What is currently the best TV for viewing SD?

[So Solid Jedi]

What is currently the best TV for viewing SD Freeview on as well as having good HD Freeview which i think most sets do well? SD seems so poor on most new LED/LCD's ive seen, is plasma better for SD and which models are the best?

 

[HaRd2BeAr]

What is currently the best TV for viewing SD Freeview on as well as having good HD Freeview which i think most sets do well? SD seems so poor on most new LED/LCD's ive seen, is plasma better for SD and which models are the best?

Size, viewing distance?

Aaron

 

[So Solid Jedi]

Size, viewing distance?

Aaron

Oh, sorry yeah, i would say i need a 46" or 55" now i know SD pictures will look even worse when shown on larger panels but what are the best models and types that hide the noise on SD images? Viewing distance is a little short at 2m as the room is quite small. I suppose improving your aerial also might help as well. I currently get between 80-85% signal strength with my aerial on SD Freeview stuff and around 92% for HD Freeview stuff

 

[HaRd2BeAr]

Oh, sorry yeah, i would say i need a 46" or 55" now i know SD pictures will look even worse when shown on larger panels but what are the best models and types that hide the noise on SD images? Viewing distance is a little short at 2m as the room is quite small. I suppose improving your aerial also might help as well. I currently get between 80-85% signal strength with my aerial on SD Freeview stuff and around 92% for HD Freeview stuff

Well i have been viewing a lot of tvs in Comet recently (i know not the best environment but my only option) having played with the settings making sure the tvs in question are not in vivid/dynamic mode. I was viewing two Sony tvs. One was the 55EX723 the other the 46NX723. Stood about 2 feet away watching formula one (again i made sure they were out of vivid/dynamic mode and set up to my preferences) They both looked amazing, bear in mind one was alot bigger than the other and i could tell no difference. It was about 5 minutes later i noticed they were actually showing bbc SD (i thought they were showing hd) Both were using there inbuilt freeview tuners and i checked behind and they had no other cables/inputs in use.

Obviously when i switched over to bbc HD it was another level but the SD feed was not that far behind and was perfectly viewable at a distance that would not be used at home.

Long story i know, but the point is some tvs are better at SD others are poor. It all depends on the source and settings/scaler of the tv in use. If sd is your main viewing material, maybe sacrifice size. If hd is your main viewing material, SD content may have to suffer as bigger will always show up bad source material.

I have heard plasma is better but its not my thing so can't say i have looked much.

BTW i have a Sony 46HX823 being delivered next Saturday and i sit 11 feet away.

Aaron

 

[zAndy1]

Even at 59" the SD picture looks perfectly watchable on my Samsung PS59D6900. I've always found plasma to be much better than LCD for SD viewing, seen some shocking pictures on much smaller LCD TVs. Can't recommend the D6900 enough

 

[AlandEi]

Most reviews will indicate if SD is watchable on particular models. see some excellent reviews on here...

http://www.avforums.com/reviews/

Tech Radar... http://www.techradar.com/reviews/audio-visual/televisions

and Digital Versus can be particularly scathing, if a little technical...

http://www.digitalversus.com/tv-television/hd-tv-reviews-32-above-a303.html

Alan.

edit... the Panasonic plasmas seem to offer excellent SD viewing, see this topic for example...

http://www.avforums.com/forums/plasma-tvs/1458975-panasonic-tx-p42u30b-owners-thread.html

 

[Scooby2000]

Plasma is better for SD due to the way it produces the image(similar to CRT) I think Samsung have slightly better SD scaling than Panasonic, though my GT30 is good with SD. Size is an issue, if you sit too close to a flat screen of any type it will look awful, sitting 8ft from a 42" will be better for SD compared to 8ft from a 50" for example, bigger isnt always better. Its also down to the content you view, upscaled DVD can look very good as can some SD broadcasts, Some broadcasts can look awful, many blame there sets when all the set is doing is showing what its sent.