Help! Possible picture problems.

[JohnnyDarko]

Hi all, I'm a newbie here, names Johnny! I recently bought a Sony Wega 55in LCD HDTV (KDF-E55A20). Its my very first HDTV so im not sure how things are ment to look (when hooked up to a standard DVD player I mean). HD channels look great BTW. This TV is hooked up to a Panasonic 5-Disc DVD Home Theater System (SA-HT920) via component Monster Video 1 cables (MV1CV-2M).

OK, the problem is that my DVDs dont look as good as they should. The picture looks great when I watch HD cable but when I switch to watch DVD's, it looks pixelated and harsh sorta like if im watching a DVD thats been burned. The quality is crap basically, it just doesnt look right to me. Now I was wondering what it could be. So I tried tweaking the TV's picture and DVD player settings. Nothing. My player is set at 480i. I did set it at 480p but still kinda looks crappy. So then I tought maybe its the cables but when I tried connecting it through a yellow video cable, it looked worse. Plus these cables set me back 50 dollars so I'm thinking, 'Hey, they should be good.'. Could it be that I may have to get a new DVD player that upconverts? Or do I have to get more expensive cables? I hope someone can help me out and break it down to me cuz I'm pretty lost here. I would test the cable on another TV but none of them have component.

 

[abboudc]

Don't buy any more cables. More expensive does not mean better.

How are you watching these? Full screen, Widescreen, Widescreen Zoom, etc?

It's not going to look as good as watching DVD's on a 32 inch TV. You have 480 lines of resolution stretched up to a 55" screen...you're going to get some quality loss.

 

[billy p]

Sounds normal to a degree hd picture will be much better then standard dvd signal.If you invest in upconversion player it would improve PQ but HD is still sharper. So use your comp cables to hook up dvd player switch to 480p and relax.

 

[JohnnyDarko]

Don't buy any more cables. More expensive does not mean better.

How are you watching these? Full screen, Widescreen, Widescreen Zoom, etc?

It's not going to look as good as watching DVD's on a 32 inch TV. You have 480 lines of resolution stretched up to a 55" screen...you're going to get some quality loss.

Can you recommend a good component cable? It could be the cables I'm using. I figured 50 dollars was enough to get good quality cable but if there are others out there for less and are just as good, I could pack these up and exchange them.

I set the TV to full and the DVD player to 16:9. If I change the setting on the TV to anything else the pic gets distorted or streched.

Yeah, I agree with you on that last part. But I just wasnt sure how much quality would be lost. I know to a degree what I'm doing but I'm no expert. haha

 

[billy p]

If you have a widescreen tv set it that way 16:9.All dvds play different because the ratio differs. Your problem seems to be setting your tv to accept input from dvd as comp not something else(ie:video1 or 2)? Also if you feel its the cables check out the bluejeans website alot of positive feedback from members I used to think wow 150.00 must be good simply not the case. Good luck

 

[AVRat]

It actually sounds like the TV's internal scaler may be the issue. A new DVD player may have a better scaler than that in the TV. My parents recently purchased a Sharp LCD & Denon DVD-1720 (no upscaling), hooked it up via composite and the picture still looks great.