bhrandon

Hello, I have been doing lots of research and I just cant seem to find the right answers anywhere, and im unsure if maybe im just asking the wrong questions.

So here is the story Purchased a new hdtv 40inch polaroid

I have comcast cable (not an hd box)

and a surround sound Sony System that i have had for a few years.

Some fairly inexpensive dvd player (dont remember what brand)

Ok so im not sure if i am just super picky or what but the tv seems to not have the depth that i want it to. On the show room floor it looked fairly amazing. It had rather amazing clarity in the picture (at the time they were showing stills of buildings), i made sure to ask them to show a few different things on it (i.e. people, some action shots, shots with some intense colors).

The peoples skin tones and depth of their faces was simply stunning, Buildings had great details, the colors were vibrant and sexy. The point being i could see no pixelazation (is that a word?). Now i know that in the show room they may have their contrast set really high or whatever to make it look super good. But the fact that i could see no annoying lines and the detail was super just made me fall in love.

So i get home, plug it in to my cable box, dvd player, and surround sound.

The picture looks blurry, lots of meshed pixels, not very good detail.

So why? Is it because they were viewing things through high definition?

Were they using a HDMI cable?

Im just kind of lost. The comcast cable box i have has only a coax out and L R V out.

I have the cable from wall going into box then going into tv, tv outputs sound to surround

dvd outputs video (PYB) to tv and audio to surround

Now the dvd's look a little better, but still nothing near what i was seeing in the showroom? Is it something im doing or is it... well i dont know?

I did all the calibration as i was instructed by so many sites on the web. I had to use sharpness to pull the blur out, but my little crt tvs have far superior looking screen quality. THings look, unreal on the new tv and just kind of smooshy (lol sorry i cant think of anymore ways to describe it)

i really appreciate any help that anyone can give me, so thanks in advance

Commonmind

First things first: yes, pixelization, while not technically a "word" is generally accepted as being a part of the display technology dictionary. Secondly, show rooms are quite possibly the worst place for viewing a TV. There's all sorts of elements at play here, including optimal lighting, heavy (sometimes professional) calibration and, as you already assumed, most if not all of these televisions will be displaying a high-definition image - though not all of them will be connected via HDMI.

No matter what kind of calibrating or tweaking you do, you'll never be able to match the image you saw in the store. You're going to have to contact your cable provider and have them come out and install an HD-capable box for you. You'll also, as you may have guessed, need to subscribe to the HD channels provided by your cable company and look into purchasing a Blu-ray or HD-DVD player to take full advantage of your new display. If you already have an Xbox 360 the HD-DVD add-on is a great deal (if you don't, the Arcade version of the console plus the HD-DVD player add-on will cost you a little over 400 dollars), and the PS3 (its lowest end model being 400 dollars) is a fantastic Blu-ray player.

I'd also recommend Digital Video Essentials for calibration, as well as installing a back-light bias - which is a soft light mounted behind the TV; this can make the displaying image pop and seem more vibrant; it also helps increase the perceivable depth of black levels.

bhrandon

thanks for the info!

Commonmind

My pleasure