1080p

[marke906]

hello folks,

went to abc warehouse and picked up what i thought was going to be a great tv. got a samsung 61" 1080p but the picture sucks. what i have been told is current tv stations are not transmitting on 1080 but something less like 720 or something like that. had a technician over and he tells me until i get a company that transmits 1080 i will not get a good picture. he says the tv is filling in the lines of resolution on its own and thats why the picture is bad. question is i had a friend come over and tells me thats not the problem. the problem is within the tv somewhere and it should come in better. the friend sent me this website to confirm/deny his claim that it is circuits within the tv not 720 to 1080 that is giving me the bad picture. i believe the technician that the problem is at the station that is sending out the picture at 480 or 720 or whatever the numbers are and my tv is trying to make up the missing line resolutions. is this correct?

 

[evilkat]

A couple of things. First go to Samsung's webpage and look up your TV's model number. That should tell you if it's 720p or 1080i/p. The TV's manual should say that too. This should tell you what your TV can and cannot do.

There are no TV stations that currently transmit on 1080i (that I know of). Your only sources of 1080 content are going to be HD/Blu-ray DVDs or a Playstation 3.

 

[markw]

Weird. Dunno what to say.

First off, speaking OTA, some stations DO transmit in 1080i but that depends n your area. Here in the greater NY area, several ofthe network affiliates do. I don't watch that much, but I can say that our CW network (Smallville) and PBS do transmit in 1080i. I think there's one or two more but I don't really watch network TV too much (aside from PBS and Smallville) ...and it's great.

But, the other networks that transmit in 720 and even that's light years ahead of "regular" Tv broadcasts. They look great and, in all honesty, it's difficult to tell them from 1080, but then again I'm only working with a 32" toshiba LCD

If those 720p stations don't look great, there's something drastically wrong with either your set and/or your service provider.

 

[MDS]

If the native resolution of the Samsung DLP is 1080p that means that it has1920 x 1080 pixels (dots) on the screen. The 'p' means progressive scan (all digital TVs are progressive scan) and refers to the fact that it draws every line in order from top to bottom. Every image it displays will have 1920x1080 pixels.

If the TV receives an image that has a resolution lower than 1080p, it will 'scale' that image to 1080p. Think of it as blowing up a 4x7 photo to 8x11.

High-Def cable uses resolutions of 720p and 1080i. 1080i matches the resolution of the TV but needs to be 'deinterlaced' (converted to progressive scan), but 720p needs to be scaled up to 1080p. Either of those HD resolutions should look very good on the TV.

Standard Def cable uses 480i (same as DVD) and again must be scaled up. Due to that fairly low resolution, scaling it up will not result in a very sharp picture. So it is normal for SD images to look less than stellar on a HD display.

 

[billy p]

What are you using as the source on the new display?

 

[jonnythan]

Are you sure you're watching 720p or 1080i and not 480p or 480i?

What are you using as a source and how is it hooked up? Have you used the Display or Info button on your TV to verify that the image you're seeing is 720p?

 

[markw]

MDS makes a very good point I overlooked.

Simply put, if the station you're watching isn't being broadcast in Hi-Def, don't expect a stellar picture. Pretty good is the best you can hope for.

It's kinda like getting a new pair of glasses that focuses everything perfectly. While you can see better, that ugly dude is still gonna be ugly, only moreso. Along those lines, wait until you get a close-up of Rosie O'Donnell in Hi Def.

which begs the question... what source are you using? Does it provide HD channels? Sometimes you need to contact your service provider and upgrade your service or, as in my case, do that AND get a STB (set top box) from them for the good stuff.

The only sure-fire way to get free HDTV is with an antenna and, even then, only if the stations in your area offer HD channels.

 

[billy p]

Oh

and I speak for everybody, welcome to the forum.

 

[markw]

Oh, if you have a cable box, Keep this in mind.

For HDTV you need at least one of the following connections on the back of your cable box.

1) Component (three RCA jacks, red, green & blue)

2) HDMI (a small, rectangular jack that looks like a squashed USB port)

3) DVI (looks like a tiny egg crate, but with more holes)

If you don't have at least one of these, then your cable box is not able to provide HDTV. Time to call 'em and see what it takes.

If you have these, then you might have a HD box. You must use one of these to get an HD signal to your TV. If you're using one these and you still can't get HD, call your cable company to see what the problem is. You may have a setup issue or you might need to subscribe to a different level of service, generally more expensive.

good luck...

 

[evilkat]

If the native resolution of the Samsung DLP is 1080p that means that it has1920 x 1080 pixels (dots) on the screen. The 'p' means progressive scan (all digital TVs are progressive scan) and refers to the fact that it draws every line in order from top to bottom. Every image it displays will have 1920x1080 pixels.

If the TV receives an image that has a resolution lower than 1080p, it will 'scale' that image to 1080p. Think of it as blowing up a 4x7 photo to 8x11.

High-Def cable uses resolutions of 720p and 1080i. 1080i matches the resolution of the TV but needs to be 'deinterlaced' (converted to progressive scan), but 720p needs to be scaled up to 1080p. Either of those HD resolutions should look very good on the TV.

Standard Def cable uses 480i (same as DVD) and again must be scaled up. Due to that fairly low resolution, scaling it up will not result in a very sharp picture. So it is normal for SD images to look less than stellar on a HD display.

I just wanted to emphasize that no matter how you get your 1080 signal (i.e 720p or 1080i) if your native res is 1080 you're going to get a 1080p image after it's been scaled or deinterlaced.

The problem with current TV sets out in the market (IMHO) is that the deinterlacers built into the TVs are really horrid, failing a lot of the tests (the only exception being the Pioneers which pass nearly all of the tests, but also cost around 7k+).

That's why it's important to see if ur TV can accept 1080p pass-through, because if you have a good upconverting DVD player or you watch HD content in native 1080p format, then you'd want the external scaler to do the work and the TV to just show the image....

 

[mtrycrafts]

I just wanted to emphasize that no matter how you get your 1080 signal (i.e 720p or 1080i) if your native res is 1080 you're going to get a 1080p image after it's been scaled or deinterlaced.
....

That may be so, but, you are up converting a lesser signal, not getting new info to place into those extra pixels.
And, there is the video compression schemes, Mpeg2 for one to deal with. It ain't uncompressed video signal. That is way too wide of a bandwidth and will never see it anytime in my life.

 

[evilkat]

Thats what i was saying...all the magic happens at the de-interlacer

 

[billy p]

I think the point here is, its still not 1080p. Some players do a great job of upconversion, but it's not ESPN HD or DISCOVERY CHANNEL. Most cable companies still haven't even tapped into the 720p realm. Full 1080p is years away.

 

[Diapason]

Not to sound smart, but number of lines aside, we have no idea if this is a good TV or not. If somebody told you they'd bought a 500W amp and it didn't sound good, you wouldn't start by blaming the source.

Questions to OP: Did you see this TV working before you bought it? Did the picture look different during the demonstration? Have you tried turning off all "enhancements" such as noise reduction and dynamic contrast and extra sharpness and all such shenanigans? Have you ensured that you're not watching on composite or something simple like that?

Si

 

[jonnythan]

Not to sound smart, but number of lines aside, we have no idea if this is a good TV or not. If somebody told you they'd bought a 500W amp and it didn't sound good, you wouldn't start by blaming the source.

Questions to OP: Did you see this TV working before you bought it? Did the picture look different during the demonstration? Have you tried turning off all "enhancements" such as noise reduction and dynamic contrast and extra sharpness and all such shenanigans? Have you ensured that you're not watching on composite or something simple like that?

Si

It's a 1080p Samsung DLP.

This is a very good TV.

 

[Diapason]

It's a 1080p Samsung DLP.

This is a very good TV.

If you say so. Certainly when I was looking at plasmas I was *never* impressed with Samsung's picture quality, no matter what the spec. However, since I have never seen this particular TV I'm happy to stand corrected.

My other questions still stand. Even at 480p, a very good TV properly set up should look okay. 720p should *definitely* be enough for good results.

Si

 

[mtrycrafts]

Full 1080p is years away.

I doubt it will come. Most home TV sets are just not big enough to benefit from 1080p vs 720p. And, the bandwidth is 2x, a tremendous increase in the limited TV bandwidth arena. That is 1 lost TV ch for each 1080p ch.

 

[Bigsilvs]

I doubt it will come. Most home TV sets are just not big enough to benefit from 1080p vs 720p. And, the bandwidth is 2x, a tremendous increase in the limited TV bandwidth arena. That is 1 lost TV ch for each 1080p ch.

I do not want to sound stupid here, but why does it matter how big your HDTV is when you say it won't benefit with 1080p? Just the resolution specs alone, 1920x1080 versus 1366x768, is way better no matter how big your display is. This is not to mention the benefits of 1080p with HDMI 1.3 yet either. I have a 46' Samsung LCD 1080p and it's amazing watching SD, HD, video games in 1080p, and Blu-ray movies in 1080p. I can certainly notice the difference in all of them.

Also, I don't see why stations wouldn't broadcast in 1080p down the road because it seems that 1080p is going to be the standard. Hi def movies, video games, and companies that make HDTV's are all striving for 1080p it seems right now. Bandwith may be an issue, but many Telephone, Cable, and Satellite companies are spending the big bucks to increase DSL and Broadband bandwidth's for the internet because of the demand.

 

[MDS]

I do not want to sound stupid here, but why does it matter how big your HDTV is when you say it won't benefit with 1080p? Just the resolution specs alone, 1920x1080 versus 1366x768, is way better no matter how big your display is.

It doesn't matter if you just look at the size of the display alone. It might matter when you consider size of display vs seating distance together. More resolution isn't necessarily better if you sit too far away to be able to discern the extra detail that you would notice if you were sitting closer...in other words a 50" 720p or 768p display will look just as good as a 50" 1080p display if your seating distance is 2-3 times the screen width because you are too far away for your eye to resolve the extra detail.

 

[mtrycrafts]

It doesn't matter if you just look at the size of the display alone. It might matter when you consider size of display vs seating distance together. More resolution isn't necessarily better if you sit too far away to be able to discern the extra detail that you would notice if you were sitting closer...in other words a 50" 720p or 768p display will look just as good as a 50" 1080p display if your seating distance is 2-3 times the screen width because you are too far away for your eye to resolve the extra detail.

Thanks for your clarity
I guess I got lazy