Full HD Panels - poor SD picture - why?

Keith@MoleEnd

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I am patiently looking around to buy a 37-42" LCD or Plasma TV. I have spent a lot of time researching many products and the pros and cons of everything. I am concerned that many sets with full HD capacity that can produce, apparently, fantastic full HD pictures, let themselves down with a below par SD picture. I am aware of some (a few) notable exceptions. It may be a naive question, but why is this? I am holding back to await the Toshiba Z, Panasonic 37LCD and new Sony range. I regard the whole scenario as fascinating and absorbing, but alarming when one considers the price of these products.:confused:
 
The problem is due to the issue of scaling.

When dealing with an sd signal the tv has to take a 720x576 interlaced signal and convert it to a 1920x1080 progressive image. To do this well needs good quality processing and scaling but unfortunately most televisions are being built to a price and this is one area that suffers
 
As you have already stated they look great with HD sources, that is what they where designed for, in effect you are supplying a low res signal and asking a peice of electronics on the fly to do two things, upscale a picture which only has 500+ lines (VCR = around 250lines) of info to a screen that can support 1080 lines and correctly adjust as to not distort the picture. Not only that you are asking it to do it often with an analogue source (Scart, Composite etc).
A few years ago some people would say the picture looked great on a 14in portable but my new 36" screen looks terrible, again it is down to the source material and how it is delivered. Cheap cables is one major issue that people come across.
 
I am patiently looking around to buy a 37-42" LCD or Plasma TV. I have spent a lot of time researching many products and the pros and cons of everything. :

Get a Panasonic 42 inch plasma....or a 10bit 768p Sony LCD....both of these handle SDTV/DVD very well, and are also HDTV's.
 
If you view the picture from the recommended minimum distance for SD, i.e. about four times the screen size, you won't be able to see any defects relating to the screen resolution, (e.g. native SD vs. 'HD ready' vs. 'full HD').
The problem is that in showrooms, most people look at the images at distances appropriate for HD.

runas
 
The problem is due to the issue of scaling.

When dealing with an sd signal the tv has to take a 720x576 interlaced signal and convert it to a 1920x1080 progressive image. To do this well needs good quality processing and scaling but unfortunately most televisions are being built to a price and this is one area that suffers

Many thanks Johnstone, Andy and colleagues. All is revealed. I do have my eye on the Panasonic TH42PZ70B but it is quite a beast in size and weight. The 700 is slightly smaller and lighter but more expensive. Ideally, the PZ70 would wall mount over the fireplace on the chimney breast (it stays cool) but the TV would be too high and result in an incorrect viewing angle. All manner of construction remedies have been pondered over....unbelievable......
 

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