Fear of new LCD TV: Will SD look bad?

[corysmith01]

So I'm looking to go and finally pick up my TV, the Samsung L-NS3251D...possibly tonight. Only problem is this: I'm using an old 27" JVC CRT television. And, if I'm reading correctly, it's entirely possible that I may be more satisfied the th PQ on it over the brand new, HD LCD. The majority of what I'll watch, as I think is the case with most folks, is going to be SD. There just isn't nearly as much HD programming as there is SD. So, I guess what I'm wondering is, what has everyone found with this? Anyone out there gone from CRT to LCD/Plasma and just been completely let down by the PQ on SD programs? I know that, at the 32" size, this should be diminished somewhat, but will it? Also, in all my reading, this particular Samsung seems to get high marks, but are those kudos concerning SD? I don't think so...I think it's more about it's PQ for DVD's and HD.

I guess I just want to know if I'd be better off leaving well enough alone. That is, I don't want to go drop a grand on something I'm going to be let down by. I'd love to get something larger/flat/hd-compatible, but I also don't want to get home and be distressed by "mosquito noise" all over the place. Any anecdotes or experiences anyone can share? I'm hoping the 32" size (vs 50"+) will help minimize this, but who knows. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

 

[farscaper]

I had the same concern last month. We went with a small LCD (23") tv for the bedroom first . This allowed me to check things out on SD. I'm not looking for HD programming yet, maybe in 2 years. I bought a Toshiba 23HLV86. It and the larger models had decent reviews for SD quality. My opinion....I'd hate to see the crappy models used in the reviews.

If I had to look for a LCD or Plasma for a main TV and had only a SD signal. I would look for a B&M place like Costco that has a good return policy. I would expect to try a few screens either one at a time, or buy 2 or 3 and return the worse 2.

I did see a SD satillite signal on a LCD and it looked pretty good. The SD from the local Cable Co sucks on a LCD. IMO.

 

[Nick250]

My 2.5 year old 37" Sony plasma looks fine in SD and glorious in HDTV. It's connected to a Comcast/Motorola box using DVI. Others have mentioned poor quality in SD, but that's not been my experience.

Nick

 

[jcPanny]

ATSC Tuner

Cory,
You may find that the ATSC tuner on your new LCD can pick up several of the local stations in digital or HD providing a picture improvement over your current set. The 27" to 32" set is not a big size difference, but when you play SD on a 50-60" set or front projector it really assentuates the limited 480i resolution.

 

[Ikeman]

Cory,
I just went through the same situation as you. Purchased a new 42" plasma with the SD cable box from RCN. Since I couldn't receive HD from the existing box, the picture was acceptable.

Since that time, I upgraded the system from RCN & purchased their HD package. I'm able to get both SD from the majors in Philadelphia, but also their HD version on separate channels. A definite improvement for $7 / month!

Investigate this possibility w/ your cable provider.

 

[corysmith01]

Thank you for all of your replies. I think what I'll do is pick the tv up and test it out. The worst that could happen? I'll get tagged with a restocking fee. But unless I get it, I'll never really know.

Ikeman, curiously enough, I think I just saw a commercial on tv last night about my local cable provider offering this. I'll have to take a look and see what's up.

 

[Nestor]

Once you sit down and watch your favorite dvd movie, you'll ditch that old 32".



You won't regret it!

 

[The Dukester]

The 32" size will definitely help. I just bought a Pioneer 50" plasma on Black Friday after looking at tvs for well over a year. The brand, feed, screen size and type of display all play a factor in the pic quality. I went with a plasma b/c I wanted a flat panel display and they just looked better to me overall than the LCDs. Of all the tvs I looked at, the Pioneers had the best SD pic quality to me. Are they great? No, not even close to HD, but they still look OK, even with the 50" screen. Good luck!

 

[markw]

Your TV and signal source have a lot to do with this.

I too had this fear but, having lived with a 32" toshiba LCD for about two months now, I can truthfully state that when being fed by either OTA or a Comcast HD box, both SD and HD pictures beat my old 32" Proscan CRT.

...and the Proscan is no slouch.

 

[jonnythan]

Not only will the picture quality on SD be noticeably lower, but the viewable area will be smaller as well. A 32" widescreen TV gives you an SD image that's equivalent to a 26" 4:3 TV.

Your $1000 upgrade got you a TV with a greatly improved form factor, better ability to play DVDs, and the ability to view HD programming at the expense of smaller and lower quality SD programming.

Once you view HD, it won't matter, though. I live upstate and Time Warner gives me the HD box and around 15 HD channels for free, though I pay an extra $3.95 a month to get ESPN HD, ESPN2 HD, and a handful of other HD stations.

Get yourself an Oppo 971 to go with that TV and you'll be happy with it.


FWIW, I went from a 27" Magnavox CRT to a 50" plasma and couldn't possibly be happier. My cable box upconverts the signal to 720p and SD looks just fine with no noise "all over the place."

 

[apatel25314]

The samsung also has a pretty good scaler.

 

[RLA]

Hello All,
If you are going to watch any fast motion video like sports you may want to demo a 60Hz LCD panel at great length before purchasing. The new 120Hz panels with fast 4-5 ms response time look really good but at a lower price point you are going to be able to get a Hitachi 50-inch 1080p plasma. The Hitachi will ship in Feb and have a retail of $2500 with a new 42-inch version to follow. The new Westinghouse panels looked good at CES but I still detected motion artifacting and judder. The only LCD I would consider for HT install would be the new Sharp 120Hz panel with 4.2Ms response time. Many manufacturers claim fast response times but this is nothing more than marketing hype. Whatever you do don’t get sucked into an LCD panel purchase by viewing a near static HDTV feed.

 

[jcsprankle]

What about DLP? I'm in the same boat about worrying about PQ on SD feeds and am considering a 52" Mitsubishi 1080p DLP (WD-52631). Should I worry about fast motion on this DLP set also?