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General discussion

How to improve SD content quality?

by HDTV_Challenged Jan 3, 2009 9:08PM PST

Just got the LN52A650 (Version 2008.9). After some tweaking the HD content looks very good. I am a little disappointed with the fact that SD content is not great and I don't seem to be able to improve it. I understand it is typical for SD content to look worse on a large LCD screen, but I thought this TV would be doing some upconverting and it might acutally look decent. Everything is coming from my cable HD DVR box using HDMI, so any settings I change for that connection affect all content. Any suggestions?

Also, I'm curious as to how common the power on/off problem is. After reading some of the postings here I'm wondering if I should expect some problems about a month out?

Discussion is locked

4 Posts
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SD Content
by Samsung_HD_Tech Samsung staff Jan 4, 2009 11:10AM PST

HDTV_Challenged,

You might want to see if the output settings on the cable box are 1080i or 1080p. SD-to-HD content is being upconverted; the result is common since you're going from roughly 480 lines of resolution to 1080 lines of resolution; it looks like you zoomed in too close on a digital picture on a computer, because that's essentially what is happening.

There are several reports of On/Off on the forum, and they're from people who are experiencing a legitimate problem. I don't have numbers or figures. That said, we will cover it for a year.

--HDTech

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Cable box settings
by HDTV_Challenged Jan 4, 2009 9:24PM PST

Samsung_HD_Tech,

Thanks for your response. When I first got my cable box I went through a setup procedure that I think basically passes through whatever resolution the source is. In other words, I told it that the TV supported all resolutions. I had to select each one. Should I set it up so that it only supports 1080i or 1080p, or both? Or, is what I've done the correct setting? Thanks again.

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Changed cable box setting
by HDTV_Challenged Jan 5, 2009 10:51PM PST

I changed my cable HD DVR box setting to support only 1080i and 720p, but since I'm not sure what that setting does I don't know if it will address the SD quality or not. Is it forcing all content to at least 720p?

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SD quality
by Samsung_HD_Tech Samsung staff Jan 6, 2009 11:34PM PST

HDTV_Challenged,

If you're able to still access the SD content, it is still coming through. The upconversion process will be done by the television, but there's only so much that can be done.

Unfortunately, there's only so much that can be done to improve the SD picture. Think of it as trying to view a small .jpeg photo on a large screen. You can improve the overall picture a little, but you can't add sharpness that doesn't already exist.

I hope that helps explain a little.

--HDTech

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