not best pleased with my new tv !

WHITE.AKITA

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hi, i have just been out and bought a samsung ps42c450 tv to replace my panasonic viera th-42pe50b tv.
the main reason i replaced the viera is because it is not hd and i have had the full sky+hd package for over a year now and always felt like i was missing out of the hd picture and i also wanted to use my xbox 360 in hd.
now when using the xbox 360 with the new tv the picture is much improved over the old viera, but when watching non hd channels the picture is not very good compared to the old viera its not even as good as a 15 year old sony crt tv i used to own.
the picture is sort of hazy as if the sharpness setting is far to high but it is not and when i turn the sharpness down or up it does not help, can anybody offer any advise or is it just a case of the tv is crap for standard chanels ?
i have the tv connected to a sky+hd box via a £50 hdmi cable i cought from currys yesterday.
 
Some TVs are better than others for upscaling SD plus a HD ready TV has less work to do when it upscales SD as there are fewer pixels to upscale to. Therefore HD ready sets can sometimes look better with SD than full HD ones. However, it's as much to do with the execution of the upscaling, so a good TV can do a respectable job with SD: I visited a friend's house recently and noticed how good SD channels looked on their 46" Panasonic G15 set, so it can be done.

If you really are disappointed with the set (and have a look on the appropriate owners thread incase there are some settings that might need changing) then can you not exchange the set for another? If so I would strongly urge you to make sure you see any prospective set running on SD as it's easier to make a TV look good when fed with HD (especially the typical cartoon type content they tend to show in highstreet stores ;)).

PS. It has nothing to do with the £50 HDMI cable...even a cheaper one may look just the same, so please don't feel the need to spend even more on a cable.
 
try watching the SD channels through scart rather than HDMI, you should see an improvement.
 
thanks for the replies guys, i will try the scart connections, will i have to unplug the hdmi to use the scart lead ? if so then the hd channels may not look as good.
 
thanks for the replies guys, i will try the scart connections, will i have to unplug the hdmi to use the scart lead ? if so then the hd channels may not look as good.

You can connect with both but will need to change the settings on the skybox ,scart for sd and hdmi for hd.

Regards Martin
 
I bought a Panasonic G20 Plasma a few months ago and when I plugged it in the the first time the picture quality was absolutely shockingly bad, not great considering the fantastic reviews it had! Anyway, to cut a long story short, I switched off several video processing 'enhancements' and the picture was SO much better. I simply do not understand why the TVs are shipped it such a terrible state. The Panny LCD my parents bought was exactly the same, bad until I turn all the proccessing off.

You could try doing the same with your tv. Also, is there an option in your Sky box to switch from 1080i to 720P, as there is on the Virgin box I have. I read somewhere on these forums this switches the upscaling etc from the tv to the digibox (or vice versa). Maybe you could try fiddling with the different settings?
 
Yes you should unplug the HDMI cable, and return it for a refund and replace it with one costing no more than a tenth of the price. Also, by the sounds of it you didn't audition the TV with appropriate sources prior to purchase. This is always to be recommended.
 
I can't see them taking back the cable if he has unpacked it and used it. Unless it's faulty :confused: Currys aren't renowned for the CS
 
thanks for the replies guys, i will try the scart connections, will i have to unplug the hdmi to use the scart lead ? if so then the hd channels may not look as good.

yes you can leave them both plugged in, all you will have to do is change the input on your tv when you want to switch between hdmi and scart, you may have a dedicated button on the remote for it, you shouldn't need to change anything on the sky box. its quite common for sky's sd material to look better through scart, have a look in the sky hd section.
 
I bought a Panasonic G20 Plasma a few months ago and when I plugged it in the the first time the picture quality was absolutely shockingly bad, not great considering the fantastic reviews it had! Anyway, to cut a long story short, I switched off several video processing 'enhancements' and the picture was SO much better. I simply do not understand why the TVs are shipped it such a terrible state. The Panny LCD my parents bought was exactly the same, bad until I turn all the proccessing off.

You could try doing the same with your tv. Also, is there an option in your Sky box to switch from 1080i to 720P, as there is on the Virgin box I have. I read somewhere on these forums this switches the upscaling etc from the tv to the digibox (or vice versa). Maybe you could try fiddling with the different settings?

I don't know why manufactuers have these picture enhancements, which in most cases and most customers, disable them, bcoz they harm the picture quality. Why don't they get it!:mad: Not only these damn processing features produce processed and artificial picture but customers pay for these useless crap!
 
I don't know why manufactuers have these picture enhancements, which in most cases and most customers, disable them, bcoz they harm the picture quality. Why don't they get it!:mad: Not only these damn processing features produce processed and artificial picture but customers pay for these useless crap!

Its because big numbers and technical words help sell the tvs to the uneducated its just sales jargon:laugh:

Regards Martin
 
too much like a mess on switching tv settings everytime i want to turn channels over.
plus there doesnt seem to be any settings on the tv or the sky box to switch between scart and hdmi.
 
i have connected the scart and run the standard channels through that but the picture was even worse.
ive done a bit of searching and it seems alot of people have had the same problem but in their cases watching standard channels through the scart seems to of worked for them.
 
i have connected the scart and run the standard channels through that but the picture was even worse.
ive done a bit of searching and it seems alot of people have had the same problem but in their cases watching standard channels through the scart seems to of worked for them.

Have you set the skybox to RGB?
 
no i only have 1, should i go go and buy a rgb compatible scart socket and try that ?
 
no i only have 1, should i go go and buy a rgb compatible scart socket and try that ?

Dont buy a new scart cable if you only have the one scart input it should be RGB capable.Cant think of anything else you can try:confused:

Regards Martin
 
i have no idea, like i say the xbox and hd channel picture is excellent its just the standard channels are well below par.
 
what's the picture like from the inbuilt freeview tuner, is it any better than the SD channels on the sky hd box.
 
i dont know because i only have the sky dish aerials that will not go into the back of the tv.
 
Do you have access to a DVD player? If so, what is such picture quality like?
 
i use my xbox 360 as a dvd player and the picture is just ok but when playing games on the 360 the picture is perfect !
i have the 360 connected via the 5 component cables.
 

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