Why Do DVDs Look So Bad on My New Large Screen HDTV?
By Chris Boylan
Question:
Dear Expert,
I switched from a Mitsubishi 70" analog 4:3 aspect ratio RPTV to a Samsung 71" Wide Screen Digital HDTV. Standard DVDs which looked great on the Mitsubishi look extremely poor on the Samsung. They tend to be contrasty, grainy, etc. I have tried all I can think of, an upconverting player, a Blu Ray player with an HDMI cable, and switched from one player to another with no success. The Samsung receives and displays HD broadcasts
beautifully and plays the Blu Rays in a similar manner. I have not been able to get an answer as to why this is so.
-John T.
Answer:
Hello, John,
Analog (CRT-based) sets tend to be much more forgiving of lower resolution source material, such as standard DVDs and SDTV broadcasts, than are today's microdisplay-based fixed pixel rear projection sets (DLP, LCD, LCOS). Compression and resolution artifacts in the source material which are not as evident on a lower resolution analog set become exacerbated when blown up onto a large fixed pixel display.
Another factor contributing to this is the size difference between your sets. It's not a 1-inch difference as you might think. For a widescreen (16:9) DVD image, your previous 70-inch 4:3 set could only reproduce a 64-inch diagonal image (around 1740 square inches of active screen area). Your current set's widescreen image is 2170 square inches, nearly 25% larger. Just like enlarging a photo, the grain becomes more apparent the larger you get.
That said, there are definitely some things you can do to make DVDs look better on your large screen HDTV:
- Make sure your DVD player is set for a widescreen TV. Virtually all DVD players have an option in their set-up menu for TV screen shape or aspect ratio. If you've previously been using this player on a 4:3 TV, and now you have a 16:9 TV, you need to tell your DVD player about the change. Otherwise widescreen DVDs will be "shrunk" to fit a 4:3 area of your widescreen TV and you'll have to zoom in (using your TV's aspect ratio control) to fill the screen. This loses a big chunk of resolution and can distort the picture's geometry.
- Calibrate your HDTV. Invest a few bucks and some time in a video calibration DVD such as "AVIA Guide to Home Theater" or Monster's "HDTV Calibration Wizard." These will guide you through the correct picture settings for your TV. Hint: factory settings of "dynamic" or "vivid" tend to be the worst as they artificially boost brightness and contrast to make the TV "pop" on a showroom floor. Also sharpness controls tend to be set much higher than they need to be. On many sets, turning the sharpness control all the way down to 0 is the only way to disable artificial edge enhancement (also a prime culprit of an overly grainy image).
- Purchase a High Quality Upconverting DVD, Blu-ray or HD-DVD player. Not all upconverting DVD players are created equal. And not all Blu-ray or HD-DVD players are good at upconverting standard DVDs to HD resolutions. The newest Blu-ray and combo (Blu-ray/HD-DVD) players from Samsung, plus the HD-XA2 HD-DVD player from Toshiba are all excellent at upconverting standard DVDs to 720p, 1080i or 1080p as they include the high-quality Reon-VX HQV video processor from Silicon Optix. Also, fairly inexpensive upconverting DVD players from Oppo, such as the Oppo DV-981H get great results upconverting standard DVDs. Remember that in order for these upconverting players to work, you must use an HDMI (or DVI) connection to your TV. If you use component video, S-video or composite video then standard DVD output will be limited to 480i or 480p.
I hope you find this helpful. I've included some links for more information or to purchase some of the items mentioned above:
Regards,
-Chris
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