Not impressed with HD TV

armyslowrdr said:

Something sounds not right at all.
The good guys and gals at avsforums or hometheaterforums should be able to help.
There really IS a night and day difference with a properly set up system.

Well maybe not; never mind, I missed the part about you not caring about anything except the message being conveyed and in your opinion the quality of the presentation does nothing to help that along.

strollin said:

Therein lies the problem. There ISN'T a night/day difference, in my estimation there's maybe about 20% better picture which is my complaint. It just seems like a whole bunch of effort/cost to get such a marginal improvement in picure quality.

Nope, no external sound system, just what's built-in to the TV. We had a 5.1 surround sound system a few years back and it crapped out within the warranty period. We felt it wasn't worth the effort to get it fixed under the warranty so we never bothered with it.

So much of this is hype as far as I'm concerned. If watching a movie or TV show, once you get absorbed in the story, things like picture quality and sound fade into the background and become unimportant.

I think it really boils down to the fact that MY definition of "night & day difference" and others definition of "night & day difference" don't jive. I can see a difference, it's just not that great and has nothing to do with system setup.

armyslowrdr said:

Something sounds not right at all.
The good guys and gals at avsforums or hometheaterforums should be able to help.
There really IS a night and day difference with a properly set up system.

Well maybe not; never mind, I missed the part about you not caring about anything except the message being conveyed and in your opinion the quality of the presentation does nothing to help that along.

I agree about the PQ of a system properly set up and I agree about AVS Forum. I have been a member there since 2001. Tons of information on just about every make & model out there, upcoming models and helpful folks. There are local threads for most cities and areas and they are especially helpful.

For others reading this thread, Blue Jean Cable is highly recommended for reasonably priced cables as the OP mentioned paying a high price.

To the poster who mentioned plasmas and flesh tones, it's actually better blacks that improve the overall picture quality. I have a 50" Samsung DLP and had my set professionally calibrated. The HD PQ is stunning. I did a lot of research and at the time LCDs just didn't have very good blacks and had a hard time with fast motion blur. At the same time, plasmas, although improved, are still subject to burn-in which was out in terms of gaming and the channels who run constant, fixed network bugs in the corner. I had lots of burn-in on a Mitsubishi rear screen projection and didn't want to deal with that again.

Most sets are shipped in "torch mode". The brightness is set too high. A study was done and consumers always chose the brightest sets. That does not equal a better picture. At least turn the brightness down while new for at least the first 100 hours if it's plasma or DLP. IMO, I would still recommend renting, borrowing or buying a calibration disk as it's time well spent and once it's done, it's done and the result is a much better PQ.

Sorry, gonna have to disagree with you there. I can't stand watching non-HD channels anymore. I obviously put up with it since my cable company only offers 40 or so HD channels out of the 100+ we get, but if I can I always watch in HD.

As an example, my friend was over and he was watching ESPN the other day on the non-HD channel, I switched it to the HD channel and he was blown away.

We have a 55" 1080P Sony HDTV.

Kirsch said:

Sorry, gonna have to disagree with you there. I can't stand watching non-HD channels anymore. I obviously put up with it since my cable company only offers 40 or so HD channels out of the 100+ we get, but if I can I always watch in HD.

As an example, my friend was over and he was watching ESPN the other day on the non-HD channel, I switched it to the HD channel and he was blown away.

We have a 55" 1080P Sony HDTV.

I agree with you completely == When the Dish Network first started offering HD shows, my TV was connected to my HD receiver with RCA Cables. A couple years later I got a HD DVR receiver and there was a port for a HDMI cable. When I made the switch to HDMI, there was a definate boost in the quality of picture. The cable used makes a big difference in the quality of picture.

Regarding the ripoff of HDMI cables, here's an excerpt from Blue Jeans Cable
(link posted by MoInSTL):

HDMI is a digital video/audio signal format which, since its introduction just a few years ago, has taken the home theater world by storm. An HDMI cable consists primarily of a set of shielded twisted pairs which carry video data, together with embedded audio, at extremely high bitrates. While analog component video cable is, in practice, every bit as good a method of delivering video to displays as HDMI cable, the content-providing industries have strongly supported HDMI because it provides a platform for the implementation of HDCP (High Definition Content Protection) to prevent consumers from having complete access to the contents of high-definition digital recordings.

Nope, I spent too many years as a tech to let anybody talk me into paying a ridiculous amount for cables! The prices at Blue Jeans are more reasonable but still high for something as basic as a cable, IMHO.

strollin said:

Don't get me started on the utterly ridiculous prices charged for an HDMI cable!

Never, ever, ever purchase your audio video cables at retail stores. This is their biggest markup and money making item.

I would order the cables from HDMI Cable, Home Theater Accessories, HDMI Products, Cables, Adapters, Video/Audio Switch, Networking, USB, Firewire, Printer Toner, and more!.

A 5ft premium HDMI cable is $6.55 For only $5.39 each when QTY 50+ purchased - 5FT 24AWG CL2 High Speed HDMI Cable w/ Net Jacket - Black | Premium 24AWG HDMI High Speed Certified Male to Male Cables

strollin said:

Therein lies the problem. There ISN'T a night/day difference, in my estimation there's maybe about 20% better picture which is my complaint. It just seems like a whole bunch of effort/cost to get such a marginal improvement in picure quality.

There really should be a very noticeable difference between watching the same show broadcast in SD versus HD...as long as the show itself is actually being broadcast in HDTV. For example, if I watch Monday Night Football or Jay Leno on plain ole channel 4 and 7...it looks like crap. if I watch it instead on 204 or 207, it looks fantastic. I cannot believe what I am seeing is what you would quantify as a 20% improvement.

If you are saying that SD on your new TV only looks 20% better than SD looked on your old TV...then I would say....I wouldn't expect anything different.

I really hardly watch anything these days if it's not broadcast in HDTV...there is that much of a difference. If you aren't seeing that big of a difference, something is wrong.