Common setting adjustments for Sharp 45" LCD?

[Kaos33]

So, I just got a AQUOS 45" and am anxiously awaiting my cable Co's rolloout of HDTV later this month. In the meantime, regular cable but also DVDs look like crap. It's most noticeable on skin tone, where the best description I can give of what I'm seeing is when you take down a computer's graphics settings from "millions" of colors to something much less than that.

I'm hoping that this is an issue with some of the settings, and not how the thing is going to display DVDs. I'm running a Toshiba SD-5970 with the HDMI hookup and watched Troy last night. It was painful during the sunlight scenes with any closeups. None of the settings I tried tweaking fixed this.

Please offer any advice you think may help with this!

James

 

[BMXTRIX]

Use component cables instead - that is the first test as the trend towards HDMI and DVI has shown to be less than perfect when compared to analog hookups.

 

[Kaos33]

Component cables

I did try that, and the picture wasn't much different. In fact, it made me wonder about the whole HDMI and upconversion features of this unit. I couldn't see any improvement.

My real concern is that the picture seems worse than when I play the same DVD on my Apple 23" display. However, it's really only on skin that I notice it, especially face shots.

 

[e73bass]

sharp 45" LCD

What features of the Sharp LCD made you choose it over others as I am about to make a purchase of a 42" LCD--don't know which one yet?--possibly even a plasma.
I was at a high end video/audio shop yesterday and the General Manager
told me that SONY will be showing their new stuff this upcoming week along with Mitsubishi in April. He also mentioned that he was expecting significant
price drops on LCD and plasma later in '05 (July-Aug). Now I may wait another 90-120 days;

 

[krzywica]

Are you using any type of test dvd?

 

[Kaos33]

Test DVD on LCD?

I haven't picked up a test DVD yet, as I've read they are not very useful for LCD TVs. Any opinions on that from LCD owners?

As for why I got the Sharp, I wanted an LCD over a plasma because it's going into a very bright (during the daytime) room. I overlook the ocean and didn't want to have to shut off the view just to see my TV better. I thought an LCD would be better for that environment. Prices are always dropping and new features and products always being released. For HDTVs, and especially flat panels, you would have to wait for several years if you want to buy when the technology release curve slows. I was ready to get into the market and liked this model the best, and Buy.com was selling for < $6k (although you'll wait about 2 weeks for them to ship it).

 

[Duffinator]

I'm reading this thread with great interest as a friend of mine just bought this TV on my recommendation and has the same complaint. He lives out of town so I won't get over to his place anytime soon to help him. Having viewed this set on many occasions is obvious that it's quite capable of displaying a terrific picture. But no matter what you do an SD picture is probably not going to look very good.

It sounds like you have already tried the following but I'll list them just in case you missed one.

* It couldn't hurt to buy an AVIA or Digital Video Essestials disc and give it a shot. You paid a lot of money for the TV so $20-30 wouldn't be out of order and it might help. Again it sounds like you have adjusted the sharpness and brightness but turn them both down at the same time and see what happens.

* Remember this set has a native resolution of 1080P and accepts 480i, 480P, 720P, and 1080i feeds. Sounds like your DVD player upconverts to 720P and 1080i. Regardless of what feed the TV receives, it will scale and deinterlace the picture to 1080P. My guess would be that the upconverted DVD signal at 1080i would be your best bet and just let the TV deinterlace the picture. But feeding it a 480i (not progressive) might also work.

* The quality of scalers and deinterlacers vary widely between pieces of equipment. So try as many combinations with the two pieces as you can to see if any provide a decent picture for you.

 

[Kaos33]

I've ordered the AVIA DVD. And I don't have any problem paying for that. I'd even bring someone in if I thought it would solve the problem. I have tried turning down the sharpness and brightness, spent a couple hours with other adjustments as well. The picture looks great with the exception of skin tones and especially faces. Then it goes from acceptable to horrible.

I'm running the DVD at a 1080i feed via HDMI, but did try 480 and 720p and also progressive/non-progressive feeds from component video ourput as well. No big changes among any of those. I'd buy a more expensive DVD player or HDMI cable (using the one included with the Toshiba) if I thought it would be a noticeable improvement. I just don't want to spend 10x the amount of the Toshiba for little to no benefit.

If you get any insight from tweaking a similar set, do let me know. I'll do the same if I get any improvements in mine.

Thanks!

 

[JagoMidnight]

We're in the same boat Kaos33, I just got my LC-45GD4U yesterday, and I notice the exact same thing. My cable company is coming next week to install HD service, so far ive just tested out the tv on video games and DVD's. My Playstation 2 with component connection looks horrible. My test DVD's, some parts look good, others not so good. Skin being the worst, looking almost like pastels, or if you put an image in Photoshop and put an effect on the skin. Hair in some DVD's is crisp, in others a blurry mess. These all look reasonably good/great on my 20" Sharp LCD, and also pc monitor. If you have luck with the Calibration DVD or find anything else out please post and let me know, i'll do the same.

 

[eg123]

it will probably never look as good as the 23inch apple cinema display. smaller displays always look better. but once you get your color calibrated (have you experimented with gamma and white point (ie. ambient light... warm,medium,cold).

 

[Kaos33]

Jago -

I just got the Avia disc and will go thru it this weekend. I'll let you know if it helps. As a side note, I just ordered the Fifth Element on DVD and it looks great, including face and skin shots. I did notice some small occurances of the skin-coloring flaws I've now trained myself to look for, but I was really looking hard to find them. Bottom line is that I was able to improve by tweaking the settings, even before using the Avia tests. And good DVDs look great (like 5th Element) but some still suck (unfortunately, Troy is one of those).

 

[JagoMidnight]

Kaos -

I am starting to see what you're saying. My biggest mistake was that i was using composite cables rather than component, once i bought the new ones the image became much better, also, I used the THX optimizer, which is a really simplified version of the Avia disc that comes with THX certified DVD's. A friend will be lending me his calibration DVD 'Digital Video Essentials' for more fine tuning. My test DVD, 'School Daze' still looks pretty bad on hair and skin, but its better now with the component cables,..other more recent movies like 'Kill Bill' look great, except for a few small occurances of the skin coloring flaws that you have to look for like you said. Animated movies like 'The Incredibles' and 'Finding Nemo' look fantastic. I can't wait until next week when my cable company gets me HD wired. Let me know how the Avia disk works out for you

 

[JP_Silver_S2k]

since your tv has a low contrast ratio (800:1, i think) the best calibration methods ive used are to bring the contrast way up, bring the brightness dow a smidge. then bring your color up a little. set your color temp to normal or cool. bring your tint towards red. use compenent or HDMI cables and make sure your dvd player is set to progressive, most dvd layers out of the box are set to interlaced. that should fix your problems. The key to making your set look its best is calibration!