Plasma to OLED with SD content

[foxm63]

Hello, I currently have a Panasonic 50 inch VT30 plasma. We watch a varied mix of TV including a lot of dated SD content. The plasma handles it well and I have no issues with picture quality. I have loved this TV. I have been browsing 4K OLED 55 inch TVs in my local Waitrose (mostly LG) and whilst the 4K and HD content looks good, as soon as I switch the TV through the channels to some of the channels rebroadcasting old TV programmes, the picture looks awful. Far worse than I am experiencing with my old plasma. I do stand back a distance (I sit about 5m from my screen at home), still the picture is obviously poor. I have read that Sony and perhaps Panasonic deal with it better. Has anybody got any recommendations for an OLED that will give me the best of all content?

 

[Goldorak]

Basically, the minute I got a 4k Oled, as content is like my whole dvd collection…very poor
I avoid sd like a plague and it is just ok if I have to…Sky news for example…
No miracle there…hd is the bare minimum

 

[foxm63]

Thank you, you are confirming what I fear, I still do and will always watch a lot of old TV shows that will only ever be in SD. They are very watchable on my 50 inch plasma. If my plasma can generate such a reasonable version of low quality content, why can't an OLED. I suppose they are not aimed at old dinosaurs like me. I kind of resent spending such a lot of money so my kids can stream 4k content (on my account) leaving me with an inferior TV. I was hoping that the better Panasonics may handle it better than the LGs I have seen in the showroom. unfortunately, I cant easily get to view one anywhere. I was going down the route of a JZ1500 or even JZ2000. Has anybody got one of those and view SD?

 

[MartinN]

I'm still hanging onto a 60" plasma, but not exactly looking forward to the experience of SD on a 77" OLED/QD-OLED - when I finally do get around to upgrading. I do have wooden floors - so I might slide back in the sofa a foot or two when watching SD content. Or take my glasses off!

On a semi serious note, my Oppo blu ray player has a Darbee processor built in, and do find DVDs look better at 1080p with it turned on (but not turned up too high). But "proper" upscalers (assuming they still exist- i'm so out of date!), are super expensive.

I've got a 42" lcd in the bedroom, and it's at least 11ft away, so can barely tell the difference in HD vs SD channels - so that's always an option for me, for watching old stuff.

 

[lgans316]

Thank you, you are confirming what I fear, I still do and will always watch a lot of old TV shows that will only ever be in SD. They are very watchable on my 50 inch plasma. If my plasma can generate such a reasonable version of low quality content, why can't an OLED. I suppose they are not aimed at old dinosaurs like me. I kind of resent spending such a lot of money so my kids can stream 4k content (on my account) leaving me with an inferior TV. I was hoping that the better Panasonics may handle it better than the LGs I have seen in the showroom. unfortunately, I cant easily get to view one anywhere. I was going down the route of a JZ1500 or even JZ2000. Has anybody got one of those and view SD?

Because 4x number of pixels and more pixels to be made up from SD sources. Sony 4K/8J TVs have this X-motion clarity / Reality creation feature that can subtly boost clarity and sharpness. Even at max settings, for SD sources, don't expect anything dramatic.

If majority of your viewing is SD then simply stick to 720/1080p TVs or smaller TVs. Do not expect miracles with larger sized 4K/8K TVs. They are meant for viewing HD and 4K contents.

 

[tvdavid]

SD is watchable on my 55 inch CX I think the other 65 inch Sony XH95 does better though.

 

[sapphire88]

I get where you're coming from, my 50" kuro makes even the most ropey poor encoded SD content look reasonable. Its not a pure screen size issue - same contents looks crap on my high end 40" gaming PC monitor, the pioneer is doing some sort of magic with this old content that I cant put my finger on. Well it was supposed to have world class upscaling so that probably helped ....

On the other hand my LG C1 77 is very sensitive the encoding quality and VERY unforgiving on anything with obvious compression artefacts (maybe a consequence of the sample-and-hold nature of the OLED display ...). Its less fussy though about resolution, even 720p looks very decent if encoded well, surprisingly good actually considering the screen size and my viewing distance (8-9 ft) Thats about as low as you can go though.

 

[mikej]

Good quality SD sources such as well-mastered DVDs or the better bitrate SD Freeview channels can sometimes be (surprisingly) acceptable on my 55" Panasonic OLED when there is no HD option and my viewing distance (at around 8-9ft) is half of yours. Saying that, 99% of my viewing is HD or 4K these days.

The poorer Freeview SD channels can be pretty-much unwatchable at my viewing distance but 5m is a long way to sit from a 50" or even a 55" screen - is SD picture quality really an issue at that distance ?

If you're concerned about SD picture quality taking a hit and are happy with your current TV, then I would be tempted to stick with it and would only upgrade to OLED if you're interested in attempting to move away from SD and actually feed it the HD and 4K content that will make an OLED shine.

 

[foxm63]

Thank you all for the useful advice. I have decided that I am going to make the change. Whilst I do watch a fair bit of older SD content, I also want to try the full 4K experience. I was about to press the button to buy a Panasonic JZ2000, when I had another jitter, size. I had decided that a 55" would be a decent upgrade on my 50" plasma, then, I read that the minimum today should be 65". That might be pushing my luck with my wife who thinks my current TV is a bit big. Also, I don't think I am going to be able to wall mount it, the 65s I have seen on a stand look ungainly. Any thoughts/advice on size? going for a 77 or larger will not be a option.