Optimising SD display on HDTV

Cavallino · 9 Jun 2008 at 09:54

Ok so Ive now got myself a Sammy 5 series 37" LCD TV and love it to bits.

However. I have hooked up Sky+ to the Panel, and it does look good, albeit a little blocky and hazy. Aside from the fact Im feeding an SD signal into an HDTV, what other factors could contribute to these symptons?

I have plugged my Sky+ into the RGB Scart Socket of my Panel. But how would I know if the Scart cable that Ive plugged it into, is "RGB compliant"?

Would Gold Scarts make much more difference as opposed to the standard metal ones?

Would I be better using the S-Video socket as opposed to Scart?

Are there any settings I need to play with on the panel itself or the Sky+ box itself?

Any comments appreciated

TIA

Hen_Dawg · 9 Jun 2008 at 10:48

Suggest finding the relevant owners thread on www.avforums.com for recommended settings. Don't expect miracles with SD picture though.
Better quality scart would help, don't use the s-video

Cavallino · 9 Jun 2008 at 10:58

Hen_Dawg said:
Suggest finding the relevant owners thread on www.avforums.com for recommended settings. Don't expect miracles with SD picture though.
Better quality scart would help, don't use the s-video

Hmm thanks Hen_Dawg.

Ive never used AVForums actually. Worth a shot I guess!

jonshaw_uk · 9 Jun 2008 at 11:07

avforums is really good loads of good info on there
used it off and on now for about 3 years

Nymins · 9 Jun 2008 at 11:58

Its difficult getting a good picture from an LCD. I have the Samsung M86 and the SD picture is ok, but nowhere near as good as my old Panasonic CRT. The best solution is getting either decent SCART cables (make sure they are RGB) or get a Plasma.

Jonnycoupe · 9 Jun 2008 at 12:18

Nymins said:
Its difficult getting a good picture from an LCD. I have the Samsung M86 and the SD picture is ok, but nowhere near as good as my old Panasonic CRT. The best solution is getting either decent SCART cables (make sure they are RGB) or get a Plasma.

The amazing thing with that HDTV is HD is even more annoying to watch. football on BBCHD is a total let down, brurring player and smeaing billboards. Im not sure if this is a issue only with HDMI.

A good scart should make a big difference to Sky+.

Biffa · 10 Jun 2008 at 00:32

Took me ages to find a LCD that looked good for SD stuff, only Sony could get it right out of the box with next to zero tweaking required & I tried 4 different 37" LCD brands

clv101 · 10 Jun 2008 at 00:37

Nymins said:
Its difficult getting a good picture from an LCD. I have the Samsung M86 and the SD picture is ok, but nowhere near as good as my old Panasonic CRT.

That's "progress" for you! I have an old 25" 4:3 Sony Trinitron TV, the picture is great. The only motivation I have for an LCD is for Xbox and running the living room PC through it.

Biffa · 10 Jun 2008 at 23:03

clv101 said:
That's "progress" for you! I have an old 25" 4:3 Sony Trinitron TV, the picture is great. The only motivation I have for an LCD is for Xbox and running the living room PC through it.

Agreed, I had a 28" widescreen trinitron which I felt I had to get at least as good a picture with that on SD stuff, managed it but only by sticking with Sony. YMMV but thats what worked for me.

Cavallino · 11 Jun 2008 at 09:45

So why is it that LCD TVs are inferior to Plasmas for SD?
Is it noticeably inferior?

How do I know the difference between an RGB scart and non RGB scart?

Does the scart truly make a huge difference based on its quality for Sky+?

oli collett · 11 Jun 2008 at 10:15

Hen_Dawg said:
Suggest finding the relevant owners thread on www.avforums.com for recommended settings. Don't expect miracles with SD picture though.
Better quality scart would help, don't use the s-video

I'm highly dubious of any benefits of Scart's costing more than a tenner - as long as you can get RGB out you should be fine.

Ps. any users of avforums - is the cables & interconnects forum still there? It doesn't look like it's there to me..

[DOD]Asprilla · 11 Jun 2008 at 10:29

oli collett said:
Ps. any users of avforums - is the cables & interconnects forum still there? It doesn't look like it's there to me..

It's in the 'Other Home Cinema Essentials' section: Cables, Interconnects & Connections.

oli collett · 11 Jun 2008 at 11:01

[DOD]Asprilla;11866131 said:
It's in the 'Other Home Cinema Essentials' section: Cables, Interconnects & Connections.

Looks like i've been banned from that forum then!!! Ridiculous.

I don't think I'll bother visiting them again. If they can't face the reality that there is no evidence to support cables making a difference to a system then that's just pathetic. I expect it's to keep the advertisers like Russ Andrews (who has been in trouble with the ASA for making false claims) happy.

Jonnycoupe · 11 Jun 2008 at 11:24

oli collett said:
I'm highly dubious of any benefits of Scart's costing more than a tenner - as long as you can get RGB out you should be fine.

Even though its an analogue signal? Sounds like the HDMI cable thing is now working inversly.

[DOD]Asprilla · 11 Jun 2008 at 11:30

oli collett said:
advertisers like Russ Andrews (who has been in trouble with the ASA for making false claims).

Also a regular in The Guardian 'Bad Science' column.

oli collett · 11 Jun 2008 at 11:43

Jonnycoupe said:
Even though its an analogue signal? Sounds like the HDMI cable thing is now working inversly.

Here's the thing. As mentioned in another thread, you can easily check if you can see the difference between two cables using an A/B/X comparitor, see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABX_test

This method of testing is flawless and it would be very easy for a cable company to come out and say "look at the results, it makes a difference". Do they? No. Why? If you can prove your product works, why don't you? Instead they rely on magazines like what hi-fi's subjective testing methods to advertise their products.

I'm sure there are millions of people out there who have swapped their cables round and noticed massive differences in the sound. The problem is that under controlled conditions the results do not support this which suggests the effect is a placebo.

Personally, i prefer to see proof of something working to believe in it. If people want to lap up everything WHF et al. come out with then fine, but remember these are the same magazines that harp's on about the effects of power cleansers and HDMI cables that apparently make huge differences (but again, controlled tests suggest they don't).

(awaits -Ad- to tell me that ABX tests are sad and pointless again

)

Jonnycoupe · 11 Jun 2008 at 12:15

My Thor SCART cable cost over £10 and made a good difference. Therefore as far as Im concerned your statement holds no water. Ad to that the amount of issues people have with VGA cables on games consoles and how OEM is best then you can really pull the 'cables make no difference line' when thats only true of things like USB and HDMI leads.

oli collett · 11 Jun 2008 at 12:22

Jonnycoupe said:
My Thor SCART cable cost over £10 and made a good difference. Therefore as far as Im concerned your statement holds no water. Ad to that the amount of issues people have with VGA cables on games consoles and how OEM is best then you can really pull the 'cables make no difference line' when thats only true of things like USB and HDMI leads.

VGA cables with games consoles? How do you mean?

When i say cables make no difference, i mean two cables with the same connection type, i am not talking about comparing something like a component cable to a composite one.

One thing to note about Scart cables is that some have terrible connections (i'm sure we've all experienced that). Again, this is a different argument.

If you believe that, say, there is a perceivable difference between some audioquest speaker cable at £3000/m or however much it is and some thick copper cable then contact James Randi - he's offering £1,000,000 to anyone who can under controlled conditions. And it's real.

Shall we start a new thread for this stuff? I don't want to p*** off the OP by sidetracking..

Jonnycoupe · 11 Jun 2008 at 12:40

oli collett said:
Shall we start a new thread for this stuff? I don't want to p*** off the OP by sidetracking..

Indeed hence i recommended a better SCART. With the Samsungs SCART 1 tends to be the RGB compliant one so getting something like a Thor would be recommended. My parents have one on their plasma with sky+ and it definatley cleans the picture up, particularly EPG text.

oli collett · 11 Jun 2008 at 13:01

Jonnycoupe said:
Indeed hence i recommended a better SCART. With the Samsungs SCART 1 tends to be the RGB compliant one so getting something like a Thor would be recommended. My parents have one on their plasma with sky+ and it definatley cleans the picture up, particularly EPG text.

I'd be surprised to see such a big difference with a scart cable so i'm sceptical of your claims - as long as all the pins are there i cannot see how RGB compliance will make any difference. I can, on the other hand, believe that a change in scart cable would make a difference in those cases where you get problems in the actual connection.

On another note:
http://www.bruce.coppola.name/audio/urbanLegends.pdf

Is interesting reading.