Why does the picture look bad?

Question

I was watching several movies on a 42in. Panasonic th-px75u model plasma screen tv. When i set the rsoulution to 1080p it looks really fuzzy up close, but when i watch it from a distance it looks better. Im also playing it on a upconverting dvd player from panasonic as well. I want the picture to look clear any suggestions?

Answer 1

I'm screwed makes some very good points but until you get a blu-ray, you should set your dvd to output 720p. The way you have it now, the dvd is upconverting to 1080p then the tv is down-converting to it's native 720p. The other choice you have is to set the dvd to 480p and let the tv upconvert to 720p. Either way will give a slightly better picture than the way you have it now. Which way is best depends on what converters are better (the tvs or the dvd players).

Answer 2

its not an hd dvd

Answer 3

If your television's only capable of displaying 720p, it has to downconvert a signal that's being sent to it at 1080p.  Since your set top player has better scaling capabilities than your television, the result is a fuzzy picture.  Skim through your set top's owner's manual and see if there's any adjustments that allow 720p output, and set it to that.  I'll bet you'll be happier with the image.

Answer 4

You're watching a 720x480 source being exploded to 1920x1080. That's why it doesn't look good. DVDs don't look good on HDTVs.

If you want a movie to look clear, you have 3 options:

1) Get a Blu-Ray player, and some Blu-Ray movies. HD-DVD has 'lost' the HD-format war, and is no longer being produced, so don't buy a HD-DVD player. Blu-Ray = the next generation, like VHS -> DVD, now its DVD -> Blu-Ray.

2) Get HDTV service from your local TV service provider and watch movies in HD (i.e. Starz, HBO, Cinemax, etc).

3) Download HD-quality movies online and hook it up using DVI or HDMI to your HDTV and watch.

Also, your HDTV is not 1080p. Its native resolution is 720p. There's no point in setting up additional hardware (such as your upconverting DVD player (which will be rendered useless once you get a Blu-Ray player)) to pump out in 1080p when your HDTV's native resolution is 720p. It won't look any better.

As a suggestion, get a PS3 as your Blu-Ray player. Not only is it cheap (as a Blu-Ray player), it couples as a gaming console, and is considered THE best Blu-Ray player by even the Criterion Collection and CNET (See my Sources).