best high def televisions for standard definition input?

[EAO]

Looking primarilay at HD LCD TV's in NA.

Wondering about the remaining SD Dish Network channels that I like to watch. What HD TV's make standard definition most pleasing to the eye. I don't give a hoot about the technical numbers - just the viewing.

[yoda313]

Well I think you're problem with sd is that unless its letterboxed so you can fill the screen without stretching its going to be 4:3 square. YOu can't change that with any tv. You can fill the borders but everything will look squatty and stretched. If its got the bars on the top and bottom on 4:3 mode than you can use your zoom mode and it will look proper.

The quality of the set won't make sd look like hd or make it worse than a tube tv. What you will like is that standard tv is output at 480p at least on my comcast high def dvr. That makes it look near dvd quality versus regular reception. When a sd source is letterboxed it looks really good when you do the fill feature without distortion.

I'd say just go with a brand you trust in your price range. Be aware that most 720p sets are 1366x768. If you want 1080p I think they start at 1000.00 and up. Though I think that should be starting drop since I bought my 32" 1366x768 for 600.00 last fall.

Just remember about sd content - the 4:3 versus 16:9 issue. That is all that really matters. Any widescreen tv will look ok on 4:3 sources. I just prefer to not stretch it if it isn't letterboxed, a squatty picture is not fun.

[TBoneit]

I have a almost 2 year old Westinhouse that Use with Dishnetwork. I have the VIP622 set to gray bars on the sides for 4:3 SD. if the SD is 16:9 letterboxed then I Zoom it in the 622 so that it fills the screen. Itried both HDMI and Component on the Westinghouse. Sd will not look even near HD. However after a minute or so I don't notice as I'm watching the SD channel for the content not the image quality. YMMV.

Right Now the VIP622 connects through Component and the Philips 5990 through HDMI. The COmputer through VGA, the DVD Changer and Tivo through S-video and the Pioneer through Component.

This was my Learner Set. A the time I didn't realize I'd want more HDMI inputs. Look for one with a QAM tuner too. I get my locals from basic cable through the QAM built in tuner as well a Dish. That gives me the capability to record 2 HD Satellite channels, Record one HD local through a OTA antenna and watch a Local channel in HD at the same time.

Overall I'm happy withthe SD Dishnetwork channels on the Westinghouse.

The other thing to remember is that most of the Dish SD channels are 544 by 480 DVB format. Approx 1 Gb an hours worth of video. You could try recreating such a file as a DVD and try playing on the different TV sets you are auditioning. I use TDA 1.5 / TDA 1.6 to create such a DVD. Using DVD patcher they can be added to TDA by patching to 720 by 480, then unpatched back to 544 by 480 after they've been added to TDA. Then author and burn. Note that this won't work with TDA 2 or TDA 3 as they will want to re-encode to DVD standard.

Good Luck

[edDV]

Best regarded for SD upscale processing are Sony XBR4 or XBR5 models followed by upper range Samsungs (Level 4-7). Sony Bravia value models are low-mid quality.
http://www.sonyxbr.com/
http://www.samsung.com/us/consumer/subtype/subtype.do?group=televisions&type=televisio...&subtype=lcdtv

A general rule is "best" SD quality requires upper range LCD-TV processing or smaller screens. Feed them 480i component or S-Video if that is all you have.

If you have the Dish or DircectTV HD tuner boxes you will get a higher level of processing than the SD boxes but not as high as the better LCD-TV sets. If you use a cheaper TV, then feed 720p from the sat tuner and it will deinterlace/IVTC/upscale SD channels internally.