TV viewing distance and can you reduce the picture size on LG or Samsung TVs?

LucianH

I'm about to get an OLED or QLED TV and am looking at a 55" model. I'm going for a larger screen size to what we currently have (46") since we want to get a better experience when watching HD content. (Current options are LG OLED55C9 or Sansung QE55Q90)

However, we also watch a fair bit of terrestrial non-hd freeview content and I'm concerned that the larger screen size will "amplify" the artefacts and pixilation of these broadcasts making them distracting or unwatchable.

Our minimum viewing distance from the screen is 7ft and from what I can gather from various websites is that this distance is great for HD content but it's not clear whether this is too close for non-hd content.

So the question is, does anybody know whether you can reduce the picture size when viewing low quality non-hd content (eg, reduce the picture size to the equivalent of 46inch). Having looked at some of the on-line manuals, most of the settings appear to relate to Aspect Ratio settings but it's not clear whether you can actually zoom the picture.

I know it may sound odd to want to reduce the picture size, when most times you want to increase it, but I would appreciate peoples' views as to whether being close to a large screen when watching non-hd freeview content is going to be OK.

RumRat

The answer is NO you can't.
Just leave it as it is the SD channels will be upscaled somewhat and will be OK to watch.
I watch a Samsung Qled 55" from just short of 7 feet and on the few occasions that I watch SD, it's acceptable.
You have to remember that a lot of the older programmes didn't even look good on a small CRT....Also, most of the SD channels transmit at a low bitrate which doesn't help.
If you are going to spend that much on a TV, you should think about changing your viewing habits;) or, maybe spend a bit less.
The TV's you list are great if you watch a lot of 4K content, but, a cheaper version may be better for your viewing habits.

almillar

Yeah, that's not a feature. But there are a few things you can do to help, and they might not be what you think.
Watch Frasier on Channel 4 SD and Channel 4 HD. It's an old, not widescreen programme. But on SD, they break the aspect ratio, and everyone gets fat! In HD, you get the black bars down the side. This is kindof like the screen size reduction you're looking for! Your TV will likely have a feature to change the aspect ratio, which you could use to fix the SD channel's picture, but just stick with SD.
Next, switch all of the 'improvements' off. You know, noise reduction, motion assist - turn them off first. They often ADD artifacts that you want to get rid of. Turn them on one at a time once you're used to the TV, to see if any of them actually do help. Decent noise reduction, or MPEG artifact reduction, would be helpful for low quality channels. This is because of their bandwidth, by the way, not just because they're SD. DVDs are SD but can look far better than broadcast channels, because the broadcast channels get squished so much more!
Finally, sharpness. You want a sharp picture, don't you? Well, 100% sharpness is usually the middle, so that's where you should leave it. Turning it up, makes the TV artificially play with the picture to make it look sharper, and can make things worse. For low quality stuff, you might want to play arond with the sharpness setting. making it softer, or sharper, might make it more pleasing to your eye.

oldwally

RumRat wrote: »

The answer is NO you can't.

The TV's you list are great if you watch a lot of 4K content, but, a cheaper version may be better for your viewing habits.[/QUOTaE]

But surely the op can change the aspect ratio ? Ive only a bog standard 40 inch Sony tv but u can easily change it to 4/3 for old style recordings either on DVD or dare i say it VHS :rotfl:

Carrot007

almillar wrote: »

But on SD, they break the aspect ratio, and everyone gets fat! In HD, you get the black bars down the side.

Really, I more suspect that they are broadcasting it right and you have turned it to 16:9 forced.


It still is horrible quality though compared to the SD in HD channel.

DoaM

Carrot007 wrote: »

Really, I more suspect that they are broadcasting it right and you have turned it to 16:9 forced.

So the TV will handle SD and HD content differently? As in the aspect ratio settings are set per-signal-type, so changing between SD and HD content will change how the aspect ratio setting functions? (I have my doubts).

LucianH

Thanks guys.

Just to let you know, I've taken the plunge and order the LG OLED55C9. From the comments, I'm reasonably comfortable that watching SD content will be acceptable and, as almillar suggested, I can have a tweak of the "Improvement" settings to see how well it copes - I'll report back (although it may take some time - I may get distracted by watching loads of 4K movies and other content first!)

RumRat

Good choice, nice TV.
You may find the following of use....
LG C9 Calibration. Rtings.com.
C9 Settings by Darko.
At the very least they will give you some idea of what all the settings mean....

Neil_Jones

Any TV set up properly will show 4:3 SD as 4:3, ie black bars either side of the picture. Any 4:3 SD material that "makes people look short and fat" means the TV isn't set up correctly.

I suspect the ability to force everything to 16:9 was to placate people who buy widescreen TVs and then complain that their picture doesn't fill the screen, beause I can't see any other reason why such an option would even exist.

In the case of Channel 4 HD, they pillarbox the 4:3 content so it is displayed correctly. You need change nothing for that.

mobileron

Hope your wifi can handle the 4k streaming.

almillar

Really, I more suspect that they are broadcasting it right and you have turned it to 16:9 forced.

I'm just some guy, and Channel 4 is a national broadcaster, but yes, they're broadcasting SD 16:9 (nothing wrong with that), and when they broadcast 4:3 programmes, THEY fill the screen, making fat people. Now, I can certainly set my TV to 4:3 ratio, but that would be squishing it back down. Just watch in HD, where they brodcast in 16:9, but when there's 4:3 content, you just get black bars down the side instead. Frasier is a good example as it seems to be on every morning!

So the TV will handle SD and HD content differently?

No, it doesn't. This isn't about SD and HD, it's about widescreen and non-widescreen - you had widescreen TVs before you had flatscreens and HD.

As in the aspect ratio settings are set per-signal-type, so changing between SD and HD content will change how the aspect ratio setting functions? (I have my doubts).

No. You may have separate settings for different inputs (like Tuner, or set top box) but the only setting here is the aspect ratio of the TV, and optionally, of the set-top box. They should both be 16:9, pixel-by-pixel, no overscan, lots of other daft names for the same thing, which is 'leave the picture the shape and size that you receive it in!'.

Any TV set up properly will show 4:3 SD as 4:3, ie black bars either side of the picture. Any 4:3 SD material that "makes people look short and fat" means the TV isn't set up correctly.

No, this is my point. C4 are broadcasting 4:3 short and fat. You shouldn't have to squish the picture to make it the right shape. It doesn't matter if you've got HD, because it's all broadcast correctly, as far as I've ever seen. The problem goes back to old CRTs, and the move from 4:3 to 16:9, which happened in the analogue days. Either they broadcast it without the bars, and we get short and fat people, or they broadcast it with the bars, and everyone with 16:9 screens gets it right, but anyone with dumb (as in can't manipulate the picture) 4:3 screens (surely very few people now), will get the bars down the side, and very tall and thin people!!

As I say it's really not much of a problem these days, apart from when OP comes on specifying watching old stuff on a new screen. He, specifically, will have to get familiar with changing the aspect ration on his new TV.