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|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
OT HDTV-Monitor
Michael Myers, Photographer
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Miami | Florida | USA | Posted: 12:58 PM on 04.06.10 |
->> I've upgraded to two flat screen monitors that a friend highly recommended. For reviewing my photos, they seem to do a very good job.
In the meantime, I'm still using my many-year-old 36" Sony television, which has a great picture - good colors, sharp, and perfect for me in just about every way except that it can't do HDTV. I'd like to give it to a friend and get something that's at least as good, and hopefully better.
I've been thinking of doing this for at least two years now, while prices have been dropping, and supposedly the flat screen HDTV sets have been getting better. I've also been reading several web sites regarding how to select an HDTV, especially what Ken Rockwell wrote (all of which sounds very reasonable to me).
I decided the easiest way for me to get into all this would be to buy a smaller HDTV for not too much money, and make sure I know and understand what I'm doing before I replace my larger set. At the same time, I needed a new monitor for a computer in a different room. I went to Tiger Direct, mostly to look over the choices, but ended up buying a 24" Samsung (from the "open box sale discounted sets) that does both HDTV and has a digital video input (and a normal computer input) so I can use it as my computer display. It has a problem with displaying a TV image (which Samsung will take care of under warranty), but that's not why I'm entering this thread.....
I'm now at a relative's house for two weeks. They have a 50" Samsung rear projection HDTV that they and their friends thought was as good as it gets. My impressions of it are not quite that good....
I'm asking this question here, as I'm thinking most everyone reading this thread will have a reasonably good idea of what a good picture is - and that's the first thing I would want from a TV.
My impressions of their 50" set is first of all, everything (to me) looks like a cartoon. Everyone's flesh tone is identical, and skin looks like shiny plastic. White people are all one shade of flesh. Colored people are a different shade (but all the same). I think that the image looks like anything that is "red" is displayed in the same brilliant shade of red, and ditto for anything that is "blue". It's as if the tv has a very limited selection of colors, and everything is one of those shades.
My second impression is that the picture looks like something a person would come up with by turning the sharpness control in Photoshop up as high as it can go. In a basketball last night, when the camera zoomed out to show the crowd, the people in the crowd looked completely un-natural with this over-sharpened effect.
My last impression of this tv is that when I tuned in an old-fashioned, non-HDTV program, the image was far too blurry. It was almost like it was out of focus. This was while watching Matlock - and I know how the image ought to look from having seen it so many times on my own TV.
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So, on to my questions. I'm not going to ask which TV to buy, but rather how one can get a good picture in today's world. I can't do what Ken Rockwell recommends (buy an HDTV tube set) as they're all being discontinued. The TV sets I see in the store almost always have a fantastic picture, but it's being played on a high-resolution DVD player of some type.
Am I even looking at the right thing? Since both my own TV and my relative's TV are coming from Direct TV satellite, is that the source of the problem? Does anyone here have picture quality in HDTV from Direct TV that looks "good"?
My relative's family is all quite happy with their picture. They tell me it's a wonderful 3D effect. I look at it, and wonder how anyone could stand to watch an image that bad - I swear, it's difficult to tell "real people" from computer animated ones. I know computer animation can be wonderful, but in this case the "real people" look like poorly created animations from an inexpensive video game.
I know so little about this, I feel like a complete amateur. I do know that if I can't get at least as good a picture on an HDTV set as I'm getting now on my old 36" tube set, I'm not going to upgrade.
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As to the 24" Samsung that I just got, which is going off for repairs, I spent a lot of time looking at it as a computer monitor, and for that purpose it's excellent. I'm hoping I can find enough picture controls to get it to look equally as good while watching a video source.
Before I order an upgrade from Direct TV to upgrade my service to HDTV, I plan to buy a small outdoor antenna and see how good the images look from over-the-air TV, which essentially is "free" HDTV. I've read that these signals have much more data than the over-compressed signals that you get from Direct TV or Dish Network, and I'm curious if that's the cause of what I now refer to as "plastic" images.
As a monitor, I want to see what my images really look like, as that's how I judge my photographs. As a consumer, I'd also like to watch television the way the pictures were intended to be seen (which means high quality, sharp images with all the colors looking the way they should, a wide range of brightness so shadows or highlights aren't lost, and without looking either blurry or over-sharpened. I'd like to see text on the screen (such as a menu) looking like it was coming from my computer.
(If I'm on the right track here, maybe I can find some station that still broadcasts a test pattern like they used to fifty years ago, so I can see for myself how good or bad a picture I'm watching....) |
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John Howley, Photographer
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Circleville | OH | USA | Posted: 3:44 PM on 04.06.10 |
->> I've got HD from DirecTV and watch it on a 42-inch Aquos LCD TV that I got about 2 1/2 years ago. And the picture is wonderful, so I wouldn't be worried about using DirecTV as the signal source.
I think the issues you had with the relative's TV could be because it is a projection set and the picture can sometimes deteriorate a little with those if the lamps aren't maintained. Plus, if you watch it a little off the best angle, the picture doesn't look as good.
I haven't tried to use mine as a computer monitor since my iBook and the set don't have compatible connections, so I can't help you there.
And definitely attach an over-the-air antenna. Many stations are not only broadcasting their regular signal in HD but also are sending out additional programming. Around where I live, two of the network affiliated stations run old TV shows while another has a 24-hour weather channel. And the PBS station has three extra channels running most of the day. So you can really boost your free TV options. |
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Michael Myers, Photographer
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Miami | Florida | USA | Posted: 9:09 PM on 04.06.10 |
->> Thanks John, I hadn't considered that some of their problems might be due to an old bulb. For myself, I'm more inclined to get some kind of flat screen set, with minimal weight - IF - I can get one with a good picture. What I like about the set I got is that it serves two purposes, TV and monitor.
You're certainly right about watching the set off-angle. The picture loses brightness very quickly the more you move away from being directly in front of the set.
I'm guessing people here would be much more critical about good picture quality than others I could ask. Thanks for the advice.
As to an outdoor antenna, I spent some time at the following:
http://www.hdtvantennalabs.com/terk.php
http://www.hdtvantennalabs.com/reviews/Terk-HDTVo-reviews.html
I figure that's what I ought to try. |
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