I've got a Sagem 45" DLP set, and it does a very good job of upscaling standard def pictures from Sky...

Posted by: Seb | May 8, 2006 10:30 PM

Got a Toshiba 37wlt66 couple of weeks ago. It's true the 'definition' suffers under usual broadcast conditions (I'm on NTL digi) - but hey, the screen is MASSIVE compared to my old 26" CRT telly. So I have to accept this. BUT the picture is big and very impressive even with this stoneage format so I will live with it for now...

However, with the TV came a progressive scan DVD thingy and a nice component cable which I hooked up with little surround sound set. Lord of the Rings, Star Wars etc are now awesome audio/visual events. Buy the flat HDTV now, they will give you something to look forward to in TV terms - and something to have now in DVD terms!!

Posted by: Damien | May 8, 2006 11:15 PM

Yep, Ive experienced the problem on a Philips 37PF9830. Although the HD content ive streamed to the TV via a Media Center PC looks fantastic, the picture looks decidedly poor when viewing normal standard definition television. I guess it's due to having a picture normally reserved for a small screen, being blown up so that all the artifacts can be seen. However, that problem was solved by viewing everything through either a Sky box or freeview digi-box where the quality of the picture was much better.

Posted by: Paul | May 9, 2006 12:52 AM

Don't plan on watching tv until there is freeview hd anyway so isn't a problem for me, but i'm sure others may be miffed at less quality than with their older SD sets.

Damn I wish they would hurry up and do the digital switchover already! :(

Posted by: Simon | May 9, 2006 1:34 AM

I would've thought they'd have to release "Freeview 2" to get a HD version - I didn't think FV had the bandwidth to support HD broadcasting.

Seb, I've heard good things about Sagem though they were never a brand that sprang to mind straight away.

Posted by: Andy Merrett | May 9, 2006 8:01 AM

I have recently purchased a Sony Bravia KDL-V40A12U, and had warned my Wife that there might be some fall off from our previous excellent Panasonic CRT, however, the pay-off would be HD. I am now a bit concerned, as the quality of the Sony Bravia is so superb, that I am beginning to wonder whether HD can top it!! Far from a fall-off, we have a generally, brilliant picture with obviously, more recently filmed programs such as 24, performing better than old travel programs.
Also bear in mind this is on a 40" compared to a 28". My Wife and I are delighted with the quality.

Posted by: William Birchall | May 9, 2006 8:58 AM

Hi William,

That's great news! I must admit the reviews I'd read put me off (not that I have the money to splash on a new TV anyway) so glad that it's looking good for you.

I wouldn't worry - HD is still likely to top it!

Posted by: Andy Merrett | May 9, 2006 11:26 AM

I have found that the standard def picture on my jvc 37 lcd is not as good as the picture on the now replaced 28" sony! However having seen what the xbox 360 can do in hd the world cup in hd is the only reason you need to buy a hdtv and sky hd!

Posted by: Paul | May 9, 2006 12:11 PM

I've recently bought a Sony 32" Bravia with Freeview built in. I also have my NTL box hooked up to it (until later this month when I swap to SKY HD!). It's true that the pictures from NTL were better on my old CRT but on the whole the pictures via Freeview are just as good and sometimes better than the old CRT pictures in my view. I've only got limited knowledge but I think it's a question of signals..... Both NTL and Freeview are digital signals. However the Freeview signal is processed once and displayed on a digital television. The NTL pictures are converted to an analogue signal (because most TVs are analogue) and sent to your telly via a Scart lead. Your digital TV then has to convert the picture back into digital format for displaying on the screen. It's a question of Chinese whispers - the more the signal is changed from D-A or A-D the more chance there is for it to lose quality. Of course the SKY box will feed signals to the TV (even non-HD signals) via the HDMI (pure digital) lead so no D-A conversion will be necessary. So in theory, and assuming my understanding is correct, Sky’s normal digi pictures will be just as good as the Freeview pictures.

Posted by: Allan Blackburn | May 9, 2006 2:34 PM

I've had a Samsung LE32M61 Lcd for a while now and the standard definition pictures from my NTL digital box are crystal clear and stunning. Same for DVDs.

I use good quality cabling all round and this makes an enormous difference to the picture quality. You'd be surprised how poor quality the cables supplied with most A/V equipment are. It really makes a difference. In the UK look up Mark Grant cables, they are the best quality you'll find and at a good price.

Posted by: Keir | May 9, 2006 3:01 PM

Yep. I have the Panasonic TH42PX60. It looks great when it's swithched off!, it looks great with progressive scan DVD's, however with my NTL cable box it looks crappy some of the time. The reason for this is twofold.

1. NTL really compress the crap out of the signal before it is transmitted to reduce bandwith. Which is great for them but causes excessive blocky artefacts.

2. The TV has to scale/stretch the image to fit the larger screen resolution. So you notice these things more as the blocks get bigger.

Can't wait till I get my Sky HD box so I can get rid of this NTL rubbish.

Posted by: Shoto | May 9, 2006 5:05 PM

Bought a 46" Samsung LCD Set---Stunning!!
Watched the DVD "King Kong" on a Panasonic Player and I honestly don't know how the picture can be improved --Sharp as a razor and crystal clear.
No annoying reflections on the screen like my Pal with Plasma!!!!

Posted by: Terry | May 9, 2006 7:21 PM

Hi there. I have returned 2 quite expensive LCDs just recently. The Sky picture was TERRIBLE and even my dvd player through component & scart was hideous. And because most (or all to my knowledge) HD TVs come with 1 HDMI connector I put back my huge box 32" crt back and I have never been so relieved! I am actually away to try ny local Comet store for the new Samsung 32" HD CRT (...yes I did say CRT) TV. I think the CRT is far from dead. Please dont bombard me with insults, I am just expressing my opinion, if you love your new LCDs thats fine, but untill LCDs do something about SD I will NOT be buying a third! Thanks

Posted by: Stuart | May 10, 2006 4:15 AM

Got my Toshiba 37" WLT66 installed yesterday and it is fantastic, the picture is brilliant, you can adjust to compensate for not having high def and I have Ntl set top box so it must be doing something right!
I let the TV engineer install it, they know what they are doing. Good quality connectors are a must. Wouldn't send my Tosh back it's fabulous.

Posted by: R.J. | May 10, 2006 7:54 PM

It is very true - Flat panel HDTV's do have inferior picture quality when displaying SD picture content from an a nalog or digital source compared to a direct view CRT technology. This is because the HD LCD panels 9and plasma) used in the majority have HD native resolutions for displaying 1808i or 720p (1920 x 1080 pixels or 1280 x 720 pixels) - the problem is with SD signals these have to be up-converted to the hD native resoltion and this involves a process called interpolation. Depening on the product, the interpolation unfortunately degrades the original signal to a greater or lesser extent. It is a fact of life unfortunately. So, it will only come right when HD transmissions become the norm, some way off right now.

Posted by: Stephen Moorhouse | May 26, 2006 7:39 AM

SD TV signals are definitely much poorer on LCD's than they are on CRT's. I've had 2 Phillips LCD's and a Panasonic one (only came out 2 months ago) and the SD picture is pretty much crap. The more expensive Panasonic was a bit better than the Phillips though. I am currently using a Phillips LCD at 26" size, but am probably going to take it back as I am not satisfied with the SD quality, sound quality and PC input quality through both analog and HDMI. I tested many LCD's to see their SD signals and how they display my PC, from the latest LG to Sony, all unsatisfied. I am now thinking of going back to CRT probably until next year when they might have done something about all these problems. LCD TV's look nice and are compact, that's about it.

Posted by: DX | June 23, 2006 10:44 PM

I have the Samsung LE32R74 and its a dream in both HD, SD & Xbox 360.
However, I had previously been a Sony supporter and my first choice was a Sony Bravia HD product UNTIL i actually saw the pictures side by side.
Both the HD & SD quality is far superior on the Samsung, don't ask me why, I was as shocked as anyone to discover this as until then I loooked down my nose at Samsung products, but their quality build and technical specs have increased expotentially in the last two years.

Posted by: steve page | October 9, 2006 5:18 PM

http://www.supernova23.plus.com/sam32.htm

Comment on Stuarts 'Samsung CRT HDTV'

Be careful, the CRT HD TV's have some geometry issues.
However, for the price [£400!]seem very good.
They display native 720P and upscale to 1080i just like most 'hd ready' lcd tv's.
Ideal for the 360 and NTL's forthcoming HD TV package.

Posted by: steve page | October 9, 2006 5:32 PM

Just bought an Hitachi 32LD8A10. First one went back due to some quirky problems with the analogue tuner. Picture quality is slight better on analogue than digital, especially when watching fooball, as the picture tends to blurr on fast action when watching on digibox. As i'm currently using an old nokia (ondigital) box i suspect it may causing some of the probs.
Still trying to suss which box to replace it with.

Posted by: Michael Wilson | October 17, 2006 12:04 AM

bought an evesham 32 lcd as they make great puters.returned first due to poor pic quality on an rf feed from a sky digibox( powered output). second one is the same.I have a 20 in lcd daewoo which displays the signal ok? am confused and unimpressed.

Posted by: john leitch | October 24, 2006 12:16 PM

I have a 50" Sagem DLP set and can say the picture quality with a standard freeview box is just as good as it was on my old 32" CRT and better than on my 32" LCD set. I have read reports that suggest that the Sagem DLP sets 'upscale' standard scart inputs but can't verify if this is true.

Posted by: Steve Flatman | January 8, 2007 1:24 AM

Does sky HD produce a better SD picture then sky+?

Posted by: anon. | January 17, 2007 12:05 AM

now that's a good question i didn't think of.......anybody got an answer

Posted by: paul | January 21, 2007 7:55 PM

please please anyone rushing out to buy an lcd hd ready tv,take my advice,dont,im linked up thru ntl and the picture is appalling,thinking of switching back to my old tv for a year until the hd ready boxes come down in price

Posted by: wayne clarke | March 4, 2007 2:21 PM

Just bought a Philips 32PFL7862 LCD TV.
It does not display correctly the aspect ratio format used for most Freeview broadcasts. On autoformat it fills the screen width and crops top and bottom - giving an unwanted zoom effect. On the only other feasible option (4:3) it squashes the picture too much because the broadcasts are no longer actually 4:3
I seem to notice that Japanese sets do this better?

Posted by: Roger | January 9, 2008 10:24 AM

ok chaps, to all that are wondering in regards to picture quality, i am able to give you a full breakdown in regards to this. I work in audio and tv for a dept store, so have wide indepth knowledge.
ok, a standard crt tv was designed to show the bandwidth of analogue signal, which is approx 576 lines of signal, any new tv which is hd ready, has been designed to show a minimum of 720 lines of signal, however the standard signal going into these sets is still only 576, whether this be standard aerial, cable, ntl, virgin and sky.
because of this, the set is effectively missing 150 lines of signal information, so the processor is working it's hardest to fill the space as quick as possible, hence the reasoning for the distortion.
once the signal from a normal aerial connection has the capable bandwidth, which should be 2012, normal aerial signal will be able to broadcast at the higher number of lines being 720 lines, there is no confirmation however if you will need a box to process the higher band signal, but it appears most likely, all i can say in addition is to be patient, as it will be worth the wait.

Posted by: Gary | February 3, 2008 1:41 PM

Sony Bravia 32" KDL32P3020U
I purchased this TV last Friday,after reading so many positive reviews.
I thought it would be a treat,linking up with my SKY Digital,and TOSHIBA HDD Recorder.
The built in Freeviw,was simply stunning,as perfect as you can get,HOWEVER, the TVs picture was very poor when dsiplaying DVD,and SKY signals.
A full week,wen by,with constant tinkering,SCART upgrades,before finally giving up the ghost and returning it.
The images seem "misty"--until you activate "Vivid" Mode,but then taht makes everything look almost like a cartoon.
I am so,so disapointed.

Posted by: Johnny D | February 10, 2008 9:34 PM

I am still holding off from buying an HD LCD exactly for the reason stated. I'm not going to pay extra to sky for the same content but in HD, so I want a solution that will play HD DVD and games - but also play standard def as well as my CRT does. I havent seen one so far that does though - no matter what technical jargon is used to pitch it

Posted by: Malc | February 28, 2008 1:00 PM