wd65733

Am I the only one who thinks that DVDs look better on a SD Tube TV compared to "upscaled" dvd on an HDTV?

I never understood why people keep saying that "upscaled" dvds on HDTV look so good...when honestly, they look a bit sharper on an SDTV. Similar to how non-HD tv programming looks worse on an HDTV vs. a sd tv, I think the same applies to DVD.

Not that DVD looks bad on an HDTV, but an SDTV tube seems to hide the flaws of DVD better.

JimRochester

PArt of that equation is that the tube or SDTVs tend to be smaller than HDTVs. Tubes would go up to 36" where the majority of primary TVs in the household are now much larger usually 42" and up. I remember when I had a 27" TV and considered it a big screen TV. The larger the TV, the worse inferior material will look. I remember when I got my 48" RPTV up from 27" how crappy cable looked. It's one of the pitfalls of the larger TV.

Abe.

Also, DVDs were engineered for tube television sets. Just like Blu-ray was engineered for HDTVs. DVDs should look better on SD TVs, but you have to sacrifice size, and if you sit far enough, a DVD will tend to look pretty good on an HDTV.

Nick Martin

True, and watching older TV shows on DVD (such as the Star Trek shows, as they are often the most popular example of this) look fantastic on a CRT TV, as that is what they were (likely) viewed on when in the post-production phase and what audiences saw them on when broadcast for many years. On an LCD they look disgusting, and on a Plasma they look the slightest bit better than LCD, but not much.

I looked at a few episodes of DS9 upscaled on an LCD and Plasma using a PS3 and the results were more film-like and grainy, and hid the compression artifacts and aliasing better. Still not as good as on a tube TV, but an improvement nonetheless.

Mr. Salty

It's going to be partly dependent on the equipment used. Not all upconverting DVD players are created equally, and people who think they're going to get great quality out of a $40 player will sometimes be disappointed.

I have an Oppo player connected to a 50-inch Sony SXRD HDTV via HDMI. DVDs look very, very good.

wd65733

DVDs look noticeably better on my friend's 65 inch DLP compared to my 40 inch lcd.

Is this common, for DVDs to look better on rear projection compared to LCD?

Both played on a ps3, upscaled.

Nick Martin

I don't know about what they look like on rear projection TVs, but LCDs reveal each and every flaw in the image, which is why some standard DVDs and most definitely standard cable TV looks so poor, compression artifacts everywhere...the image is simply too sharp and that has little to do with the sharpness settings on the LCD being watched.

Josh-da-man

While TNG and DS9 were shot on film, they were edited on videotape, so the quality of those shows is never going to be better than videotape. Unless they go back to the source elements and remaster the live-action shots and redo the special effects.

RichC2

Quality of the TVs factors into this. What kind of DLP? What kind of LCD? I mean hell, DVDs look better on my 106" DLP FP setup than they do on my friends 32" Poloroid LCD due to just how horrible Poloroid LCDs are.

darkside

I think DVDs look fantastic on my 52" Sharp Aquos. Its black levels also hold up fairly well to my old Sony 36" tube TV. I definitely prefer them upscaled on my larger HDTV.

JimRochester

I'm oversimplifying however I think you'll get the point. Rear Projection will not be as accurate as your LCD therefore, your LCD will actually show more of the bad stuff. Also settings come in to play. Were either TV set up? Are the settings still on factory torch mode? Your LCD was set with the contrast and sharpness jacked all the way up. That will make even the best HiDef disc look like a blocky mess once the TV is in a small room instread of a showroom.

SoSpacey

this is a funny thread

wd65733

Funny because it's true.

I'm watching The Thin Red Line DVD on my Samsung LCD right now..

God it looks ugly.