace all the current sets will be obsolete.

Consider as well, we're still in a transitionary period from SD to HD. Many broadcasts are still in cataract-o-vision SD and the ones billed as HD aren't even taking full advantage of it (eg, the Sky HD box doesn't even support 1080p, period).

Was impressed with the 4k I did see though

Probably because it was running a perfect demo (alongside some really badly set up comparisons) and you were standing a foot away from it. 4K *is* really impressive in that situation. But how far do you normally sit from your TV?

A typical viewing distance is around 3m. At 3m from a 4K screen you'd need upwards of an 80" display to even see the difference over 1080p, let alone fully appreciate it.

I don't doubt that 4K is the future. But there's no way I'd be paying a premium for it today, it's a marketing exercise.

If it is better at night it might be electrical noise from the mains. I replaced our 4 way power strip with one of these:

[url= http://www.richersounds.com/product/mains-power-accessories/tacima-/cs929/taci-cs929-6way-main ]http://www.richersounds.com/product/mains-power-accessories/tacima-/cs929/taci-cs929-6way-main[/url]

The one thing I did notice was the Freeview picture quality had improved, it was still rubbish, but had improved. Friends who didn't know I installed this thought I had moved our aerial as it looked better..

Cue all the people in tin foil hats saying this product does not work, even though they haven't tried it. To be honest I was one these, but for the price of a 6 way I thought why not try it and I was quite surprised.

Thanks for the input, food for thought!

The Panasonic I bought just happened to have 4K, I didn't buy it alone for 4K I just decided to swerve 3d as it was something I'd never use.

Typical viewing distance where it is (in the conservatory) is between 3 and 4 metres. I have turned the ambient light setting off which I think was affecting the picture during the day as it does seem a little better now (still not what I'd like).

I would have stuck with plasma as I was more than happy with it but they are few and far between now.

Soooo, do I stick with the Panny and accept its Sky SD/screen size related or plump for the Sony (or anything else from Richer Sound for similar money)? I did read elsewhere they're having major issues with the android os apps etc on the Sonys though.

I have turned the ambient light setting off which I think was affecting the picture during the day as it does seem a little better now (still not what I'd like).

I've not played with a modern 4K set, but typically there are a lot of settings on a TV which are pish at best, artificial sharpening and the like. My Toshiba is a brilliant picture, visitors have commented on how much better it is than theirs, but I spent hours setting it up. As someone else said, it's worth a look on AVF for tips.

I have looked on AV forums etc but there aren't any setting for mine, there are guides for the top end sets but nothing for the [s]peasant[/s] mid range spec I have. The ones I've read have far more presets in the picture modes than mine.

Plasma screens effectively smooth out/upscale the nasties of SD just by the nature of the technology used.

As you can clearly see you can have a TV that is too large if you are not using its native resolution and causing it to upscale - and therefore inject loads of artifacts into the picture.

So going back down a size might be an idea, or you could drop an awful lot on a very sophisticated upscaler that might then be acceptable!

The shading might be because of edge lighting which doesn't work that well but gives everybody the thin sets they want as they like to look at them from the side.

I would stick with Panasonic - they seem to be one of the better SD upscalers I have seen, with Samsung being the worst.

Forget the BS about recommended screen size vs. distance from the screen. A TV screen can only ever be too small, never too large, and they always shrink over time - what seems massive on day 1, seems normal or too small a few months down the line and you'll kick yourself you didn't go bigger. Get the biggest screen you can afford/fit in your room.

Worst advice ever.

I have just bought the 40" version of that TV and I know what you mean by the SD quality not being great. The reviews did say that about this TV and as I watch mostly Amazon Prime this wasn't a concern for me. I imagine a 50 screen would make this even worse. I think most 4K TVs will have this issue and the larger the screen the more obvious.

A good HD telly might be a better option if you're mostly watching SD.

The UHD stuff on the Amazon app is amazing though.

So would a bog standard hd set show sd better than a 4k set would?

I don't set out to watch sd but as I said earlier when surfing it's inevitable and I'm really happy with so hd/netlix 4k stuff. It wipes the floor with my old hd sets picture (gaming etc).

I think I'm just going to have to learn to stick to the hd channels where I can.

Slight hijack, but similar vein

Our LCD is great, but every so often, and it tends to be when some one is running across the screen against a complicated background, they get like a pixalated halo around their body.

My wife doesnt notice it until I point it out, but it annoys the hell out of me. Can the processor just not process quick enough?

My wife doesnt notice it until I point it out, but it annoys the hell out of me. Can the processor just not process quick enough?

basically yes.

Moving images cause particular problems because of aliasing, etc.

Try actually turning off a lot of the picture processing/noise reduction that your tv is doing, you might find you prefer it.

I remember seeing a Sony TV playing one of the james bond movies and it was on shop settings - it made Judi Dench look like the thing from fantastic four.

+1 turning off as much processing as you can - avoid picture modes that change things over much.
Some DVDs come with set up screens for pictures/sort of calibration?
As a stop- gap, get a good B&W image and start from there with all the presets. Avoid too much sharpness as it'll make the poor SD look worse.

Have you tried adjusting the brightness/contrast settings? Really bright screens will just emphasize the poor quality of an SD signal, try the 'True Cinema' default setting if your TV has it.

Plasma was always kinder to SD programmes.