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OK. Continuing with my brand new JVC JLC32BC3000 1080p/60hz. It's making me sick.
I live in Chicago. I don't have cable or satellite, and I never will. Thus, I get all broadcasts from the air. The major networks broadcast from 720 to 1080i on their main channels. But, on their secondary channels [which I watch], they tend to broadcast 480. Here's how it breaks down:
CBS 2.1 = 1080i
NBC 5.1 = 1080i
NBC 5.2 & 5.3 = 480
ABC 7.1 = 1080i
ABC 7.2 = 720
ABC 7.3 = 480
Here's the deal. On my spanking new JVC, 480 looks like crap. Crap. Crap. Crap. And yet, on my friend's 780 Panasonic, it looks great. Almost indistiguishable from 780. It looks hi def.
So, does that make 720 a better bet? At least you can watch all of your old DVD's without torture. And, so far, 1080 hasn't looked much better than 720. Am I totally wrong? Going nuts. Any more of this, and I'm going back to a nine inch Philco black and white tube, with real tubes in the electronics.
Follow Ups:
nt
ABC chose 720p years ago. This should give better motion than 1080i if you have a good plasma or something. But now that I have a 65" Panny plasma, I can see that 720 does provide less resolution than 1080.
So, w/ a small picture 720p should have better motion and the loss of pixel resolution may not be noticeable.
It's all for naught until you do at least a DIY calibration. I used the Avia II disc on a Panasonic 32" TC-L32S1, and like you, have only over-the-air antenna source.
Don't get too hung up on the resolution numbers since the quality of the source material can easily be the determining factor.
480 can vary from "good" (PBS NewsHour) to "noticeably antique" (AntennaTV old sitcoms).
720 can vary from very very close to 1080 to easily identifiable as 720.
1080 can also vary a little bit, but typically not much. Live broadcasts are the gold standard (typically sporting events) followed by recorded network shows.
A quality cable from the antenna and perhaps some power conditioning might be in order. I use a Blue Jeans Cable Belden RG-6 antenna cable and a Furutech e-TP60 outlet box.
> Don't get too hung up on the resolution numbers since the quality of the source material can easily be the determining factor.Totally agree.
So many people are hung up on spatial resolution, while some broadcasters bit-starve the subchannels to the point of visible artifacts. The focus on resolution totally ignores the fact that the content are not transmitted in raw 1920x1080x30 or 1280x720x60 images, but rather in encoded and lossy compressed data that has *discarded* both spatial and temporal picture information.Short of measuring the bit rate of the subchannel (e.g. TSreader), I use the recorded file length as a gauge of the transmitted bit rate. The recordings of local CBS (1080i) and Fox (720p) programs are typically about 7 gigabytes per hour (which is close to the 19 Kbps ATSC max), whereas NBC (1080i) and ABC (720p) programs are only about 5 gigabytes per hour. ABC seems to care the least about picture quality, since some primetime dramas go as low as 4.2 GB/hr.
> 1080 can also vary a little bit, but typically not much.I find "30 Rock" (broadcast in 1080i) to have the worst picture quality of any show I watch; it's dark (or poor contrast) and soft. Then my eyes are shocked when a (bright and detailed) commercial comes on.
Edits: 10/28/11 10/28/11 10/28/11
It may be that Panasonic just has a better scaling routine. Standard 480 DVD's look great on our 50" Panasonic plasma. Much better than you would think they should. We also have a Sony 46" LED Bravia in the kids area (used for games as well as TV,movies). Standard DVD's on it don't look as good as the plasma (nor do Blue Rays). It looks good, but the plasma is still better.
> It may be that Panasonic just has a better scaling routineMaybe.
Seems like the vast majority of people who complain that SD (analog and/or digital) content looks like "crap" use LCD panels.The OP should consider comparing the output of his existing DVD player (which would use the TV's scaler) to an upscaling DVD player (that outputs 1080i or 720p). I use a PC to upscale DVD and laserdiscs with good results; the image is softer than the best OTA HD content but it's still watchable and not "crap".
Edits: 10/28/11
Its not uncommon for some subchannels to look bad. The stations usually don't put much money into them.
In most cases, a good picture won't be had by a TV straight out of the box.
Spend the $10-$15 and get a calibration disc. It will make a big difference. Also, go to www.avsforum.com and look for a thread on your set, or line of models (usually the same except for size), and see what other people have the settings tuned to. This can save you a lot of time and grief-its a starting point if nothing else.
Jack
Your JVC either has poor deinterlacing capabilities, poor scaling capabilities or both. However, there is also the possibility that there are some Menu settings which could help matters. You'll need to check into this (read the manual) as it might yield an improvement in what you're currently seeing.
I would also suggest that you get a calibration disc to fix the Color/Tint problems you've mentioned, as well as other problems you may or may not have noticed. One with a decent amount of test patterns and explanation is Digital Video Essentials from Joe Kane Productions. It's offered in Blu-ray and DVD formats. There are better calibration discs, but they require the user to be very video literate (ie, there's zero hand holding, so you're on your own and that equals frustration for non-enthusiasts). You'll also want to start the calibration with your display in the most neutral/least processed mode. That will usually be something like the Standard or Cinema option and, if there's a Color Temp setting, the Warm mode is generally the way to go. I would also set the Backlight between 30% - 50%, depending on your lighting environment.
Just be aware of three things:
#1 a display that is calibrated may look very different from how the display initially looked, especially if the factory set the levels to compete on the showroom floor, so it will take a few viewings for eyes to adjust to the more accurate settings
#2 using a calibration disc will always make the display look better, but it is still not a proper calibration
#3 a proper calibration, even a DIY one, costs a good bit of money because instruments designed for calibration and the knowledge to use and interpret the measurements ain't cheap
If things don't work out for you, Fry's has a deal on a 42" LG plasma right now for
...then 720p is probably going to suffice. Shitty CBS sitcoms aren't any funnier in 1080i. But no movies? No blu-ray?
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