why i didnt like hx750 / 850 ?

[neubee]

hi guys ,
at present i watch small lcd tv and use crt moniter .
i went for tv demo and there were all sorts of big screen tvs playing sony hd channel .

sad to say , i didnt like any of them

i heard lots of praises for hx750 and 850 , but when i saw i didnt like them very much . they also didnt wow me .
infact , a videocon tv was looking much better , didnt know if it was ddb or normal .

is it because they were not playing any sport / action movie etc ?
is it because i was watching them from close distance ? ( 4 - 5 feets )
or its just a fault of showroom cable connection ?

i didnt ask them to play dvd or bd , because frankly saying , a sony tv of that price / reputation should be able to handle everything , and not just bd .

 

[corElement]

hi guys ,
at present i watch small lcd tv and use crt moniter .
i went for tv demo and there were all sorts of big screen tvs playing sony hd channel .

sad to say , i didnt like any of them

i heard lots of praises for hx750 and 850 , but when i saw i didnt like them very much . they also didnt wow me .
infact , a videocon tv was looking much better , didnt know if it was ddb or normal .

is it because they were not playing any sport / action movie etc ?
is it because i was watching them from close distance ? ( 4 - 5 feets )
or its just a fault of showroom cable connection ?

i didnt ask them to play dvd or bd , because frankly saying , a sony tv of that price / reputation should be able to handle everything , and not just bd .

Hi Neubee

Let me put into retrospect what exactly you asked in your query:

At present I eat spaghetti and waiwai instant noodles.

I heard lots of praises about Maggie noodles but when I ate it I didn't like them very much, they also didn't wow me.

Infact, I liked Top Ramen a lot better, don't know it was masala or chicken flavour.

Is it because I boiled it too much?
Is it because it didn't have enough salt?

I didn't ask anyone the techniques they use to prepare Maggie because frankly such a famous instant noodle brand should be able to taste amazing , not just depending on how it's cooked.



- Do you now see the problem in your query?

The hx series is sony's top top and will make any crappy video feed look like crap. Feed it full HD video of high quality and you will get high quality results. High quality video and sound components reveal the worst in everything they're fed. Just like how you would find a high end speaker performing worse than your local loudspeaker connected to a low quality amplifier and source.

What you saw was most likely cable or dvd, not 1080p from a bluray.

 

[neubee]

Hi Neubee

Let me put into retrospect what exactly you asked in your query:

At present I eat spaghetti and waiwai instant noodles.

I heard lots of praises about Maggie noodles but when I ate it I didn't like them very much, they also didn't wow me.

Infact, I liked Top Ramen a lot better, don't know it was masala or chicken flavour.

Is it because I boiled it too much?
Is it because it didn't have enough salt?

I didn't ask anyone the techniques they use to prepare Maggie because frankly such a famous instant noodle brand should be able to taste amazing , not just depending on how it's cooked.



- Do you now see the problem in your query?

The hx series is sony's top top and will make any crappy video feed look like crap. Feed it full HD video of high quality and you will get high quality results. High quality video and sound components reveal the worst in everything they're fed. Just like how you would find a high end speaker performing worse than your local loudspeaker connected to a low quality amplifier and source.

What you saw was most likely cable or dvd, not 1080p from a bluray.

thanks man
and funny analogy lol

my quesry is
if i buy hx850 and connect with stb ... the quality will be better or same ?
the only way for me to demo this would be in a showroom .

i think a better question would be
which tv is best for cable / stb

 

[just4kix]

I always suggest people to demo TV with the worst possible source , i.e., sd dth such as news channel and check pq. If a TV is able to display worst source better than any other TV/brand, then good source such as HD-dth or 1080p blu-ray will be even better.

Sent from my GT-I9100G using Tapatalk 2

 

[neubee]

I always suggest people to demo TV with the worst possible source , i.e., sd dth such as news channel and check pq. If a TV is able to display worst source better than any other TV/brand, then good source such as HD-dth or 1080p blu-ray will be even better.

Sent from my GT-I9100G using Tapatalk 2

thats exactly what i thought sir

 

[Dirac]

Adopt a simple method to avoid the confusion.When people say HX850 is a topclass display, they mean it w.r.t certain aspects that are benchmarked for a TV.You need to compare the performances of the tvs when playing the following.Make sure you play the same clip/channel on the tvs being compared.
1)1080p --blurays.
If you are too particular,
a)check 1080p at 24hz(native bluray)
b)check 1080p at 60hz(3:2 pull down)
c)check whether rapid motion of a movie scene does not produce too distracting motion blur.

2)1080i/50hz--hd broadcasts like Sun direct hd etc.
3)Cable tv signal is not a standard as the signal keeps detiorating with respect to distance, how the cable operator is boosting the signal etc.It is assumed that when somebody is buying hx850 , he would invest a little in getting a decent satellite hd broadcast setup.

4)youtube--this is very important as all recent tvs have an inbuilt wifi and youtube contains a plethora of HD content.
I found that hx850/st50 are very good with youtube.

5)I feel SD content nowadays is rare, in the sense, the bluray player upscales a DVD 480p to the native resolution of the tv.(Ofcourse you can switch this feature off and see how your tv would upscale it.IMHO better leave the task of upscaling to Bluray player).Even the settop box(with a hdmi connection) like airtel hd will upscale the sd content.

6)Sound--Dont expect any good sound from the super slim leds.But sony hx850 is far better than samsung/lg.

It is understandable that we get so overwhelmed by the reviews of certain tvs and expect them to do miracles on poor content also. The picture quality of a TV is as good as its source material that it plays.

 

[Audiodoc]

The HX8XX < HX9XX series are best ones available in the commercial LED backlit models while the Samsung E8000=Panasonic ST< GT<VT models excel in the plasma front.

The problem of demoing them in showrooms is that:

1. Signals from the STB are passed to a HDMI splitter which degrades the quality.
2. Settings are mostly haywire especially in the dynamic mode.
3. Excessive image post processing due to improper setting change the quality of video
4. Lighting in the showroom is improper especially for plasmas.
5. I believe that 1080p resolution seems low for 55 inch and 65 inch televisions especially when viewing distance is less than 8 - 10 feet (this is my personnel opinion as I am addicted to high resolution retina displays, would like the 4K TV and material flood the market sooner)

 

[just4kix]

^^^ I would disagree a lot with point no 5. Quite a lot, in fact 75% content will be SD. The HD STB will not upscale the content.

Edit: I was replying to Dirac's post.

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[Audiodoc]

Since the advent of HD. 95 percent of the time I watch HD TV channels only as the upscaled SD is unbearable. Besides I have a HD movie collection of about 10TB.

SD channels are bearable on 32 inch TV however I cant beat them on either my 46 inch LED of 50 inch plasma even though the upscaling algorithms have improved over the years. Now imagine 480p content on a 65 inch TV, the aliasing is visible even with the best upscaling available.

Resolution does matter a lot. Just check an ipad 2 and ipad 3/4. Doubling the resolution changes the experience altogether.
The same holds true if viewing distance is less than 8 feet for 55 or 65 inch TVs.

 

[lake1988]

If I got 22 true hd channels and will enjoy bluray disc/1080p/720p most of the time why would I bother how good sd/cable look on my tv?

 

[Dirac]

^^^ I would disagree a lot with point no 5. Quite a lot, in fact 75% content will be SD. The HD STB will not upscale the content.

Edit: I was replying to Dirac's post.

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Just now I checked my Sun direct HD .Connected directly to st50 via hdmi.
The "info" button on st50 is showing "1080i/50hz input" even for local channels also.

Thanks.

 

[corElement]

Measuring a TV based on SD quality is honestly quite silly.

LCD's have a native resolution they're designed to work best on, and judging them based on what they're worst on is no different from putting a power hungry speaker on a low power amplifier and judging the speaker based on that.

For an HX series judging it based on sd content is a waste of time and money. SD quality on an HX series must be considered a secondary function.
Also the set top HD is not true full hd, they're blurry upscaled HD. Do not judge an HS series on that either.
HX series has to be judged on full hd content, or else no point in looking at an HX series.

 

[Audiodoc]

True HD channels e.g NGC, Discovery, Star Movies HD are aired as 1080i with Dolby digital sound. Their quality may not be equivalent to a bluray. However 1080i as well as ripped 1080p videos are a small downgrade with respect to visuals however bluray audio (DTS HD MA and DD HD) is much better than DD audio.

 

[AtheK]

Trust your eyes, do not go with Brand value. See the channels that you watch the most on diff Tv's and pick the one that looks the best to your eyes. Mumbo Jumbo of Technical jargons are excellent to read, and even excellent for manufactures to sell there stuff. But the deciding factor is your eyes and nothing else.

 

[just4kix]

Trust your eyes, do not go with Brand value. See the channels that you watch the most on diff Tv's and pick the one that looks the best to your eyes. Mumbo Jumbo of Technical jargons are excellent to read, and even excellent for manufactures to sell there stuff. But the deciding factor is your eyes and nothing else.

And this is exactly what I mean by my previous post.

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[just4kix]

Just now I checked my Sun direct HD .Connected directly to st50 via hdmi.
The "info" button on st50 is showing "1080i/50hz input" even for local channels also.

Thanks.

That is the STB input signal mode that it is showing. That does not mean it is an upscaled channel.

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[musicbee]

True HD channels e.g NGC, Discovery, Star Movies HD are aired as 1080i with Dolby digital sound. Their quality may not be equivalent to a bluray. However 1080i as well as ripped 1080p videos are a small downgrade with respect to visuals however bluray audio (DTS HD MA and DD HD) is much better than DD audio.

OT - I'm not sure what's the bitrate of the HD movies on Tata Sky but the quality is not all that great. I've ripped my Avatar BD and checked it with rips of various sizes. Even a 4.4 GB rip (with DD) has much more detail than the TV/Tata Sky version and this was compressed from the original BD... so I'm sure the compression with TV channels is even worse. Lots of detail and color was missing on the Tata Sky/Star Movies version.

I've tested with various movies (Harry Potter, Thor, etc.) and the recorded material on my DVR is worse than most BR rips at even 2GB.

Cannot say the same for National Geographic and Discovery since I don't have access to reference material from them.

I would agree with Cor here... basing a TV's performance on SD content is wrong... especially when even STB HD content on TV is bad compared to most BR rips. Its always better to carry a media player/laptop/tablet with some BR rips and HD content to really measure the performance of a TV. At least that's how I do it and recommend it be done.

Probably just4kix is also right about doing a demo with the worst content i.e. SD content and if a TV does well with it then it will also play HD content well... but the truth is most of us after upgrading to HDTV have moved away from SD content. I don't watch DVDs or SD channels anymore... its either HD channels or BR rips for me and I'm sure that's true for everyone else with a HDTV... so why not test it with what you will eventually watch anyways.

 

[avmaxfan]

How good a set handles SD content has no relation with how good it handles HD content. There are TVs that handle SD very poorly but handle HD brilliantly and vice versa.

So I'd have to disagree with just4kix

 

[just4kix]

Well, as far as I am concerned, I am pretty happy with the way SD content is handled by ST50. And when it comes to true HD, it is just spell binding, especially now that I have calibrated it to my liking.

In many homes (like mine), people do watch a lot of SD content. There is a slew of regional channels, kids/cartoons, movie channels such as WB, Pix, HBO, News channels including regional news, Animal Planet, TLC, etc. Even with HD channels such as NatGeo, Discovery the content shown on SD and HD counterparts is totally different. So there is a fair but of share of those channels also. Hence the capability of TV to perform on SD is very important. To me, at least.

I used the SD channel test very extensively to bias my decision properly while selecting the TV. I also knew that I have nearly 300 (original) DVDs at home. But on that, I am happy to note that I do not have to worry too much because my Panasonic BDP is doing an excellent job of upscaling (the Sony BDP also does a good job). But at the time of buying the TV, I did not know this and I was expecting ordinary performance there too.

There is no point buying a Ferrari and say that it should not be judged for Indian roads. Others are welcome to disagree.

Cheers.

 

[Dirac]

That is the STB input signal mode that it is showing. That does not mean it is an upscaled channel.

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I did not get what you are saying.If an STB inputs 1080i/50hz to the display(after hdmi handshake,which determines the display resolution) as input even for an SD content channel, does it not mean that it is internally converting the SD content to 1080i resolution(called upscaling)?
It can be said that a dvd player that does not understand the native resolution of a connected display(no hdmi) will output the native frames of the dvd say at 480p irrespective of the display resolution.This has to be anyway upconverted by the display if it has to show this content.
Am I missing something?