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Was thinking about buying a 50" plasma screen (very interested in watching DVDs in 16:9 format, not as interested in obtaining HD quality resolutions right away but would like to be compatible for the one day I decide to buy an HD tuner..)Was at Good Guys, saw a DirecTV signal for NBC, CBS etc. (as opposed to the HD demo channel that is always on) displayed on a Fujitsu 50" plasma (and quite a few others, including Sony 42" plasma, etc.), and all were just *horrible*. blurry, etc. asked to put a few dvds on - Monsters inc. looked great, Braveheart had lots of pixelation, grain (from the transfer? my copy at home is not nearly as bad/noticeable on my standard 32" sony trinitron)
So, I'd like to upgrade to large screen (bigger than my current 32" and 35" TVs) 16:9 format for my DVD watching, but my kids and etc. will still be watching regular ntsc (we have analog cable) cartoons and shows all the time, help, what should i buy?
People say digital cable doesn't help, satellite is supposed to help but what i saw in good guys on the plasma screens sucked compared to my current analog 4:3 TVs..
Should I forget the plasma screens and get a rear-projection 60" TV in 16:9 format, or will I have the same problems with NTSC regular shows from cable? Help, any opinions?
thanks
Follow Ups:
is the only way to make NTSC look passible on either a plasma, front projection, or RPTV. The Pioneer Elite RPTV does a good job with NTSC with its built-in line doubler, but, even that is variable depending upon the source. Looks great with live TV like sports events, news, etc.Movies are another story. Sometimes NTSC broadcast movies look good, other times they have a posterized look in certain areas because of the poor cine transfer being done or used.
Of course, it looks great with HDTV sources and DVD. DVD looks especially good if progressive scan is used.
Don't blame the plasma - the Fujitsu is one of the best there is and will knock your socks off with DVD or HD.Welcome to the world of standard definition. Your 4:3 analog TV was MADE to display this stuff. That's why it looks better with crappy signals. Don't buy a big screen TV for SD- if that's your only reason for purchasing a 16:9 you'll only be disappointed. If you want more impact for your DVDs, you can get some great displays.
The 60" RP will make that SD signal even *worse*. If you're thinking about a big RP (60-65), the Pioneer Elites are the only sets that have a really good line doubler for SD cable/satelite. The Panasonic ED plasmas also do an excellent job for SD.
Keep in mind sat is highly compressed, and you'll have some compression artifacts with DirectTV or Dishnet. Then again, I also get them with TimeWarner digital cable, whcih has some pretty crappy analog channels even though it's "digital". Meanwhile, HD signals look amazing on just about anything, you may decide you like it.
As others have said, the local electonics emporiums have their displays generally VERY poorly set up. Very hard to make comparisons.
Go to avsforum.com, hometheaterforum.com, hometheaterspot.com and hometheaterhifi.com for info.
PS: I like plasmas. But stay away from Sampos, Samsungs and Daewoos. Check out Pioneer, Panasonic, Fujitsu and NEC.
You could also get a 4:3 digital TV with a vertically compressible scan raster so that you won't lose any performance on 16:9 DVDs. This is what I did, getting a Sony 43" rear projection, and I am pretty happy with it. DVDs tend to look very good, but most of my cable channels have problems.The problem is that the signal is being run through the less than superlative, though not awful, line doubler in the TV, and you then view the image on a relatively big screen. So you have a signal that was not real great to begin with and then have some digital debris added from the line doubler on a screen much larger than what one typically would have had on their old direct view TV. One will simply not be able to get a good picture on a marginal source, including some of the DSS systems. One could try investing in a better quality external line doubler or scaler; I have considered this but am uncertain if the degree of improvement would justify the investment.
Todd
The flaws of the NTSC system show up more on a bigger TV. There are some rear projection tvs that have electronics that attempt to compensate for the problems. Toshiba has one.Picture quality is a function of signal quality. Progressive scan DVD is likely the best, followed by off air (i.e, good antenna & downlead), satellite, then cable. HD satellite is up there with DVD. So cable generally sucks. If you are lucky and you get a good feed it can be acceptable on a regular TV.
What you see in the store is poor quality for a number of reasons, no calibration of the sets, poor wiring, mulitple splitters, etc. Plus whatever wide screen you get will display 4:3 NTSC signal with black bars on each side. Again, the wide screens do attempt to compensate for this, but not without introducing other compremises.
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