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OT: My first flat-panel HDTV

The elderly among you probably saw "The Fly" (1958) in its first run. When David Hedison's wife schleps Vincent Price to the laboratory to show him hubby's latest and greatest, he asks "What is it? Flatscreen?".

It's taken "only" a half century for flat-panel television to become common. Last weekend, having a few extra bucks, I wandered down to Costco and bought a Vizio VW32L for $390. It was purchased primarily to replace an NAD MR-20A, which is nearly 25 years old and has developed permanent (and likely irreparable) focus problems, not as a display for HD sources, which I don't have. *

I'm accustomed to viewing 480i signals on CRT-based IDTVs that deinterlace and enhance them (a 32" Toshiba CZ-3299K, followed by a 36" Sony 400-series WEGA, both of which are still in use). In general, the Vizio does not match the Toshiba or Sony.

Perhaps I'm sitting too close, but the Vizio makes one all-too aware of everything that's wrong with 480i program material. Most of it is soft -- sometimes downright smeary -- and lacking detail. One is very aware that most performers are heavily made-up -- skin has little or no surface texture. ** The rare really high-quality signals are knockouts.

The Vizio has dynamic image sharpening similar to the Toshiba's and Sony's, in which the sharper transitions are "goosed". The result of this is that text and graphics can look razor-sharp, while the rest of the scene, lacking detail to enhance, remains soft.

One thing the Vizio does exceptionally well is stretching 4:3 to fit 16:9. The center 1/3 is untouched, so performers don't look "fat". The stretching at the sides is visible only when they're text spanning the screen width, and is still pretty subtle.

Oh, well. The Vizio was purchased for non-critical viewing in my den. Someday I'll have a Kuro in the living room. It will probably sit on the Sony, with the latter used for viewing 480i from cable.

  • I could hook up an antenna for off-the air HD, but haven't gotten around to it. I need to find my coax switchbox (which has disappeared, of course), and the Vizio memorizes only the cable or antenna channel lineup, not both. It's not designed for "simultaneous" antenna and cable operation.

** Of course, conventional NTSC television has a maximum luminance bandwidth of 4.2MHz, which doesn't render extremely find detail well.

Reply to
William Sommerwerck
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In the UK we get different data rates depending on channel - the 'minority' ones suffering most. You certainly don't get the same 'number of colours' on digital as analogue. Most noticeable on flesh tones. Of course even that goes out the window with CSI. ;-) As regards sharpness I'd say here that DTTV is slightly sharper than analogue - assuming a good source - but movement generally poorly catered for. Of course one look at the data rates used for 'closed circuit' pro use soon explains why there will inevitably be faults on what we get at home. Satellite could, of course, get round this - but don't seem to be bothered.

--
*On the other hand, you have different fingers*

    Dave Plowman        dave@davenoise.co.uk           London SW
                  To e-mail, change noise into sound.
Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

I'm looking at analog, not digital. Although the set receives most of the same cable channels in digital, I haven't made a direct comparison.

Reply to
William Sommerwerck

You mention that you are on cable. No local HDTV signals on Clear QAM?

Reply to
UCLAN

I can't find any. The set didn't (seem to) locate any during the setup. I'm going to call Comcast to find out.

I called. Seems I was missing them. There are at least a half-dozen, most of which are broadcast HD.

The 1080i picture is quite good -- better than one might expect for $390 set.

Reply to
William Sommerwerck

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