TV for SD viewing?

Formentor

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In this day and age probably an odd question!

I'm looking for a 48-50 inch TV that does a decent job with SD channels.

My current TV is a 5 year old LG and is not doing the job.

I mainly watch Freeview HD but often SD channels. A bit of catch-up steaming but no 4k stuff as my broadband is pants here in the sticks.

Any pointers?
 
Your budget is ?
 
I have the LG CX and SD is pretty decent on this at 55 inch.
 
A last gen plasma would be my choice. Something like the Panasonic ST60. Either that or a cheap 1080p set today, but not sure you can get those in larger sizes.

I'd avoid 4k sets completely, even those with the best upscaling still have to upscale SD a lot...and it's really a lot.
 
I wanted to post in here, but I know how it comes across sometimes when people are recommending older tech, but Dodge is right. The unfortunate reality is that modern TVs just aren't very good for SD, you can mess around with things like madvr on a computer, but that won't help your broadcast TV and you're still asking too much of it anyway. I have a CRT I have kept since I was a kid for SD material, I know how obnoxious they are for most people so dodges recommendation for a Plasma is a good shout.
 
Sadly any bigger plasma is heavy as elephant..
I wanted to buy myself 65" plasma..
It weights 80kg!!
 
I wanted to post in here, but I know how it comes across sometimes when people are recommending older tech, but Dodge is right. The unfortunate reality is that modern TVs just aren't very good for SD, you can mess around with things like madvr on a computer, but that won't help your broadcast TV and you're still asking too much of it anyway. I have a CRT I have kept since I was a kid for SD material, I know how obnoxious they are for most people so dodges recommendation for a Plasma is a good shout.
I did think about CRT with analogue 625 lines!
 
What’s the issue with your current LG? Brightness, upscaling, something else? I think it will depend on what you value most
 
What’s the issue with your current LG? Brightness, upscaling, something else? I think it will depend on what you value most
Well it does have an issue with Freeview HD which LG did release an update for but its not 100 percent and I hate the guide but the SD I've always thought not particularly good. The other day the wife noticed it (blind as a bat with things like this). She said how old is this program? and it was a fairly recent show on Dave!

So I'm wanting to change the TV anyway but want a better SD picture if there is one to be had!
 
Well it does have an issue with Freeview HD which LG did release an update for but its not 100 percent and I hate the guide but the SD I've always thought not particularly good. The other day the wife noticed it (blind as a bat with things like this). She said how old is this program? and it was a fairly recent show on Dave!

So I'm wanting to change the TV anyway but want a better SD picture if there is one to be had!

Yeah SD will always be a challenge for these modern TVs, and it does depend on the source material as some SD sources will produce a better result when upscaling.

The best SD image you can get is probably from a CRT as mentioned before, but in reality you aren’t really going to get anything “good” from an SD source as there simply isn’t enough resolution to upscale from effectively, and TVs nowadays don’t expect it often. Also the larger you go the more pronounced the lack of resolution will be!

I’ve heard good things about Sony in terms of upscaling, but the UI can be a bit marmite (believe it’s Google/Android based).
 
Think you need to sort your broadband out, spending £100s on a tv that plays SD well is not the future.
 
Well it does have an issue with Freeview HD which LG did release an update for but its not 100 percent and I hate the guide but the SD I've always thought not particularly good. The other day the wife noticed it (blind as a bat with things like this). She said how old is this program? and it was a fairly recent show on Dave!

So I'm wanting to change the TV anyway but want a better SD picture if there is one to be had!
I can guarantee if it was on Dave it's the TV channels fault, not the TV. Sure you can get Sony TVs like the X90K with dedicated picture processors but you can only polish a turd so much.

I think Dave is in HD on Freesat, so maybe that's an option?

Broadcast TV as a whole is far behind modern TVs. In the past when HD TVs first came out, broadcast TV followed increasing the amount of HD channels. With UHD this pattern didn't continue, every channel lacks 4k content apart from the BBC and that's only via iPlayer.
 
I can guarantee if it was on Dave it's the TV channels fault, not the TV. Sure you can get Sony TVs like the X90K with dedicated picture processors but you can only polish a turd so much.

I think Dave is in HD on Freesat, so maybe that's an option?

Broadcast TV as a whole is far behind modern TVs. In the past when HD TVs first came out, broadcast TV followed increasing the amount of HD channels. With UHD this pattern didn't continue, every channel lacks 4k content apart from the BBC and that's only via iPlayer.
I appreciate SD is a turd you cant really polish!
Just thought if I get an new TV and theres one that does SD better then I'd try and get that one.
I'll have to look at Freesat as my LG has that and I have an old sky dish up still. Don't think Dave is in HD but will be interesting to compare SD between Freeview and Freesat.
 
I appreciate SD is a turd you cant really polish!
Just thought if I get an new TV and theres one that does SD better then I'd try and get that one.
I'll have to look at Freesat as my LG has that and I have an old sky dish up still. Don't think Dave is in HD but will be interesting to compare SD between Freeview and Freesat.
You're right, premium services only:
 
OK I've compared SD channels between Freeview and Freesat on my LG and Freesat SD is noticeably a better resolution than Freesat.
Could this be down to the TV processor or is Satellite a better carrier of the broadcast signal ?
 
Could this be down to the TV processor or is Satellite a better carrier of the broadcast signal ?
I think it differs depending on the channel, but Freesat probably has more bandwidth to spare than Freeview.
 
on my 65 inch xh95 Freesat defo better PQ than Freeview on football. via itv
 
In this day and age probably an odd question!

I'm looking for a 48-50 inch TV that does a decent job with SD channels.

My current TV is a 5 year old LG and is not doing the job.

I mainly watch Freeview HD but often SD channels. A bit of catch-up steaming but no 4k stuff as my broadband is pants here in the sticks.

Any pointers?
The elephant in the room is not so much SD quality but the appalling bit rate some of the Freeview channels are broadcast on. I wonder if Freesat might be a better option.
 
The UK TV Play app will stream the Dave channel at better quality than freeview or freesat. Your broadband should be fine for 720 HD.

I don't think the LG app has the 'live' option though, so you'd need something like a Firestick or similar device.
 
I would agree with the above, in suggesting you avoid 4k. The only problem is that you will struggle to find a new HD set bigger than 40". If you can live with that the TCL brand makes some good ones. I have one in the bedroom with ROKu operating system, which is pretty slick and has Freeview play. My main set is a 2015 Samsung 48H6400, which still performs well and is an excellent upscaler, but is totally out of date on Apps, so needs a Fire stick or similar to get the big streamers. What I like with that set is the ability to change the picture aspect ratio, as many of the channels that broadcast older SD programmes, do not show them in the correct 4:3 aspect ratio, (The HD channels tend to, but not he SD channels) and I don't like watching short fat actors! So if you want a bigger size, then a 2nd hand HD set may be a good idea.
 

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