LCD HDTV 1080p with HD tuner.. grainy!

[Browncoat]

I bought a new 32"(81cm) Kogan HDTV http://www.kogan.com.au/shop/kogan-1080p-32-full-hd-lcd-tv-hd-tuner/
I know its not a name brand or anything but the specs seemed reasonable.. anyways i'm not completely happy with the picture quality most of the channels(even the HD ones) look grainy or pixely except channel 10's looped playback of historic places/scenery which looks quite nice. I am wondering if the HD tuner might be el-cheapo? might I get better results from an external/seperate more expensive HD tuner? I read a lot of reviews and comments in forums seemed most people were quite happy with the quality of picture.

[guns1inger]

A lot of TV shows are grainy by design, and the clarity of HD makes it much more obvious. SD, especially through a CRT tends hide it. Sport is noticeably pixelated, especially the AFL broadcasts. Also remember that ABC only broadcasts 720p on it's HD channel, and SBS a lowly 576p (not really HD at all, but there you go). From the start most SD channels have been over compressed over here, and even the HD channels don't always get a fair data rate. Ten HD has been the most consistently high quality of the three 1080 channels.

Digital is a simple beast. You don't get degrees of quality from a broadcast. You either get what they send, or you don't. The quality of the image comes from the processing engine in the TV, and this is where most cheaper brands (and even some name brands) really drop the ball. At AUD$900 for a full 1080p screen, I can't image much has been spent on the engine. You get what you pay for. An external tuner is unlikely to make much difference, because I suspect the problem doesn't lie there at all.

[Browncoat]

Funny thing is when I watch a dvd on this TV it looks much better than the HD tuner signals..

[edDV]

Funny thing is when I watch a dvd on this TV it looks much better than the HD tuner signals..

When watching DVD from a progressive DVD player (e.g. from analog components or HDMI), you are using the processing engine in the DVD player to do deinterlace or frame repeats. The HDTV then receives 480p, 576p, 720p or 1080p at 50Hz and then just scales the image to the native panel resolution (1920x1080 in this case). The heavy processing is done in the player.

To evaluate your TV processor, send 720x576i/25fps instead from the player. The HDTV will then deinterlace to 720x576p/50fps (or IVTC if NTSC) and upscale to 1920x1080 for display. If this were a 100Hz model, the TV would also frame repeat. Now you can compare your DVD to TV processing engine.

If the TV processor is whack, you may be able to improve the image bay connecting a cable, sat, or external OTA broadcast tuner at 720p (or 1080p if possible). In that case, the deinterlace processing load is taken by the STB.

If the HDTV were a premium model (e.g. Sony XBR) then it is likely the HDTV processor would do better image processing than the STB. In that case you would ideally send 1080i HD, 480i/576i SD from the STB and let the TV do the deinterlace.

[Browncoat]

I'm getting a PS3 for christmas mainly as a media centre, it should do most/all of the processing similar to the dvd player? Should I expect blu-rays to look ok?

[guns1inger]

Many upscalers tend to smooth the image in an attempt to reduce mosquito noise, which results in less noise in the image. When you watch 1080p this does not occur, so you see it warts and all.

Until recently at least, and possibly still, Kogan use cheap Samsung panels, not the ones that Samsung and Sony use for their TVs.