LG Digital TV.

[combwork]

Hi,

My daughters partner brought his LG flat screen LCD digital television over at Christmas for my youngest daughter to play her games on.

It's fine on games, but what I've noticed on this set and others on display in shops is the picture looks harsh. Edges look over sharp, most noticeable on vertical white lines with what looks like a fuzzy echo to the right; feint but noticeable. Nearest equivalent on a 'normal' television would be to manually adjust the tuner close to instability, giving an over sharp picture. WOW when first watched, unpleasant after 10 minutes.

The set brought round could perhaps be set up wrong, but surely shop display sets wouldn't all be like this, unless maybe they're all cranked up to compete with shop lighting? In the old days, some shops had special low light rooms in which to demonstrate colour television to potential buyers.

Is digital TV all it's cracked up to be, or is there an element of "The Kings New Clothes" about it all?

[Dave Cawley]

What size is it? What is the actual pixel count?

Dave

[combwork]

What size is it? What is the actual pixel count?

Dave

Hi Dave,

Size is 32". As to pixel count, all I know is the owner says it's "1280 by 720". I may have misheard but he's just gone out can't ask him again.

Jim.

[Dave Cawley]

Hi Jim

OK, that's "1280x720" as opposed to 1920x1080 that you see on demo in the shops. The difference is 2.25 more pixels. But it also depends on how you feed it and set it up. Turn off any 'dynamic' effects, spend 30 minutes and it will be better anyway?

Regards

Dave

[Beechwoods]

I have a Toshiba 32" REGZA LCD and it's great. Very natural looking picture on a digital signal, and a good picture on analogue. You can definitely tweak the picture to increase edge definition, 'sharpness', compression NR, and a whole bunch of other things. It worked well out of the box though.

Was your assessment of quality based upon watching a good source, or the input from the games console? I know that on mine, there is a setting that seems to 'intelligently' sharpen graphics - onscreen text etc - which can be excessive and distracting.

It's possible that some are factory preset to an overly sharp presentation since this is one of the things that at first beguiling in a digital set. Like you say they had a WOW in the first few minutes, and only became wearing after a while.

Just my thoughts...

[Togil]

First reduce " Contrast " to 50% or less , then adjust brightness

[combwork]

Thanks Dave,

Sooner or later my 24 year old Sony CTV 25 is going to expire; in due course I'll probably go for a digital TV. That pixel count '1280 by 720'. It seems the higher the numbers, the more expensive the set so would I be right that the pixel count is dependent on the way the television is made; not on the signal received?

One final question please Dave. If a set is labeled "HD Ready", does this mean that once it's fully available, the set will receive HD signals in full HD, or would I need some kind of 'add on' for full HD?

When I was a child I remember the start of public colour broadcasting in the U.K. ( I also remember my Dad taking us all to the Radio Show in Olympia in the late 1950's, and seeing in a darkened room a "colour television" showing a red rose) and also remember an article about two 'inventors' who claimed they'd made a converter to allow existing black and white sets to display a colour picture. I didn't understand how this was possible; now I guess they were trying to sell some kind of Field Sequential system.

I wonder. In a few years time, will there be enthusiasts claiming that properly set up, an old 625 line colour set complete with cathode ray tube looks better than digital TV?

[Togil]

New LCD technologies will give much better color reproduction and contrast than CRTs were ever capable of. Especially red colour differentiation is a problem on CRT TVs.
Older films can look quite horrible on a digital TV, but HD from a studio camera is superb. Films transferred to HD have that slight grain, just like the hiss in audio when you listen to an analogue recording.

[Dave Cawley]

Any LCD or Plasma can only ever display the number of pixels it was made with, never any more.

'HD Ready', means it will display 'HD'. 'Full HD' is over twice the resolution. You are always limited to the resolution of the TV. So feed a 'HD' set with 'Full HD', and you don't get 'Full HD', only 'HD'.

Manufactures are dumping 'HD' sets as fast as they can. I was in Miami two weeks ago, I was amazed at the 'Full HD' sets and their prices.

Dave

[Spectral Morn]

Hi Guys

Firstly Dave is correct about the pixel count. In order to see full HD which is a 1080p image you will need a 42/43 inch and bigger set. These are more expensive. I would say that Panasonic and Pioneer offer the best picture ( both Plasma) Bigger LCD panels are not as good as the smaller ones, I would not go above a 32 inch.

I would also say that while LCD technology has improved a Plasma screen will give better pictures with digital Tv picture. However analogue pictures are very poor on big screen flat Panel TV's regardless of panel type. DVD, Sky and any HD source will give brilliant pictures on any Flat Panel TV, with HD giving the best. While the gap between Plasma and LCD narrows I still feel Plasma has the edge.

Tube TV (CRT)do still give the best picture on all sources except HD (they are not compatible. There were a few CRT tV's in the states which were notably a set from LOEWE). Picture quality is excellent up until 37 inch Flat CRT. These struggle to get the electrons scanned well to the edges of the screen so blacks along the edges are not as good. It was easier to get good results with curved sets. In saying that until a lot more HD content is available I will be sticking with my 37 in CRT TV. Picture is smoother and better in terms of detail and digital artefact's are reduced. I for one was very disapointed when Toshibas SED proposition failed to get of the ground properly. A flat panel made up of miniature CRT. WOW that would have been amazing. Some were made but only in large screen sizes. However the technology is not dead. We shall see.

Regards DSDL ---- Neil