How do I tune in new 40 HD LCD ?

candlequeen

Hi all you techy folk......this is a total techno phobe asking what you might think is a daft Q.

Just bought a Samsung 40 HD LCD and the picture isn't that sharp ? I have my SKY Plus box and my DVD player connected. Should I buy an HDMI cable to sort out the picture ?

Any help will be most appreciated


Regards,
Candlequeen

p.s. If you need any hints or tips on candles I'm the person to ask :j

OK_Sauce

Is the Sky plus box high definition? If not it wont have an HDMI connection.

candlequeen

OK_Sauce wrote: »

Is the Sky plus box high definition? If not it wont have an HDMI connection.

It's just a normal sky plusr box

Alias_Omega

Also, a £6 HDMI cable is good enough if your buy one, your tv wont have gold plated ports on it, so how can the cable help.

I would upgrade to a DVD / Surround home cinema, some play the tv sound through it via the HDMI cable if you get the same make as the tv.

Some upscale too.

About £100-£200 depending on power wanted.

We went for 1000w, has external USB in, bluetooth, DVD players, radio player & plays the tv too..

savemoney

My 40" Samsung looks fine in Digital channels so I disagree it looks best on a 14" crt.

Some dvd players do come with hdmi, I got 3 in house that does

With the Samsung it should have analogue and digital tuners you need to scan for channels normally it does this when you first switch on

On mine if you press dmenu button there is an option to scan for digital channels it takes about 2 minutes

You do not have to invest in HD source LCDs can look nice in digital depending on the source

See this thread to optimise the tv for various sources like sky, wii pc etc

http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=513376

OK_Sauce

The TV you have is an HD tv the Sky Plus box will only output SD (standard definition). Therefore the tv tries to 'upscale' the picture, i.e. it tries to stretch the picture from the Sky box to fill the picture on the screen. In other words to make the picture truly sharp you will need an HD source which matches the pixels on the tv. If you don't match the same resolution (amount of pixels/lines that makes the screen up) the picture will by it's very nature be a bit soft. There are all sorts of electronics in the tv to sort it out try changing some of the picture settings. If you have no improvement you should at least give the tv the best possible signal from the Sky and DVD. Make sure they are both RGB enabled and the tv is set for RGB in at the very least...and of course set to 16:9.

savemoney

Samsungs tend to upscale rather well thats why its best to get a decent make, buying a tv isnt just about the panels but the electronics behind it

LCD do upscale if you have a SD source, but my Samsung looks fine with wii (composite), pc (dvi to hdmi), Humax 9200 freeview (scart) and DVD to hdmi (upscales to 1080p) My tv only display 720p though

savemoney

I never said you did I just said "Some dvd players do come with hdmi, I got 3 in house that does"

Perhaps Bex its you that should read

BexTech wrote: »

Do people NO READ before posting?

I never said DVD players don't come with HDMI sockets. That's why I said you have to buy one with.

Of course you get better picture in HD but SD (digital) can look good if you have a good source and a good upscaler. Analogue SD is terrible on LCD's

BexTech wrote: »

NO HD TV or large screen TV looks good with SD - if you think it does then you have poor eyesight or you have compared it to HD and your TV is poor. Simple as that.

You simply aren't going to get great SD pictures on large screens. Plain and simple.

That's not to say they aren't passable.

I've known a few people say they haven't been able to tell the difference between a Sky HD box or V+ box upscaling SD and watch in HD - that just means their TV is poor or they really are looking properly as the difference is huge.

SD pictures are low resolution (also low bitrate too) you aren't going to get nice pictures on a large screen, the comment about 14" CRT is due to many channels having low bit-rates and you don't usually notice it so much on smaller screens.

BexTech

savemoney wrote: »

I never said you did I just said "Some dvd players do come with hdmi, I got 3 in house that does"

Perhaps Bex its you that should read



Of course you get better picture in HD but SD (digital) can look good if you have a good source and a good upscaler. Analogue SD is terrible on LCD's

OK Sorry for my harsh reply to the first instance.

SD can look OK but on on a good channel - problem is there aren't many of them.

Yes, you do need a good upscaler - many TVs are poor at upscaling, some good, some very good. Sky HD boxes are good at upscaling, V+ boxes excellent.

However even with good upscaling - you are still 98% of the time upscaling a poor picture.

savemoney

Freeview has a mixed bag of channels some are better as you stated. BBC tend to be good on that platform

Freesat should be okay as it will have 2 HD channels for free

I do get a good picture on my set up and I am real picky on quality hell I just spent over £400 on a 24" monitor last week and paid for a decent PVA panel as I prefer quality any day

HD is the best but from what I seen its mixed batch on sky HD although I dont have sky. I do find the Samsung digital tuner better than the humax pvr I have as its coming from scart. Its always best to use digital connections like hdmi where possible, although with dvd it still upscales but it looks fine on my tv. I can play dvds from pc also via dvi to hdmi and there only a marginall better picture. I do think you need to set the tv up right though the link I gave to avforums does show you to optimsie teh best setting for the Samsung. It does make a difference though

I also found sky SD worse that freeview on a LCD mnd you I am not far from the tv mast its about 1 1/2 miles away as crow flys so that will make a difference, I also use a new aerial which has bene split two 3 rooms so do loose some quality but not notiable due to signal strength.

When I go full digital there wil be more channels are signal will be stonger in therory

shadowdragon

BexTech wrote: »

I never said DVD players don't come with HDMI sockets. That's why I said you have to buy one with.

You simply aren't going to get great SD pictures on large screens. Plain and simple.

That's not to say they aren't passable.

I've known a few people say they haven't been able to tell the difference between a Sky HD box or V+ box upscaling SD and watch in HD - that just means their TV is poor or they really are looking properly as the difference is huge.

SD pictures are low resolution (also low bitrate too) you aren't going to get nice pictures on a large screen, the comment about 14" CRT is due to many channels having low bit-rates and you don't usually notice it so much on smaller screens.

Many satellite channels are very low bit-rate they also use lower than SD resolution, so you try blowing 544 x 576 up to 1920 x 1080 - it does look a mess - it can look a mess on a smaller TV. Freeview have some dreadful quality channels too.

Take one of these, it will help honest. Sensing a lot of stress in your post.





ho btw, if your going to have a signature like that correcting peoples grammar at least check your spelling and grammar. It makes you look a bit of a tw*t.