Video Asylum

Posted by David Aiken (A) on August 14, 2006 at 14:19:14

In Reply to: Cablevision HDTV posted by SalD on August 13, 2006 at 23:45:28:

There's a hell of a lot you don't say, like size of screen, screen resolution, and so on.

I live in Australia so I can't comment on Cablevision.

What I can comment on is that I recently did things in the opposite order to you. I bought a 32" high def LCD TV, and then bought a much better progressive scan DVD player to replace the low price one I'd been using with my 26" CRT. I use a high def set-top box for free to air high def broadcasts.

First, on standard def tv, the picture quality I get on the LCD TV (a Loewe) is better than I got on the CRT. On high def TV, it's way better than standard def and, as I said, standard def is better than I got with the CRT. Part of that improvement will simply be that I can now use component connections rather than S-video, but the improvements are there.

With standard DVD from my original player, the picture was better with the LCD than it was with the CRT but I started to wonder how much difference a reasonable DVD player would make. I auditioned a Denon 2910 at the dealer I bought the LCD TV from and it followed me home. Picture quality from standard DVD can be surprisingly good from a decent player.

The LCD TV started me watching much more TV/DVDs than I had previously watched, just because the picture quality was so much better than what I had been previously getting and I had regarded that as good. The Denon player has me watching even more movies.

So I think you may be surprised when you actually get the TV. I think it will make a noticeable difference even on standard def for you. One thing I would recommend, however, is that you get a calibration disc of some kind—the THX Optimiser tests on some THX mastered DVDs is fine but you'll need to get a blue filter from THX.com for a dollar or two plus postage—and adjust the picture settings for best performance. That usually makes a noticeable improvement over factory settings.

David Aiken