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Bought an HD-TV: Waste of Money

Mr Light

Mr Light

Admiral
Admiral
I was so excited today, using the Super Bowl TV sales I finally bought myself an HD-TV. An Emerson 32 incher for $330. I took it home and unpacked it, ready to experience high definition...

...turns out the image is MUCH WORSE than my eight year old TV. I don't have HD-Cable or a Blu Ray player. Now at the very least I expected the SAME image as my crappy old 28" TV but it is seriously worse! It's all blocky and blurry! Not only for the cable TV... but for my DVD player as well!

So I'll be returning this expensive paperweight...

Has anyone else had a rough brush with reality when "upgrading" like this?

Also, if I buy a $330 TV at Walmart and immediately return it, will I get all my money back? What a pain.
 
You might not want to return the TV just yet. The fault is in the source you're feeding it.

If you don't have HD channels (be they through over-the-air, cable, or satellite) or a Blu-Ray player, you won't be seeing anything in HD. Why did you buy the TV anyway if you don't have any HD sources?
 
Because I thought it would make the current signal look the same or better. And I couldn't read the text when I played X-Box 360 games. But we're moving in May, I'm not going to get new cables or a cable box installed or anything like that. Why would it make everything look twice as bad? I'm not gonna sit on something that cost $350 on the off chance that it will work five months from now...
 
Mr Light said:
Because I thought it would make the current signal look the same or better.
Click to expand...

Sorry, but it doesn't work that way. Despite what proponents of "upconverting" might tell you, a HDTV can't make standard signals into HD ones. You have to get a genuine HD source.

And it's not an "off chance" either. If you get such a source, you *will* see genuine HD. If you're moving, then that's a good reason to wait, but your TV will still be there when you do.
 
I live in an apartment building and I'm moving out in May, so I'm not gonna sign up for new services or anything and pay two installation fees in a row. Even if I wasn't expecting up-converting I at least expected the same quality, though, that's what pisses me off. My current image looks like grainy shit; the only good thing is I can actually read the X360 game text now :p
 
Mr Light said:
Because I thought it would make the current signal look the same or better. And I couldn't read the text when I played X-Box 360 games. But we're moving in May, I'm not going to get new cables or a cable box installed or anything like that. Why would it make everything look twice as bad? I'm not gonna sit on something that cost $350 on the off chance that it will work five months from now...
Click to expand...

Good luck on getting your money back. I'm not sure the that stores give refunds when the customer has bought something when they don't really understand.

Haven't you at least bought a digital STB? I though the U.S had the big change over to digital in the middle of last year? A digital STB would allow you to pick up the HD FTA channels from broadcasters.
 
What's an STB? I get basic cable. I also have AOL dial-up internet and I don't have a cell phone. I don't have high technology :p ;) The digital changeover only involved broadcast TV, by which I mean people using rabbit ears on their TVs and not cable.
 
Do you know anyone who doesn't have cable?

If so, see if you can borrow their digital antenna.

I don't have cable, just over-the-air TV, and I don't have HDTV, just a regular old 32" glass-screened TV. But I think there are over-the-air HD signals from some networks now...

Is this correct, guys?
 
Marc said:
Mr Light said:
Because I thought it would make the current signal look the same or better. And I couldn't read the text when I played X-Box 360 games. But we're moving in May, I'm not going to get new cables or a cable box installed or anything like that. Why would it make everything look twice as bad? I'm not gonna sit on something that cost $350 on the off chance that it will work five months from now...
Click to expand...

Good luck on getting your money back. I'm not sure the that stores give refunds when the customer has bought something when they don't really understand.
Click to expand...

Wal-Mart will take just about anything back, as far as I know. I think they have a 30-day policy as long as you have the receipt.
 
Walmart is pretty easy going on returns. Couple years ago I bought a DVD Recorder for $200-300 and the damn thing didn't work for me and I returned it for all my money back.
 
No, I don't have a box, just a cable that comes out of the wall and goes into the TV/VCR. Yes I have a VCR and I use it all the time to tape shows! :p :D
 
The problem you are seeing is you are taking an old-style 480p broadcast signal source and stretching it over the new 1080p "canvas" your new set has to work with. It lets you see the imperfections of the old signal.

Just hang onto your new set. When you move, get the HD channel package as you install cable in your new place. You'll be set. And it will give you more enjoyment of your new place too. In the meantime, can you add a monitor to your computer? If so, and if you subscribe to Netflix, you can watch their streaming movies on your new set.

ETA: Also, try running the cable straight into the new TV without the VCR attached and rescan for channels. I have found that in some areas there are HD channels over your standard cable (where else would they be coming from after all?), you just need your TV's tuner to get them. And sometimes your VCR will get in the way of that.
 
I'm on dial-up internet ;) Hmm, so I put in the DVD of "Moon" and it looked like grainy shit. But we just put in Pixar's UP and this actually looks sharp. Dare I say it, possibly even better than on the old TV. But would only Up look better when everything else looks horrible? Was "Moon" already grainy-looking?
 
Do you have one of the newer model Xbox360's?
They should have a HDMI conection...
Get a HDMI cable(price doesn't matter) and hook it up to your new tv.
Games should look better, don't know if it upscales DVD's though.
 
^ Do you mean use the 360 to play DVDs? That would a) require me to buy the remote to play DVDs as I understand and also b) would burn out my 360 pretty fast we play DVDs all the time.
 
A point about "upconversion". This does not actually make standard DVDs into high definition. What it DOES do is make sure that when you view it on an HDTV, there's not a tiny postage stamp sized image in the middle of the screen surrounded by a foot of black on all sides. That's what would happen if there was no upconversion. (Because the maximum resolution of standard DVDs is, what, 480i? And the resolution of most HDTVs is 1080.)

Now it is entirely possible that an upconverting DVD player would do a *better* job of this than the TV would. But every HDTV ever made can upconvert. If the DVD player doesn't do it, the TV will. And I have found that most decent HDTVs do have better upconverters.
 
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