New LCD HDTV "Too real"

[DrSally]

So, we got a new LCD HDTV and the HDTV channels on cable to boot. Well, it looks kinda weird, like hyper-real, esp. in brightly lit shots (daylight). It almost looks like something someone videotaped themselves. In addition, in some movies you see a lot of camera movement that gave me motion sickness on the first night. Anyone else experience this? Is it just that I'm not use to the super sharp picture?

[MelissaTC]

When we first got our tv, DH and I would stare at the facial features of actors, tv personalities, etc... We noticed things we never did before. I will still never forget the shaving cut Tom Brokaw had during election season.

[fauve01]

Dh and I noticed that weird almost strobe light delayed movement thing (i think that is what you are talking about?). We've had HD for a couple years now and the weird movement thing is new in the last couple weeks. DH said he thinks it is some bug with all the channels converting to HD with the deadline approaching next week. Hopefully they will work it out soon because it is super annoying!

HTH!
Anne

[american_mama]

Same thing here. We've had our TV less than a month and I sometimes hate it. Maybe we just don't know how to adjust it, but the color overemphasizes the pinks and red, so most people look like they are wearing lipstick, even men. The picture size is distored, so everyone looks like a linebacker in the shoulders, even when I play with the 3 different format settings that I know of. And it sometimes breaks the picture or sound up, especially with fast motion since apparently digital TV's have problems with that.

Sometimes the color and sharpness are wonderful. But sometimes it all looks cartoonish. And the cartoons themselves - they are super saturated and crisp, and really suck you in - and they make me feel like I'm on drugs watching them.

[DrSally]

...And the cartoons themselves - they are super saturated and crisp, and really suck you in - and they make me feel like I'm on drugs watching them.

Hahaha. Something about that image made me laugh. But, yeah, it almost looks too real for my taste. I think the pink/red lips thing you should be able to adjust, that's not right.

[tylersmama]

It sounds like your picture just needs adjusted. Most of the time the factory settings are set to be for display in stores, which is WAY too much for home use, and NOT the appropriate settings for optimal viewing. Try doing a google search on settings and your model and see if you can come up with anything, or just experiment a little, but my guess is that if you end up turning down some of them a little, you'll be much happier.

[BillK]

LCD's can have motion blur - plasmas do not. Some of the newer LCD's have processing built in to minimize the motion blur but they're still not as good as a plasma.

As far as colors go - 99% of all TV's ship with the default settings cranked up to the max to the point of it simply being unnatural and fake looking. They do this so their TV "jumps out" at you at the big box store (like Best Buy) when it's lined up with eleventybillion other HD tv's. They all try to outdo one another in that respect - and the average consumer is left with a super oversaturated fake looking picture that looks nothing like the movie (or show) producer ever intended.

A good place to check for lists of settings for whatever your particular brand of TV is - is the http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/ website. Most of the electronics geeks like me yhat post there will list the settings they found to be the most natural and work best for their particular tv. (you'll need to search for your tv make/model number and look for the specific thread devoted to your tv)

As a baseline setting - remove your tv from the "dynamic" or "vivid" setting it's probably set on by default - change it to "user" - change the color temp to "Warm" (or something similar - not "cool") - reduce the sharpness to at least 50 (or 0 for Samsungs as sharpness does nothing on a Samsung - it's there because the "consumer" demands it be there according to Samsung). Reduce the brightness to something like 75 or so - contrast to about 50 or so as well. Then check and see if things look a bit more natural. The first step is to get the set out of Dynamic or Vivid - because those modes are simply to catch your attention - be warned though - the "correct" settings on a HDTV will have you initially thinking "wow that looks dull" - but it's because the general non-videophile public has been subjected to all the overthetop settings on most tv's by default they've just come to accept that look as normal - when it isn't.

[khm]

for the linebacker shoulders, you can adjust that setting too. you probably have it set up on "stretch". this takes the more square image and stretches it to fill your screen. i have ours set on "widescreen", sounds like it'd stretch, but it doesn't. :) if a show is transmitting in the wide image, it displays it that way, but for the local news (for example) that is in the regular 4:3 aspect, it just shows black areas on the sides of the screen and the image is unstretched.

your manual likely has a page that shows a single image and how it'd look in each setting.

[DrSally]

Thanks for the info and website, Bill! We read the manual and tried to adjust some of the settings, but it still looks hyper real and the motion is too noticable. I do remember seeing something about "dynamic" on one of the settings. We have a Samsung 1080 with a 120 mhz processor, so it shouldn't be having the motion problems. I will def check out the website.

ETA: I haven't gotten used to the "over the top" settings yet. I thought I was just so used to our "duller" rear projection picture. Glad to hear the intense settings are not normal for the newer tv's

[BillK]

Are you using a cable box? If it's a Motorola or Pace (the ones I know about) - make sure the "auto pillarbox" setting is on. And as the PP said make sure your TV is set to "widescreen" or "full screen". Power your cable box off - press menu immediately (the box should stay on and it's menu screen should pop up) - use the arrows to scroll through the menu settings until you find "auto pillarbox" - press select to make sure it says "on" - then hit the power button on the cable box again to get out of the menu and return to it's normal power on state.

By setting your cable box to auto pillarbox - you'll get the black bars on the sides (4:3) and sometimes all the way around (lots of commercials for example) on non-HD/widescreen broadcasts - but when that happens - it's how the image is being broadcast - and it's not being streched/squashed and distorted. If the program is being broadcast in widescreen (16:9) - you'll have the full screen being used (and sometimes you'll get black bars on the top and bottom and not the sides if it's not a 16:9 broadcast - like a lot of dvd's that are in unusual theater aspects like 2.35:1 etc) - again this is normal and how it should be.

The problem is - a lot of people buy an HDTV and are not happy when that happens - they want the entire screen filled - and they end up zooming, stretching or panorama'ing the picture and it gets all funky looking. I can't tell you how many times I've been to relatives or friends houses only to see they are stretching a 4:3 picture to 16:9 and everyone looks like they're 4 feet tall by 4 feet wide (my dad for example) and their fancy new HDTV looks like crap. It makes me crazy - but I gave up trying to convince them black bars are normal depending on the broadcast and they shouldn't do that if they want the best picture.

Also - I'm guessing the 120mhz setting is something you can turn off or on with your set - perhaps try setting it to off to see if that helps with the motion funkiness? I'm guessing that setting is artificially enhancing the image which may be what's making it look odd to you?

[DrSally]

I'm actually not the one with the stretching problem, that was a pp. We do get the black sides on some pbs shows, and that's fine with me. I understand that that's how the show is being broadcast, so I wouldn't try to "stretch it" to fit the screen.

The motion issue is not so much trailing images, it's more that in some movies you can se every little camera jiggle. Like when the come up for a close up, you can see the camera moving. I didn't see that with my old tv, but I'm wondering if it's the super sharp picture again, making it so you can see Every Little Detail. Once I change the settings to tone it all down, maybe that will help.