LCD's/Plasmas look cruddy in store. At home too?

How close were you standing. I am know expert but from what i have read there is a min distance you should be from the tv like 3-5 feet. The other day i stood right in front of a panasonic and could see all the pixcels then i stood back about 7 feet and it looked very good. Dont have one at home yet cant make up my mind.

Well guess what,,,, He dosen't!!! This should not be a surprise.
EVERY TV type has it's short commings or drawbacks and advantages.
Most plasmas that I have seen in stores are the ED 640x480 types. Yes they look pixelated. Most of this years modles are the HD 1280x720 they look much better.
But the stores are tring to clear out last years ED models. So guess what you get to look at.
In terms of sharpness the direct view CRT still RULES.
But if you want a 50" screen then you will have to get something else. John

it really depends on which stores, which tv's, and what kind of connections they use. a while ago, very few hdtv's had built in ATSC tuners in it. that means the stores were forced to display them with component cables at best...and putting component on every tv will be pricey and probably not worth it.. so they most likely used Coax or composite for the smaller ones. especially with smaller lcd's....a store like CC will have 20+ of them on display and they will likely NOT spend that much money in cables to hook them up because markup on the tv's isnt really that high. whereas on projos and plasmas...they can use whatever cables they want cause the markup is so much.

now, as more and more HDTV's are being made with built in tuners, its so much easier to get a good picture from it. instead of using $50 component cables, one can easily use $5 RG6 coax cables to get a hd picture. the coax is actually the cable i perfer to use on the displays in the store i work at because we can save the component cables for customers, and the picture will actually be better then using component cables because of the built in ATSC tuner in the tv.

I recently bought a plamsa TV. One thing the salesperson mentioned is that the signal is split among many TVs, which degrades the signal. After installing the TV in my house, it looks significantly better than it did in the store.

One thing I never see mentioned here is what the screen "refresh" rate is on any LCD or Plasma TV. I, like you, hate seeing the pixels rebuild when motion takes place. Worse is seeing the pixels rebuild on facial flesh tones. A TV with a very quick refresh rate will have less pixelation vs. one with a slower refresh rate.

BEFORE throwing in the Towel, Check the connections on the END CAPs which advertise featured Items that are used to Draw You in (or over to ) the Pretty Little Flat Screen With the perfect picture. These in the most recent End Cap Change are hooked to a Basic Dvd Player sold in House for 20-40 dollars. Wholla!!! they are using correct cables thus having a picture perfect screen. As for the Isled Flat Screens, Most are powered with a rca or coax connection, that in itself is enough to make you think ...they want me to spend how much for this?

Dont Worry. Hopefully in your endeavor you have a laptop with DVI out . TAKE YOUR LAPTOP IMMEDIATELY, WITH A DARK MOVIE AND A BRIGHT MOVIE in hand so you can test the HD part of the screen at you . For what i think you are talking about, it is like going from the 20's straight to 2015 (ooops 2005...lol) you will more than likely be please with all but one or two of the LCD's or PLasmas after hooking up the dvi cable.

At one of the major retail outlets, i asked the non-commissioned sales person why they didnt have DVI or HDMI feeding the signals. He responded with...Why would we when we sell so many with them looking this bad..

My Advice, If you are buying the Bigger Plasmas, Read the Mounting part of the warranty very carefully, remember, i may have a level that says something is level, the service person's may read that few millimeters off that will hurt ya. Finally. Test the products at the local Stores, Dont trust the reviews. They all Have Good Pictures , better than the older tv models. Even the UN-Known Named units Found at the Cheaper Stores Make you say...I Want That. My First One Was Cheap (Best Buy tried to charge me 1699 but i found it at an online retailer brand new for 999) yet better picture than the $4800 unit. DVI Input or Other HD input is essential.

Use the major dept stores to test your future investment/purchase. Purchase Here; where you dont have to pay for the lousy wiring and uneducated sales staff. Use Your Best Judgement and let me know how things went.

ashley@dverse.com

When there are two TV displays with the same resolution, and one is much larger, well, the larger screen has larger pixels. Close to the screen, larger pixels are more noticeable as blocky "jaggies", so it may help to back away from larger screens.

For Plasma, LCD, and DLP TVs, check the "native resolution". These displays look best when fed a signal matching their native resolution. A high native resolution screen will have smaller pixels than a low native resolution screen of the same size. (CRT displays don't have a native resolution)

Check the signal used for the display - is the signal high definition 1040i or 720p, or standard definition? Or perhaps even standard analog? Feeding a standard signal to a high def set will not look as sharp as a high def signal. Stores don't always send the best signal to their displays, they may not have upgraded their video distribution system.

I work at circuit city. I find it strange that you thoguht they looked like crap because in the store it is clear as day that they look better than any other TV, it does have alot to do with splitting the signal but you said you were watchin a DVD, PIXAR animated movies usually show you how vivid the color is on an LCD. Yes the contrast ratio is low on many of the LCD TV's however the color are also more vivid. The plasma technology is where the higher contrast is. However the samsung LCD has a fairly high contrast ratio, 3000:1. About the sharp Aquos, i find it to run a mid 4th to 5th place in the LCD's that we carry. The better ones are the Panasonic, Sony, and Samsung, if you count sony's XBR line as a separate LCD line then you can say a 5th place for the sharp. the LCD has the Highest resolution so i am not sure why you seem to have problems looking at them, esp in the store when you CAN compare with other TV's. we don't adjust any TV every TV we set up comes str8 out the box.

There is not a whole lot of full 1080 HDTV content now anyway so you're going to spend 90% of your time watching a perspective-corrected NTSC (regular 4:3 TV)signal anyway.
All flat panel devices are discreet pixel displays and there is no way to get around that. CRT's use a electron beam raster on phosphor that gives it a residual light charge and is much smoother to the eyes.
BTW - The rule of thumb for pixelated devices is that you should view them from at least twice the diagonal measurement for your eyes to smooth out the ''jaggies'' but they are still not as smooth or have as good a black level as the good ole CRT.
You can find CRT HDTV Monitors and TVs but only to about 34 inches diagonally. Samsung has some that have a tube that is not as deep (depth of the actual tube) that are HDTV and they look great.
But again, unless you have some favorite over the air or HDTV Digital Cable channel then I'll reiterate that you will be watching a stretched out version (or not using the complete width of the set) picture.

I love and thank all of the folks that are running out and buying flat screens because they are ''cool'', ''must-have'', or ''I can hang it on my wall'' because they are the ones that are going to make the HDTVs inexpensive WHEN there is enough content to justify paying a ''bit'' more for one.

Also if you do get sucked into the HDTV hype and buy one, make sure that it will accept DVI and HDMI connections as well as accepts cablecard, otherwise you will have sold your soul to the cable companies.

Good luck,
Fred Dunn

While there are many factors involved...I think its because u're watching a Monster inc DVD (which is 480p), on a HDTV (which is 720p or higher).
I have a Samsung 27" CRT HDTV, and I used the component HD cable while playing Halo2 on XBox, and I can clearly pixels or jagged edges....while the colors are brighter, the flaws become clearer to see. Now if I just use the regular analog A/V cable to play Xbox on the same TV, the graphics somehow become less jagged, because the signal is not as clear, therefore not revealing as many flaws, as everything is blurred out a bit. Same thing if I watch analog tv/cable that is not HD, I can see how everything is all blurry or jagged.
This also happens with HD signals which are 720p...u can clearly see jagged edges...even on a CRT HDTV.
Next time goto Circuit City and ask them to put on 1080i, then everything changes...suddenly everything is crisp, and clear.
Starting 2006, supposedly "true HD" signals & TVs will be out, delivering 1080i or better yet, 1080p signals. Xbox360 will be using 1080i and PS3 will be using 1080p. And with the coming of HD DVD, and Blu-ray DVDs, they will also sport 1080p signals.
As of now, even 720p signals are visibly jagged, but it is still way cleaner, and brighter than any analog signal out there. Check 1080i, then tell me if its still jagged...many 1080is are outthere, with national broadcasts such as NBC, ABC, CBS supporting it....

I have been trying to tell people that Sony carries the best televisions, PERIOD! All televions except for projection based TV's uses pixels to create the picture. The only TV's that does not have pixels are projection and DLP, with DLP being a high tech projection and it is an outstanding technology. Now, if you want a great television Sony is the way to go and here is why. Sony is the only brand that makes their TV's with the smallest pixels possible of all the brands out there and, the pixels are joined tightly together. That is why the picture on a Sony TV looks extremely sharp. If you have the money to purchase an XBR model, it is well worth the money because the pixels get even smaller and tighter than a standard Sony Wega model. Trust me on this!! Now, DLP is a new technology that has come out and works like a projection TV but,the picture is sent to millions of tiny mirrors then reflected onto the screen, which creates the picture that you see. Toshiba and Samsung makes TV's with DLP now but they still can not match the quality picture of a SONY LCD or plasma. I love DLP technology but I will not purchase a DLP TV until SONY makes a TV with DLP and when Sony creates a DLP XBR model, there will be no competition. If I were to buy an HDTV right now, it would be a SONY WEGA LCD or if I could shell out the big bucks, A SONY XBR LCD or Plasma. Once you watch HD programming or a DVD on one of these bad boys, you will thank me. I have to say also that I worked as a Broadcast Operator for Warner Brothers for 5 years and all of our professional equipment was made by sony. I am not a Sony nut, I am just speaking truth. Check it out for yourself.

WAIT! What's your hurry? New technology is coming your direction in this market every day. Everybody is buying this stuff because it is flat and paying out the nose for it. Relative to regular NTSC OTA or Cable, there is not much content for HDTV so unless you absolutely have to have it for your gaming console (get a life) then just WAIT!
I remember when an IBM PC with an 8080 processor and a couple of floppy disk drives and a monochrome monitor was over $2000, but it was a new market.

FOLKS, the same thing is happening here. By the time HDTV REALLY matures you are going to be stuck with the old technology and you're going to feel burned about how much you spent (you'll probably still be paying it off).

Spending that much or just HAVING to have a 60" screen when suggested viewing distance is (2 X diagonal size) is ridiculous.

At the component level there are so many developments taking place that are going to make your multi-thousand dollar monsters just IBM 8080's in a Multi-core, hyperthreaded, Hypertransport, 64 bit world.

But I thank you ALL for spending your money now so that the companies keep investing in the research so that I can buy my 36-42" HDTV in the future for $300.

Fred Dunn