# Picked up a Toshiba 26" LCD over the weekend



## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

Hey guys, the Wife and I picked up a Toshiba 26AV500U over the weekend for the bedroom. So far its very nice for DVD but the SD quality is lousy from cable am I expecting too much? I really like the price point at $599 and it has a built in ATSC/QAM/NTSC tuner so if some day hopefully soon we have HD OTA I can use it as well.


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## E-A-G-L-E-S (Sep 15, 2007)

All new HD flat panels are relatively poor performers with SD.
LCD's being worse than plasmas or DLP' with SD.

I think you expected too much. These sets were made for HD with SD not even an after though unfortunately.


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## Mike P. (Apr 6, 2007)

The only LCDs that I've seen that were good with SD were the older ones that were 480p and they were lousy with HD. My 720p Sony Bravia is excellent with HD, with SD you can only expect so much.


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

Sounds good, I guess im just used to my Sony CRT HD RPTV it handles SD very well and 1080i looks fantastic.


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## lcaillo (May 2, 2006)

Some HD panels look quite good with SD signals, but it depends a great deal on the signal and how the set is adjusted. The first thing to do is to calibrate the set properly. Start by turning off any processing that you can, get the set out of the most vivid picture mode, and get your settings corrected using at least a test disc. Turn the sharpness way down for SD. 

HD sets do not inherently make SD look bad in all cases. Some do a lousy job with the conversion from SD to the native resolution of the set, and some overenhance noise in the signal making it look more objectionable. Low quality video is going to look worlse than HD, however, because it is limited in quality to start with. You can only get so much out of it. Avoiding enhancing the garbage is often the best that you can do. Some systems, like the Sony DRC, can be adjusted to improve most SD, but they can be tedious to work with.


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## E-A-G-L-E-S (Sep 15, 2007)

The better the display the more flawed SD looks though, double edged sword.
I've owned a plasma from all three of the big three and a few dlp's and an sxrd and none of them can touch an HD-crt.(like the 34xbr910 I have in a bedroom now)
His old rptv was probably a 7" crt.


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

E-A-G-L-E-S said:


> His old rptv was probably a 7" crt.


not sure, but I still use it today as my living room display. Its a Sony KP-53HS30 53"


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## E-A-G-L-E-S (Sep 15, 2007)

Well, the 51510 was 7", so yours probably is too.
No new flat panel will look as good with SD, ime, including Pioneer Elites.


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## lcaillo (May 2, 2006)

E-A-G-L-E-S said:


> The better the display the more flawed SD looks though, double edged sword.
> I've owned a plasma from all three of the big three and a few dlp's and an sxrd and none of them can touch an HD-crt.(like the 34xbr910 I have in a bedroom now)
> His old rptv was probably a 7" crt.


You can get the same effect as a CRT by simply turning down the sharpness and softening the pix. The notion that a better display will show more of the limitations in SD is correct. This does not mean that it will look worse, just that the limits of resolution and any artifacts will be more obvious. A better display will not only resolve more detail, however, but will also do the conversion with less artifacts. The advantage that CRTs had is that they could run at NTSC scan rates or 480p and not have to scale the to a higher res. The better sets these days do a great job of sclaing and de-interlacing and look considerably better, even on SD, when adjusted correctly.


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## E-A-G-L-E-S (Sep 15, 2007)

Well, the top of the line Sammy LCD's and the Pioneer Elites don't look nearly as good, after specific SD calibration, as my sony xbr crt. Not even close ime.
Except for size.


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## lcaillo (May 2, 2006)

In what way, on what kind of signal, with what settings? Can you be specific? 

A CRT is simply a LPF compared to the newer sets, while the newer sets can get into trouble by being set to actually make analog noise and qauntization error appear much worse.


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## E-A-G-L-E-S (Sep 15, 2007)

Well, the Sony 34XBR910 is better in three of its' four modes(all but vivid) after calibration with DRC in custom 3 than my Kuro Elite was in either User mode (calibrated for SD) or Pure mode(alibrated for HD) 

The Elite was 50", which also shows any flaws/less original information more readily.
The colors are just as good and same with the blacks.....but the image noise, jagged lines, etc. make for a less pleasing image.


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## lcaillo (May 2, 2006)

Try turning the sharpness way down on SD material.


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

Thanks Leonard, I did as you suggested and find that now SD looks fairly good and doesn't compromise how the HD material looks.


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