HDTV Help Needed

[Spot's Meow]

My boyfriend just got a 26" LCD HDTV from his mom for his birthday, so we put it in our living room. And I am getting really frustrated because to me it seems much crappier than our 19" CRT that we had previously been using.

The first problem is the sound, doesn't sound right...it sounds like when you play a movie or TV show on your laptop, that tinny sound. My CRT had way better sound. We hooked up some crappy speakers and they made it better so that's what we're using for now.

The second problem is that prolonged viewing hurts my eyes, just like a computer screen. When I look at a computer screen too long my eyes start to feel dry and tired, and unfortunately the LCD TV has the same effect. Very frustrating because after looking at a computer screen all day at work the last thing I want to do is come home and look at another one while I am trying to enjoy my TV.

Third problem is the aspect ratio and the bars. Now, with standard programs putting a 4:3 picture on the screen, I expect there to be black bars on the sides of the TV and I am fine with that. What bothers me is how HD programming looks. It not only has bars on the sides, but on the top and bottom as well. This website has an example of what I am talking about (the first picture):
http://www.kenrockwell.com/hdtv/aspect-ratio.htm

It's a 16:9 screen, shouldn't the 16:9 picture that I'm getting fill up the entire screen?! It is driving me absolutely crazy that it doesn't. It might as well have been advertised as a 19" screen since that's the biggest HD picture we can get. All of that black space is a waste. We can widen the picture, but that just stretches it sideways and still leaves the bars on the top and bottom, or we can use a zoom button, but that cuts off significant portions of the screen and makes it blurry.

So what the heck do we do to fill up the whole screen??

I am not even noticing a picture difference, and honestly, at this point I just want to toss the piece of shit out the window and only ever use my nice CRT TVs that never hurt my eyes, always fill up the screen, and sound great.

I know a lot of people here rave about HD so I figured I maybe you would have some advice to make my viewing experience less frustrating.

 

[Timby]

It might help if you could give us a make and model number, as well as your picture source (cable, satellite, etc.).

 

[RobertVA]

When you get black bars on all four sides it's some director that thinks a wide aspect ratio looks cool, so they letterbox the material on a SD 4:3 ratio recording. Then the channel/network resizes that SD signal so that it fits the height of a HD screen (720p or 1080i), leaving pillar box bars on both sides of the image that already had bars at the top and bottom. It appears that you need to access some genuine HD content that's allowed to remain HD all the way to your screen. Note that some cable and satellite providers downgrade local HD broadcaster signals to SD for customers with analog cable ready TVs, older analog converters and/or SD converters/receivers. You may have to access a different channel for an actual HD signal and/or replace you converter/receiver for a model that is designed to send a HD signal to your TV. Even then, many "HD" channels and networks don't provide HD content all the time.

 

[Spot's Meow]

Ah yes, I probably should have included some more info. It's a Vizio VA26L and we get Comcast digital cable. I know it's certainly not the best model out there, but it was a gift so we were just happy to have anything.

 

[Timby]

OK.

First off, although a set may be 16:9, not everything is produced in that aspect ratio (which is roughly 1.78:1, width by height). Many films are shot (and I mean in terms of the actual film's aspect ratio) at 2.35:1, and if such a film is shown on your set, it will be letterboxed at the top and bottom, in order to preserve the aspect ratio. (I seem to recall you saying that you primarily stick to video tapes as opposed to disc; I'm not sure how this could affect the situation.) Depending on the television show, the same may be the case as movies. Actually, the link you provided goes a long way towards explaining the whole thing. Read that thoroughly before yelling at your set.

As for the sound, check your sound options. Make sure they're set for two-speaker or internal mode, since you're not using an external system. Otherwise, some sets just suck and produce crappy sound from their speakers (our plasma is one of these).

Although if you don't notice a picture difference, despite a 26" set, you should just shoot yourself, because you're blind in your early 20s.

 

[Non Sync]

If you are using zip cord type speaker cable (looks like a lamp electrical cord), check to make sure to make sure the speakers are properly phased. Usually one side of the cable is marked either by a stripe/lettering or has ridges. The marked side should go to the same color terminal on TV/Amp as it does on the speaker.

 

[Spot's Meow]

OK.
Read that thoroughly before yelling at your set.

I read the whole site, and while it explains the situation well, it doesn't give any solution for fixing it. I guess we are just stuck with a smaller picture in the middle of the screen? I'm really not sure, I feel like there's some feature I'm missing, that's why I'm asking.

Although if you don't notice a picture difference, despite a 26" set, you should just shoot yourself, because you're blind in your early 20s.

I really don't notice a difference. I think this is due to having a crappy brand/smaller set but honestly HD has never looked that much better to me. The site mentioned earlier even agreed to some extent, saying that much of the programming, on a CRT TV, has sharper image, colors, etc. and I agree. It just looked so much clearer. But the HDTV looks kind of crappy. I was thinking that I need to change some settings, but there honestly aren't that many picture settings available to change. That's why I feel like I am missing something. The HD programs aren't really looking that much better than the normal ones. I am thinking this has to do with the TV quality, the picture settings, or my cable service.

Oh yeah, and I use tapes to record shows but I watch a lot of movies on DVD.

 

[Timby]

What cables are you using for your connection? RCA (Red-Yellow-White), Component, HDMI, etc.?

 

[Michael Chris]

Also, assuming you're subscribing to them, are you using the HD channels on Comcast? I've noticed that many times the problem for people is that the TV is not tuned to the correct channel.

 

[22 Stars]

There is also certainly a 'zoom' function to fill the screen with widescreen content not properly transmitted or bumped up.

 

[Small White Car]

Also, assuming you're subscribing to them, are you using the HD channels on Comcast? I've noticed that many times the problem for people is that the TV is not tuned to the correct channel.

+1

It REALLY sounds to me like you're not watching HD video.

I can't tell what you're watching from what you've said, but it sounds to me like you're watching SD channels. So there's something about the cable box you're not understanding, if that's the case. It would be very hard to get the effect you're describing if you have an HD picture. With an SD picture, it would be very easy.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Ah yes, I probably should have included some more info. It's a Vizio VA26L and we get Comcast digital cable. I know it's certainly not the best model out there, but it was a gift so we were just happy to have anything.

Are you using a cable box? If so, make sure its output settings are configured properly. You will want to select either 720p or 1080i output.

And you must use either component video out (Y/Pb/Pr) or HDMI out, if you want to see any HD content.

 

[Spot's Meow]

There is also certainly a 'zoom' function to fill the screen with widescreen content not properly transmitted or bumped up.

Well, the TV itself doesn't have a zoom feature (but you can change between normal and wide, with wide stretching the screen to the left and right), but on the cable remote there is something called "HD Zoom." When I press it, it cuts off large portions of the picture (on all sides) and makes it very blurry.


We have just been using the red, yellow, white cables but I will switch to component and see if there is a difference.

 

[Small White Car]

We have just been using the red, yellow, white cables but I will switch to component and see if there is a difference.

It is impossible to get HD over those cables, so yes, you've just been watching SD up until now.

That might not solve all of your problems, but it's a start. You'll have to tell us what happens.

 

[Spot's Meow]

Well, I haven't been focusing too much on the picture quality right now because I knew my boyfriend was going to deal with it tomorrow. I was mainly annoyed by the bars and how the picture hurts my eyes fairly quickly. And the audio, but the speakers we hooked up have been working great so that's not an issue anymore.

I can't find my component cables so I'll have to look later, or let my boyfriend deal with it all tomorrow since I'll be busy.

 

[Small White Car]

I was mainly annoyed by the bars.

That's caused by watching SD sources, so I wouldn't worry about it too much until you sort everything else out.

Does the cable box support HDMI? If you go someplace other than Best Buy they're affordable cables. The advantage there is that they're digital so the TV knows what kind of signal its getting and adjusts itself. It takes a lot of the guesswork out of the equation.

 

[Icemizer]

The wide button on your remote will allow you to cycle through Wide, Normal, Panoramic to increase the size of the picture on the screen. This is the zoom people have described above.

Press the MTS button on your remote to change the audio from Strereo, SAP or Mono.

Your cable subscription probably needs updating or you wont get HD channels, they should send you a new box in order to decode the HD programming.(Clowncast give nothing for free)

Your best picture and sound will come from an HDMI cable.

If you have an old pair of rabbit ear antennas lying around you can plug those into the DTV/TV plug and watch the local channels in HD without a cable box(provided you live near enough to the signal transmitter and your locals havent switched over to digital broadcast yet.)

 

[Spot's Meow]

^Thank you very much for an informative post that put everything together.

The problem I have with the wide button is it just stretches it sideways, it doesn't stretch it up and down as well, so people look all weird and fat. But anyway, I'm going to try most of the suggestions here when I have time, probably not until next weekend.

 

[Sledder]

It sounds to me like you don't have an HD receiver hooked up to the TV so you are watching SD channels on an HD TV...

 

[Scout101]

yeah, you have to switch cables at a MINIMUM, or it's going to look like fuzzy shit no matter what. You're forcing a HDTV to output a 480i signal, which just isn't what you're aiming for. You need either the component (red, green, blue) cable for video, or HDMI cable to get a HD signal from the cable box. Rather than buying it for $30-40 from a store, go online to somewhere like Monoprice or Firefold, for example, and buy the cable for $2. It may fix most of the problems right away...