Picture Quality new TV

jackbauerisgod · 03-01-2012 03:23PM #1

Hi There

I finally took the plunge over the Christmas and invested in a new TV, Up to now I had a 10 year old Sony TV that worked fine. I got a 32" Philips (3000 series, Full HD). I set it up but am very dissapointed with the results. The picture is if anything inferior to my old TV, Certainly no improvement. I have an ordinary SKY+ Box with a SCART lead going to the new TV, I bought a HDMI cable but there is no connection on my SKY+ box, I was just wondering if anyone had some advice? Do I need to get SKY HD to see a real difference or is it something to do with my setup? I have a PS3 that I use to watch DVDs, again the picture is OK, Nothing special, The TV was on in the shop and the picture quality was far superior, Any ideas welcome, thanks

thebrush · 03-01-2012 03:52PM

Hi there,

Firstly yes you need a sky HD box to see the difference. If your going to stay with your current setup invest in a high speed scart(Improves somewhat). Does your PS3 have a HDMI output? If so try a blue-ray disc in it and you'll get the HD idea.In the shop they use the optimal settings(most tv's have a demo mode) also it was probably hooked up to a HD system. Hope this helps.

Cheers.

Ronnie Raygun · 03-01-2012 04:12PM

thebrush wrote: »

If your going to stay with your current setup invest in a high speed scart ... In the shop they use the optimal settings.

A high speed scart? Who suckered you into buying that? :pac:

Also the "demo mode" might look "optimal" in the bright lighting of a shop but it's no way the best setting for home use.

Cantona's Collars · 03-01-2012 04:31PM

Plug the HDMI lead you bought into the PS3,the difference is amazing.The leads that come packed with a PS3 give the worst quality picture.Just change the settings on the PS3 when you plug it in.

A HD box will show better pictures obviously,these new tv's can be less forgiving in showing up flaws in SD pictures which can seem blocky.Some channels are worse than others especially if they have lower bitrates.

Everything I have connected to the tv is via HDMI.

BTW,a cheap HDMI or Scart lead is just as good as a megabucks one.;)

Watty is the expert here on picture quality etc. He might be along with a more informed reply.

b318isp · 03-01-2012 04:47PM

In what way is the picture worse? If you could describe this accurately, then a root cause may be more obvious.

I find many devices come out of the box with settings that are far from optimum (e.g. too much contrast, colour/saturation, sharpness). I also would not expect miracles on a 32" screen with HD. Often the lower resolutions work better than being upscaled to HD. Try setting the TV to 576p.

Also, is the SCART connection set to low quality composite rather than, say, RGB? This is usually set at source (e.g. the sky box) but the TV may have this too for the input applicable.

NIMAN · 03-01-2012 11:07PM

Your set up is obviously wrong. The picture should not be that bad,especially with the PS3 connected with HDMI. Picture should be stunning with that, although Blu Rays will be needed to get full quality rather than DVDs.

I found that my TV took a lot of tweaking of the picture settings. Search the net for the ideal settings for your TV.

Also, how close are you sitting to your TV? I found that my picture looks fine at a good sitting distance, but if you go up close you can see the pixelation. Make sure you arent too close to it.

STB · 03-01-2012 11:46PM

thebrush wrote: »

Hi there,

Firstly yes you need a sky HD box to see the difference. If your going to stay with your current setup invest in a high speed scart(Improves somewhat). .......Hope this helps.

Cheers.

FSake.

He does not need a Sky Box to see any difference other than bills.

High Speed Scart! You do realise that Scart is an analogue cable ?

Obviously not.

Sorry but none of that was helpful.

NIMAN · 04-01-2012 12:23AM

Best way to see the quality of your new TV is to buy the cheapest Blu Ray player you can, and rent films from wherever. Connect up using HDMI.

Also, buy yourself a Freesat box. There's currently 5 free HD channels on there, with maybe more to come. Sky HD is very good quality and there's a decent range of channels on it, but its dear.

As for high speed SCART ! Made me laugh, that did. But what I will say, if you must use a SCART spend a little bit of money, maybe €15 or so, and buy a decent quality one rather than the ones you get in PoundWorld.

kbell · 04-01-2012 12:57AM

But don't spend €80 on one and sign up to sky HD when all you wanted was a scart lead as obviously Mr Brush did when he went into Harvey Norman. :pac:

mcwhirter · 04-01-2012 02:23PM

What is the tv model? The 3000 series is the cheapest I think. Often it is best to turn off all noise reduction settings etc and watch tv with manual adjusted contrast, brightness and colour. Try that first and see if better picture.
CRT will always be better at close range though than lcd.

A good HD source will show benefits.

homer911 · 04-01-2012 03:06PM

NIMAN wrote: »

Best way to see the quality of your new TV is to buy the cheapest Blu Ray player you can, and rent films from wherever. Connect up using HDMI.

a PS3 is a Blue Ray player

Cantona's Collars · 04-01-2012 03:26PM

homer911 wrote: »

a PS3 is a Blu Ray player

Problem is that most people just use the rubbish leads supplied with it and never benefit from the HD output it can give.

Friend of mine didn't have a clue about using HDMI leads until I saw his set up and he got a couple from Aldi,he now has a Sky HD box & PS3 hooked up properly,the difference is like chalk & cheese.

Even if the op is using scart on his Skybox,he should change the picture settings on the Skybox to 16:9 and to RGB output to give widescreen and clearer pictures.

jackbauerisgod · 06-01-2012 09:40PM

Thanks very much Guys, Hooked PS3 to TV with HDMI and very good picture, 1 thing I found with was that I went into the Sky settings and changed one of the settings from PAL to RTG?? No idea what this is but it seemed to improve things, By playing with the TV settings I have improved things a bit, Guess I would need the Sky HD alright, My main problem would seem to be the light in that the background on the image seems to lighten/darken a fair bit, Have tried to play with the light sensor etc but to no avail so far

brian_gall85 · 07-01-2012 03:10PM

How about buying a Sky HD box from the likes of donedeal or adverts and getting the card paired to it.

watty · 07-01-2012 03:36PM

Turn off light sensors, expert mode dynamic setting and ALL enhancements. ALL those features degrade pictures.

Put in a Lucas Arts branded DVD with THX logo and look for THX in main menu or setup menu of the DVD. You then can play test cards and instructions to set the TV backlight, colour, contrast, brightness (all usually too high). Switch colour gamut to EBU. Experiment with overall gamma between 1.6 and 2.2 (varies contrast in darker areas of picture).

Switch every extra feature off.

Picture Quality new TV

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