I recently bought a Philips 60PW9363, rear projection, HD-ready TV. I'm using a Directv HD DVR for a receiver. The HDTV channels are awesome. However, non-HDTV reception is terrible. I can even see "cells" being "updated" on the screen. The reception is extremely granular. Can anyone give me advice? Does this sound like a TV problem or a Directv problem? Your input would be appreciated.
It's an expectation problem. That is a big honking TV and Standard definition programming on a high definition screen that large, well there is not much you can do about it other than sitting farther away from it. You are going to see every flaw in that signal, there is no place for it to hide. Your salesman should have made you aware that SD would look like ca ca especially after seeing how nice HD looks. HD tends to spoil you almost instantly!
I had a DLP television that I had trouble with finding a lamp. So I went out and bought a rear projection 65" Toshiba HD (non DLP). The non HD picture made me crazy it was so bad. It was dull, greenish-grey in color and fuzzy. I had the retailer take it back. Once you get used to DLP technology the rest look dead.
Helpful Smurf is right. Sit as far back from the tv as you can. Sitting to close to a big screen just magnifies the picture crumminess.
I also have direct tv and some non HD channels have better reception than others. This mystifies me.
If you can I would call your retailer and tell them you want to return the tv and get a DLP set.
Guys, this cannot simply be that I'm spoiled by watching the HD channels and then going to SD. This reception is really bad. When I look at football players on the field, their helmets are "swimming around". With a "far away" shot, you couldn't even tell who was playing who, because you can't even see the uniforms. My father-in-law's 4 year old 4-3 Mitsubishi's picture is 10 times better. SD programming on a HD TV can't be this bad, can it?
A friend of mine says that he thinks the problem is the Hughes Directv DVR. He thinks the read-write procedure on the hard drive of the DVR is slowing down the input. He says it's called "digital artifacting". Any thoughts?
Darryl Wood Try looking at a DVD via a decent player and use that as a benchmark as to what you should expect. Anything less and it's the DVR, not the TV. I use a Moto DVR and the SD is really great. Of course the HD is unbelieveable.
I have Directv with HD TIVO set with the Directv brand name on it, and I am not having any problems either. I have it hooked up using HDMI. What are you using for your connection? I was getting a crappy picture on the DVD because I was using composite (red, white, yellow) wires for a component (red, blue, green) hookup. When I switched to the component wires, the picture really improved.
