The distant to view HDTV

[SingSing]

My wife has a good point : If HDTV is 4 times better than DVD, then we can sit closer to the TV, and get a smaller set.

Note : Samsung upconverting DVD player demo in Bestbuy, made movie look likes having small mosaic. Is this normal ?

[manono]

Hi-

Samsung upconverting DVD player demo in Bestbuy, made movie look likes having small mosaic. Is this normal ?

If you're too close it's normal. It's called the "screen-door effect", and you can see the individual pixels and the small gaps between them. They may also have it set too sharp.

Your wife's wrong, by the way. There's lots of advice about how far away to sit, and, of course, it's mostly what feels comfortable to you, but here's a calculator for you to play with:

http://www.myhometheater.homestead.com/viewingdistancecalculator.html

Compare the figures for a widescreen (16:9) and a regular old 4:3 TV set.

[SingSing]

Viewing distant is related to screen size, so Her idea is correct.

The reason we sit further back with large screen TV is we can see the artifact on DVD. We notice less of these when the TV set has good filter and/or noise reduction ability.

With better resolution and higher bit rate, these artifacts will be less, so we don't have to view them further back to aviod those annoying artifacts.

On LCD, direct view,Plasma TVs one can still see the screen door effect, but they are not that relevant to projection TVs ( CRT,DLP,LCD...).

[manono]

If HDTV is 4 times better than DVD, then we can sit closer to the TV, and get a smaller set.

But that statement has nothing to do with HDTV or old fashioned CRT. With either, the bigger it is the farther back you sit. You can sit closer with a smaller set with either kind. BUT, with a widescreen HDTV, when compared to a 4:3 TV of the same size, you sit farther back, and not closer, because of the wider aspect of the (widescreen) HDTV, meaning it fills more of your field of vision.

Viewing distant is related to screen size, so Her idea is correct.

Yes, viewing distance is related to screen size, for both old fashioned TVs and for HDTVs. You're (she's) just stating the obvious. You'll notice that distance calculator makes no distinction between Standard Def or Hi Def TV sets, but only between 4:3 and 16:9.

With better resolution and higher bit rate, these artifacts will be less, so we don't have to view them further back to aviod those annoying artifacts.

Do you actually have a Hi-Def set yet? If you did you wouldn't make that statement. With better resolution the artifacts are much more obvious. Standard Def broadcasts which look fine on a Standard Def set look like crap on a Hi Def set.

[SingSing]

I agreed that if the Source Material has lower resolution than the display device than they look like crap.

So, are you saying that HDTV is useless, until HD/BLURAY DVD take off ?

[manono]

Of course not. I wouldn't trade mine. I use it mainly for watching DVDs, and endure the lousy TV broadcasts. If I wasn't so cheap I'd buy the Hi-Def package from the cable company, but I give them enough of my money already.

[vhelp]

My wife has a good point : If HDTV is 4 times better than DVD, then we can sit closer to the TV, and get a smaller set.

( There is a test I would like for you to perform, but I'm hesitant to ask you to
perform it. )

SingSing, I'm no expert, and don't need any charts and figures thrown in my face,
but..

I would think that the reason for the poor performance when your source is based
on standard DVD specs used in higher performance devices, that the reason for
the differences is because, when the source is HD, you have, 1080 Width resolution
plus 720 Horiz lines and and SubSampling of 4:2:2 -- and all of this, original --
(vs. your S.DVD 4:2:0 sampling and lower resolution) though your HDTV is tuned for
this higher grade video source.

Mind you, I realize that HD.TV specs vary from brand to brand, as well as feature
to feature. So, some units (in this higher capacity area) will be better than
other. Bare that in mind, too.

Could be due to the units method of UpSampling 4:2:0 -> 4:2:2 a given source,
and resizing (or scaling) to the TV's resolution, whatever you have your tv
set up to. Anyways. In your case, your DVD source is 4:2:0 sampling and your
TV's method to use your source (upscaling) seems to be non-optimized in that area.

I'm with you, in terms of poor quality expectations from this higher grade device.

I was at K-Mart the other day, and was viewing a DVD ( the quality was soo poor
that I thought I was watching a VHS taping of live concert*, anyways.. ) and I
could very easily notice the (what most refer to as) the screen door effect.
It was horible, specially at close viewing distance. Then, when I looked at an-
other non-HD tv set, I could see how much difference the quality was on *that*
set, in terms of quality. It was sharper and cleaner, and no screen door effect.
Mind you, I was observing this on TUBE tv's. LCD's and Plasma's, suck, or are
much worse, imho. If you truly want to enjoy video, you simply have to go, TUBE
LCD's, etc. are getting better, but I don't think they were outperform tube tv
sets for a while.

Anyways. The source *has* to be HD in spec. That's, original in specs. Not,
upscaled, because they, in most cases, are just not offeciantly optimized in
hardware (on some unit brands) for optimum viewing pleasure. And the only time
when you *will* enjoy the video source, is when the source is "original" in HD
specs

* That concert, BTW, was the Blue Men -- I forget the title -- but, I tell you,
and in all honesty, though I disliked the Blue Men, after seeing that concert
of them, I can say that I am a *new* fan of their's

-vhelp 4085