Nekofrog Posted November 17, 2008 Share Posted November 17, 2008 Well, not really. But why, everytime I'm about shopping somewhere, when I see HD TVs do I see them ALWAYS show a grainy picture with lots of pixelation and digital signal degradation (fast movement = BLOCKY ARTIFACTS)? Is it from splitting the signal to like 20 different TVs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bahamut Posted November 17, 2008 Share Posted November 17, 2008 Well, not really.But why, everytime I'm about shopping somewhere, when I see HD TVs do I see them ALWAYS show a grainy picture with lots of pixelation and digital signal degradation (fast movement = BLOCKY ARTIFACTS)? Is it from splitting the signal to like 20 different TVs? It could be the broadcast signal - the programming has to be designed for HD, and even then sometimes the networks (or in this case whoever designed the programming for the TV advertising) suck ass with it. I agree that oftentimes in store it looks kinda shitty or it's impossibly hard to tell the difference, but at home it's a completely different beast (assuming you picked a good TV). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Pezman Posted November 17, 2008 Share Posted November 17, 2008 I'm just going with an HD projector. Seems to be more portable and possibly less expensive, and you've got mini-movies all the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strike911 Posted November 17, 2008 Share Posted November 17, 2008 Yeah, its most likely crappy input coming in, that is, whatever the media is playing on the TVs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Effef Posted November 17, 2008 Share Posted November 17, 2008 They usually put a SD signal in and then split it between 500 different TVs. Sorta defeats the point of a HD set. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djpretzel Posted November 17, 2008 Share Posted November 17, 2008 Well, not really.But why, everytime I'm about shopping somewhere, when I see HD TVs do I see them ALWAYS show a grainy picture with lots of pixelation and digital signal degradation (fast movement = BLOCKY ARTIFACTS)? Is it from splitting the signal to like 20 different TVs? blocky artifacts sounds like a laggy/bad broadcast stream, agreed with previous poster. Grainy could actually be in the source material - I've got Planet Earth BBC blu-ray, and certain shots are grainy simply because the definition is high enough to expose problems with the original footage. Double-edged sword. I don't know about signal splitting w/ HD... assuming they're splitting either DVI or HDMI, it should be a digital signal and not particularly compromised by splitting. I walk into Circuit Shitty and Best Buy, I see a lot of nice TV s with a great picture, personally. Maybe that varies from area to area? Bottom line... HD is here to stay, I personally find it a significant, meaningful upgrade, and if you can't tell the difference, you need a larger television or better glasses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blake Posted November 17, 2008 Share Posted November 17, 2008 The only store near where I live that actually knows how to put HD broadcast onto HD tv's seems to be Costco, of all places. Which is awesome. When you walk into Costco to get some awesome hotdogs and gigantic bins of pretzels, the first thing you see is 20 tv's all showing a live sports event in HD. The Best Buy and Circuit City where I live show an absolutely shitty broadcast that looks like youtube quality. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bleck Posted November 17, 2008 Share Posted November 17, 2008 I personally find it a significant, meaningful upgrade, and if you can't tell the difference, you need a larger television or better glasses. the difference = $$$ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abu Posted November 18, 2008 Share Posted November 18, 2008 Things are looking shitty to you because the TVs are just getting crappy signals, or the signal isn't HD in the first place. As said in a couple posts, HDTVs don't improve the quality of the signals they get, they're just capable of receiving better ones. If they get grainy signals, you'll see graininess. I found a couple pictures that show you what the difference would be if the TVs were working properly/getting the right signal. http://www.erenumerique.fr/images/60/20060710/btv_hd_sd_comparison_big.jpg (Bottom right is standard picture quality, upper left is what a proper HD channel looks like) http://freeviewnz.tv/images/hd_vs_sd_diagram.jpg (This is smaller, and harder to see, but you can still see the definition. Especially in the shadows) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Overflow Posted November 18, 2008 Share Posted November 18, 2008 Here's something weird: I was in a futureshop a while back and I noticed they were playing Transformers on blu-ray on a huge HD TV, so I did a test. I whipped out my 30G Ipod and compared my iPod version of Transformers to theirs, same scenes, and the only difference I could see was the the HD version had brighter colors. No groundbreaking detail, no next generation, just brighter colors (Which is nice, BTW.) I don't know. I've never bought into the HD thing, and until I see something that changes my mind the only reason I want an HD tv is for the widescreen. And those pictures: My tube tv looks better than the SD versions in those pics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
halc Posted November 18, 2008 Share Posted November 18, 2008 I walk into Circuit Shitty and Best Buy, I see a lot of nice TV s with a great picture, personally. Maybe that varies from area to area? I walk into my local best buy and see a lot of nice hdtv's but the picture always always ALWAYS looks like ass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Antipode Posted November 18, 2008 Share Posted November 18, 2008 A couple years ago I was in a Fry's with my dad and we were looking at HDTVs - a rep came up to us and asked if there were any questions, and my dad asked why some artifacts occurred at exactly the same time on several brands at once. The rep said that they weren't playing a BluRay or any kind of HD footage (though logos onscreen said so several times) - it was just coming from compressed video on a harddrive in the back, making comparing screens pointless. So the general sentiment you guys are posting is probably right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blake Posted November 18, 2008 Share Posted November 18, 2008 Here's something weird: I was in a futureshop a while back and I noticed they were playing Transformers on blu-ray on a huge HD TV, so I did a test. I whipped out my 30G Ipod and compared my iPod version of Transformers to theirs, same scenes, and the only difference I could see was the the HD version had brighter colors. No groundbreaking detail, no next generation, just brighter colors (Which is nice, BTW.) I don't know. I've never bought into the HD thing, and until I see something that changes my mind the only reason I want an HD tv is for the widescreen. And those pictures: My tube tv looks better than the SD versions in those pics. A smaller tube TV or iPod may seem like it looks great because the small resolution is being compressed into a small frame, hiding any artifacts. Unless you converted a 1400 kbps double pass mp4, it's not gonna hold up to an HD broadcast on the same large screen. The thing is, anybody who has actually seen an HDTV broadcast usually has their mind instantly changed, because there IS groundbreaking detail. Especially in a movie like transformers, I'm pretty sure you won't see Megan Fox's cleavage sweat (that's beside the point however) on an iPod. So either something was wrong with the hookup between the blu ray player and the TV, it wasn't really a blu ray player, the TV had a weird ratio/filter dragging down the quality, you can encode 1900x1000+ movies into 1900x1000 mp4's on your iPod, you have bad eyesight, or just don't mind about things like these. Personally, I have a hard time watching anything that's not HD on a screen bigger than 30 inches just because it feels so harsh on the eyes. Sorry to sound like an HD fanboy, but when I first saw an HD broadcast in my house I was pretty amazed. I imagine it gets the same response out of most people. However this may not seem to be the case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
halc Posted November 18, 2008 Share Posted November 18, 2008 A couple years ago I was in a Fry's with my dad and we were looking at HDTVs - a rep came up to us and asked if there were any questions, and my dad asked why some artifacts occurred at exactly the same time on several brands at once. The rep said that they weren't playing a BluRay or any kind of HD footage (though logos onscreen said so several times) - it was just coming from compressed video on a harddrive in the back, making comparing screens pointless.So the general sentiment you guys are posting is probably right. I've always assumed that was the case, though I have noticed that everytime a pixar movie comes to dvd it gets played on every TV in the store for the entire day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avatar of Justice Posted November 18, 2008 Share Posted November 18, 2008 HD's benefit can be negligible for movies (although it DOES look better), but I bought an HDTV last week and have found that all my HD games rock hard. They just look fucking amazing. Too bad the NES has all sorts of weird issues on it (odd flickering), ensuring I will always keep an old TV around. Yeah, I used to be bothered by stores having shitty streams on their HDTV's. You could probably ask a clerk to hook up a Blu-Ray player to it or something and really see the difference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Overflow Posted November 18, 2008 Share Posted November 18, 2008 HD's benefit can be negligible for movies (although it DOES look better), but I bought an HDTV last week and have found that all my HD games rock hard. They just look fucking amazing. Too bad the NES has all sorts of weird issues on it (odd flickering), ensuring I will always keep an old TV around.. On this note: what happens when Wii VC games are played on a widescreen tv? I played Super Metroid on a widescreen TV once, and I didn't notice any stretch, but it filled the whole screen. What's the deal? Do they just enlarge the image and cut off the tops and bottoms? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thalzon Posted November 18, 2008 Share Posted November 18, 2008 If they cut off the top and bottom, wouldn't the HUD for Super Metroid have not been visible? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OverCoat Posted November 18, 2008 Share Posted November 18, 2008 The only store near where I live that actually knows how to put HD broadcast onto HD tv's seems to be Costco, of all places. Which is awesome. When you walk into Costco to get some awesome hotdogs and gigantic bins of pretzels, the first thing you see is 20 tv's all showing a live sports event in HD. The Best Buy and Circuit City where I live show an absolutely shitty broadcast that looks like youtube quality. The Costco in Tukwila is like that :3 some of the pictures I see on those TVs are absolutely gorgeous, especially when they do that dvd vs blu-ray example video thing. I bought my TV at Video Only though :V Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JCvgluvr Posted November 18, 2008 Share Posted November 18, 2008 FACT:The only good reason to get an HD tv is to read Capcom's and Rare's in-game text. There is no good reason to get Blu-ray...No really, there isn't a big difference between it and standard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Overflow Posted November 18, 2008 Share Posted November 18, 2008 If they cut off the top and bottom, wouldn't the HUD for Super Metroid have not been visible? Exactly! the hud WAS visible! That's why I'm so confused! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bahamut Posted November 18, 2008 Share Posted November 18, 2008 FACT:The only good reason to get an HD tv is to read Capcom's and Rare's in-game text.There is no good reason to get Blu-ray...No really, there isn't a big difference between it and standard. Newer console games look like ass on SDTVs now with all of the overload of effects they do now. GTA IV was near unplayably bad, and games like Lost Odyssey looked questionable at times on my shitty SDTV before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avatar of Justice Posted November 18, 2008 Share Posted November 18, 2008 On this note: what happens when Wii VC games are played on a widescreen tv? I played Super Metroid on a widescreen TV once, and I didn't notice any stretch, but it filled the whole screen. What's the deal? Do they just enlarge the image and cut off the tops and bottoms? I just set my TV into 4:3 mode when viewing 4:3 content (if the TV or PS3 doesn't do it automatically). Things look oddly stretched otherwise. Most widescreen TV's have a "Zoom" aspect ratio that would cut off the top and bottom like that though. One thing I can't tell the difference on is 1080i and 1080p. I got a HDMI cable so that I could get my TV to recognize the PS3's 1080p mode and I really can't tell a difference. Also, DO NOT BUY HDMI CABLES IN THE STORE! At Sears they were like $50 and I got some on the 'Net for $5. Unlike analog cables, cable quality doesn't matter. HDMI is digital so your video will either not work or look stellar. Signal loss and all that shit are just wiped out by the digitalness. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thalzon Posted November 18, 2008 Share Posted November 18, 2008 Newer console games look like ass on SDTVs now with all of the overload of effects they do now. GTA IV was near unplayably bad, and games like Lost Odyssey looked questionable at times on my shitty SDTV before. Impossible-to-read text! God, Blue Dragon was especially bad for this. I really want an HDTV, but I'm on a very fixed income. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avatar of Justice Posted November 18, 2008 Share Posted November 18, 2008 Impossible-to-read text! God, Blue Dragon was especially bad for this. I really want an HDTV, but I'm on a very fixed income. If you've got some extra cash to spare you could get an HDTV on the cheap with all the crazy Christmas sales going on with the shitty economy. It won't be the biggest HDTV but it would at least get you something where you could read game text. This website is your friend http://www.blackfriday.info/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bahamut Posted November 18, 2008 Share Posted November 18, 2008 If you've got some extra cash to spare you could get an HDTV on the cheap with all the crazy Christmas sales going on with the shitty economy. It won't be the biggest HDTV but it would at least get you something where you could read game text. This website is your friend http://www.blackfriday.info/ http://www.bfads.net is the site to go to! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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