Video Asylum

Posted by KT88 (D) on September 10, 2005 at 13:36:13

In Reply to: Just bought our first wide-screen LCD TV--and we hate it posted by bigi on September 1, 2005 at 02:46:04:

The problem is the input signal. The LCD monitors can have wonderful pictures with a much more accurate color and finer detail, but you have to deliver a good digital signal to the set to get those results. An analog signal from a perfectly good antenna can be less than half of the resolution of the panel, so you are viewing the TVs image at half of the available resolution. That means that twice as many pxels are being used as needed to display the image full size and it results in odd artifacts like blocks of color that look pastel rather than clear, gradients of color.
If you connect a satellite (you can get satellite reception anywhere you have a clear view of the sky, think about it) antenna and subscribe to that service, you can get some much better digital signals. Even a few high definition channels and in a few years, it will all look that sharp. In my area, I can get 7 or 8 free high definition stations by antenna. You may need an additional tuner to get that as some TV's don't include such a tuner, but you may have one built-in even. If you see those stations, you will be amazed at how much better it is even than the old tube TV with an analog signal. These are some tough times for transition between formats for both broadcasters and consumers. No one product gets it all done that doesn't cost a fortune. A $1000 scaler would help to bridge the gap and make all sources more enjoyable, but that's of little concellation to someone who has already paid that for a new TV. The problem with getting an analog set now is that you will have just the opposite problem in a few years when all transmission is digitized, with the same rotten results. Probably best to get satellite service now and wait it out. Tough call and tough break. It would have been ideal to have the analog set collapse right as the digital broadcasts became standard so there was no growing pain, but Murhy's Law does not allow that.
-Bill