Why does my 40" Sony Bravia look like utter crap?

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Kuyt

Gawd
Joined
Jan 21, 2007
Messages
563
So HDTVs look like shit with regular comcast cable, or do I just need to tweak some settings?

It looks worse than the 24" CRT TV that I just threw out and bought 10 years ago.

Its really, really blurry and the text is unclear. :mad:

What can I do?

EDIT: This thing takes like 20 secs to turn on. I push the power button on the remote, the green light turns on, and then it turns on only after like 15+ secs. What's going on here?
 
All HDTV's are going to look "bad" with no HD content. There are ways to up the quality, but I personally don't know how. What model do you have?
 
Get an HD source and try to forget about how good 480p looked on your 15 year old CRT.
 
Yea, unfortunately, LCD's look like garbage on SD content which is what most of cable is.

You need some HD channels to get the full experience.

On our old 62" 1080i rear-projection set, it looks decent with HD and great with SD content... it's a good balance, but it's about 10 years old now and we have to replace a fuse if you press the power buttons in the wrong order (there's a power button, then standby) and it's losing it's brightness...

But the 37" 720p LCD set looks great with HD and terrible with SD... just how it goes I guess...

We're planning to dump the old 1080i set for a 65" 1080p LCD with a Blu-ray player and new reciever, we already get some channels in HD from DirecTV (I think over 100 now) not positive on the exact amount though...
 
Yep.

I have Comcast.

So I need to subscribe to Comcast HD? FUCK.
 
Kuyt said:
So HDTVs look like shit with regular comcast cable, or do I just need to tweak some settings?

It looks worse than the 24" CRT TV that I just threw out and bought 10 years ago.

Its really, really blurry and the text is unclear. :mad:

What can I do?
Click to expand...

What model do you have from that Bravia? I have a 40" Bravia with Comcast, I work for them, and a HD DVR. I can connect it through the analog and pull up some settings for you if you like. Maybe you can tweak them to your liking.
 
Kuyt said:
Yep.

I have Comcast.

So I need to subscribe to Comcast HD? FUCK.
Click to expand...

you dont need to subscribe to anything, you just need an HD box. I went thru this already last week. The HD chanels dont cost you anything extra, you already get them, but you need an HD box which is about $7 a month more
 
only basic HD channels. But if you want Movie channels in HD and don't already have them, you need to pay for them as well. Also make sure you get the DVR box W/ HD as they have HD boxes W/O DVR.
 
For the best quality picture, forget about cable and dish. If you have a built in HD tuner, add an antenna for over the air (OTA) reception if you're in or near a fairly large city. Most TV stations broadcast HD OTA now. The beauty of it is that the OTA broadcasts are uncompressed whereas all cable and dish (yes, even HD) is compressed, so there is loss in quality before it even gets to your home. I have a homemade antenna hooked up to a Tivo HD box and get over 20 channels of uncompressed HD including all major networks and PBS. The quality of the HD reception is amazing and blows cable and dish HD quality away (even the wife said WOW) and best of all OTA is free (free if you have a built in HD tuner, the Tivo HD box costs $13 a month). For the antenna, google "coat hanger HDTV antenna". I know it sounds goofy, but it works.
 
deeplove said:
What model do you have from that Bravia? I have a 40" Bravia with Comcast, I work for them, and a HD DVR. I can connect it through the analog and pull up some settings for you if you like. Maybe you can tweak them to your liking.
Click to expand...

Bravia 40S4100

I hope you can give those to me, thanks!
 
solaris54 said:
Pioneer Kuro Plasma will give you the PQ that you desire.
Click to expand...

...no. Not with a SD source it won't. Sure the Kuro has very good black levels and motion clarity, but it's also stupid expensive and will look like trash with a SD source just like any other plasma or LCD based HDTV. Don't spout a rote answer off just because someone complains about picture quality -- read the thread and make sure it's actually relevant first. In this case, it's not.
 
Fixed-pixel displays are less forgiving than older TV's, considering the higher resolution that they have natively. SD is crap, and until more customers start to see that, the cable companies will continue to supply it.

There's nothing wrong with your TV. Enjoy it! DVDs will look pretty good and HD will look even better.
 
Our (Elite) Pioneer Kuro is amazing in HD, crappy just like any other Plasma/LCD HD TV is on SD content.

It blew the 1080p Samsung out of the water (it's only 720p).
 
The 32" 720P Bravias look quite good with an SD signal. (I have two of the middle of the road models (current and last year's model), not the XBR or bottom-of-the-line model). Which model of the 40" line did you get? The bottom line of the Sony's often don't have the same engine powering the display that the middle and upper models have. So they have more problems with internal resolution conversion.
 
Kuyt said:
So HDTVs look like shit with regular comcast cable, or do I just need to tweak some settings?

It looks worse than the 24" CRT TV that I just threw out and bought 10 years ago.

Its really, really blurry and the text is unclear. :mad:

What can I do?

EDIT: This thing takes like 20 secs to turn on. I push the power button on the remote, the green light turns on, and then it turns on only after like 15+ secs. What's going on here?
Click to expand...

Not sure but im not a big fan of sony lcd's. My buddy has a 50" or something like that sony bravia and it looked really bad when watching a dvd on it.
 
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