New HD TV - bad quality with DVD

[caverock]

I have a major question to pose to members:

I wonder if anyone can help me with a problem that has arisen since buying a new TV. I sometimes have clients around wanting to view samples of previous weddings, and we bought a new Samsung HD 5 series LCD TV, hoping that the quality and size would enhance the DVD footage. Unfortunately, it seems that due to me not having a HD camera, the quality is not so good on screen. Straight lines are all jagged (I understand that this is due to lines on footage are less than on HD TV).

Is there any way to remedy this without buying more expensive equipment??? Please help. I will give you the low down on what equipment I have, and what the issues are that I'm having to make things simpler.

I film with a Sony PD 170 broadcast camera (not HD, but hoping to purchase one someday in the future - holding thumbs for a lotto win!)

I use Pinnacle to edit (would love to find out if someone can teach me Premiere Pro, as I'm not a 'textbook' kind of person. Would be willing to pay for lessons). I am based in Durban.

I now have Samsung HD 5 series LCD TV.

I have normal LG DVD player (not HDMI) - but on trying one of my disks (with my footage filmed on Sony PD 170) at Makro with an HD DVD player, it did not make any difference.

Please help help help.

Thanks
Karen

 

[avr-rulez]

This is the problem with LCD / Plasma sets , they are NOT forgiving on poor / low res pictures.

You don't mention how you connect your DVD player. In my experience it's proven best to go through component cables. If you have a newer DVD player with HDMI output then use that. They say the DVD players upscale - but they do a pathetic job.

Drop your LCD res DOWN to DVD standard - dont use 720 or 1080 try a lower setting - remember on a GOOD dvd player you only get about 400 lines anyway.

The only box I've seen that does a excellent upscale is the Dreambox - but then you said you don't want more expense (R14k)

 

[TYR]

This is the problem with LCD / Plasma sets , they are NOT forgiving on poor / low res pictures.

... No, no ... problem with LCD.
Plasma is very very forgiving on poor / low res picture. SD material looks brilliant on both my Pioneer KURO 50" and an older LG 42" plasma.

 

[rogerwe]

Your problem is simple. You're viewing SD (low resolution) material on a HD (hi resoultion) TV. You want HD quality, film in HD or watch Blu-Ray disks.

Its like this: taking a picture in 800 x 600 and expanding it using Paint Software to 1280 x 1024 . You're not going to be impressed with blown up picture.

I can't understand how the public in general has been conned into buying massive 40" HD LCD TV's and haven't upgraded the the material or the players they're using.

Even the best upscalers (Blue-Ray players upscale normal DVD's) don't do justice.

Sorry for the blunt reply.

 

[Bionic]

Its like the problem i am experiencing.I get poor quality on my LCD with the DSTV SD decoder because of the broadcast.I cant do anything except upgrade to PVR .In your case you definately need to upgrade your hardware to experience the high definition...especially if this is for your clients!

Let me suggest this...try your footage on an XBOX which is possibly connected via (HDMI or YPBPR cable to an HD TV and then confirm the quality.Dont forget to set the XBOX to 720p or 1080p for optimum quality.If its still the same then you can clearly confirm that its your camera that needs upgrading.

Hope this helps!!

 

[Dolby]

I can't understand how the public in general has been conned into buying massive 40" HD LCD TV's and haven't upgraded the the material or the players they're using.

Even the best upscalers (Blue-Ray players upscale normal DVD's) don't do justice.

Sorry for the blunt reply.

I bought a Samsung B650 46" a few months ago and haven't upgraded my source - simply because I don't feel I need to.

DVD quality looks pretty decent on the screen and upscaled via my Marantz DVD, isn't terribly far from away from Blu ray quality.

Don't misunderstand me : there IS a visible difference, but not as wide as one would imagine. I played Wedding Crashes the other day and a friend commented on how great the HD version looked.

 

[GouKi]

i got the series 5 samsung LCD with samsung dvd 1080p9 upscale dvd player - not impressed with the quality either but will try avr-rulez advice and see... - the player is connect to the LCD through HDMI cable.

 

[RanzB]

Maybe the best (and simplest way) for your clients to view proper res pics would to just show them to the clients on a PC monitor? If this seems a bit low-class to you for demo's, I would suggest investing in a larger LCD monitor, maybe around 24", for the PC, it is relatively cheaper than other options, and can also be justified as you also use a PC to edit your work.

 

[wetkit]

At what quality are you encoding your DVD's?
Try and connect your camera directly to your screen to see what the quality looks like directly.
It could just be that you encoding your DVD's at too low a quality.
You might have to do 2 DVD's now for a wedding.

 

[beeskuiken]

when viewing a standard dvd (movie), will it look better on a 720 LCD TV or on a 1080 LCD TV?

_

 

[TYR]

when viewing a standard dvd (movie), will it look better on a 720 LCD TV or on a 1080 LCD TV?

_

No ...

... it will look better on a plasma ... 720p or 1080p

A 720p and 1080p LCD should perform very similar with SD content.

 

[Keeper]

the problem does not lie with the TV or player - it's the source

can't do anything about it unless buy an HD Camera and Burn to Blu-ray....