LCD HDTV, DVD and Blu-Ray Confusion

hermione · 11-03-2009, 03:28 AM

Hey all, I've been puzzling over this for a few months now and finally decided to see if someone here can help. Our 10 year old Sony Trinitron died on us earlier this summer and we've replaced it with a Samsung LN32B460 32-Inch 720p LCD HDTV. While this is, I believe, a great TV, most of our DVDs look awful on it.

The picture looks "spotty" and people's faces have grayish spots/lines on them, and when there is text (like credits) there are shadowy lines around them. This is especially so on BBC DVDs (like Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth) and older movies like You've Got Mail. Even newer films like the new Pride and Prejudice with Keira Knightley don't look that great. Some newer DVDs are better than the older ones, yet still not great even when viewed from at least the minimum viewing distance for the screen size.

Our DVD player is a Sony DVP-NS55P which played perfectly on our old CRT TV and received good reviews from people with HDTVs, but perhaps because it's a few years old, is now discontinued. I am using component cables to connect the DVD player to the TV (the DVD player does not have HDMI ports). We also have the computer hooked up to the TV with a VGA cable and Hulu and Netflix videos look fine, or as good as bandwidth allows, I believe. DVDs also look much better when played off the computer to the TV.

So my questions are:

Is it just that our DVD player is not up to par for HDTVs? I've fiddled with settings on both DVD player and TV to no avail.
If I got a blu-ray player that upconverts would our DVDs finally look good?
If my TV is 720p, could I get a 1080p blu ray player and not somehow break my TV? (I saw somewhere that trying to play something with higher resolution than the TV would break it. Not sure where or how true this is.)
And should I start buying blu-ray instead of DVDs?

Since Black Friday is coming up and I've been wanting to do something about this situation (we watch a lot of DVDs and recently got Netflix), I'm thinking this might be a good time to upgrade.

If you've gotten through all this and can offer any suggestions, I'd be really appreciative!

trustno1 · 11-03-2009, 11:46 PM

Go to the Google search engine and type in "Home Theater Hook Up". You will get about a million free sites with installation instructions, diagrams, etc.

11-03-2009, 03:28 AM	#1
hermione Super Moderator Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: California Posts: 761 Thanks: 0 Thanked 7 Times in 6 Posts Reputation: (300)	LCD HDTV, DVD and Blu-Ray Confusion Hey all, I've been puzzling over this for a few months now and finally decided to see if someone here can help. Our 10 year old Sony Trinitron died on us earlier this summer and we've replaced it with a Samsung LN32B460 32-Inch 720p LCD HDTV. While this is, I believe, a great TV, most of our DVDs look awful on it. The picture looks "spotty" and people's faces have grayish spots/lines on them, and when there is text (like credits) there are shadowy lines around them. This is especially so on BBC DVDs (like Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth) and older movies like You've Got Mail. Even newer films like the new Pride and Prejudice with Keira Knightley don't look that great. Some newer DVDs are better than the older ones, yet still not great even when viewed from at least the minimum viewing distance for the screen size. Our DVD player is a Sony DVP-NS55P which played perfectly on our old CRT TV and received good reviews from people with HDTVs, but perhaps because it's a few years old, is now discontinued. I am using component cables to connect the DVD player to the TV (the DVD player does not have HDMI ports). We also have the computer hooked up to the TV with a VGA cable and Hulu and Netflix videos look fine, or as good as bandwidth allows, I believe. DVDs also look much better when played off the computer to the TV. So my questions are: Is it just that our DVD player is not up to par for HDTVs? I've fiddled with settings on both DVD player and TV to no avail. If I got a blu-ray player that upconverts would our DVDs finally look good? If my TV is 720p, could I get a 1080p blu ray player and not somehow break my TV? (I saw somewhere that trying to play something with higher resolution than the TV would break it. Not sure where or how true this is.) And should I start buying blu-ray instead of DVDs? Since Black Friday is coming up and I've been wanting to do something about this situation (we watch a lot of DVDs and recently got Netflix), I'm thinking this might be a good time to upgrade. If you've gotten through all this and can offer any suggestions, I'd be really appreciative! __________________ My business: Franga Designs ~ My blog: Pecuniarities ~ My CafePress Shop: Mozartini ~ Follow me on Twitter!

11-03-2009, 11:46 PM	#2
trustno1 Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Rocky Mtns, Colorado, USA, Earth Posts: 263 Thanks: 0 Thanked 10 Times in 9 Posts Reputation: (25)	Go to the Google search engine and type in "Home Theater Hook Up". You will get about a million free sites with installation instructions, diagrams, etc. __________________ "Think Less, Act More...Life is Short"

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