HD television and chaser video

[Jason Foster]

After tornado season, I am thinking of finally getting a wide screen HD TV. However, after reading some consumer reports, and hearing different things about them, not sure if it is a good idea.

My big questions is...how does chaser video look on them. Apparently only things in "HD" look really good on them. But regular TV (like the local channels) look pretty bad, much worse than a analog TV. I currently have a high end Sony TV that is big and has a flat screen, but it is bulky and not HD.

When I go to look at HD in the stores, I'm not that impressed over my current TV. The stores usually show sports or movies that are HD, but when I ask them to change the channel to local or something non-HD it all looks heavily pixelated. I'm wondering if the majority of the chaser video (that isn't HD) is going to suffer the same problem.

I just wish I could get the detail like we did when the Hurricane Charley documentary was on the full size movie screen at the Miami Film festival....now that's a way to see chaser footage.

 

[John Erwin]

Well there's different ways of looking at this. If you have an HD TV and you watch HD content on it your expectations tend to get pretty big, so non-HD stuff indeed doesn't look as great as it used to.

Secondly, many people have bought an HD tv significantly larger than the older CRT type model they used to have; the larger image plus better characteristics will glaringly show the flaws of non-HD stuff as well. Often the distance you sit from the set will impact your impression of what you are looking at. Being up too close makes things look pretty crappy.

There's a few things that can be done to combat this; one of the them is choosing whether or not to "stretch" 4:3 images out to fill the screen or not which will certainly affect the picture. Another depends on the source of video you are using. Most modern DVD players allow you to select between conventional "interlaced" images and "progressive" images.. the latter producing a much better image. Set-top boxes for cable or satellite might have selections that will affect your impression of the image too.

Just made the switch at the beginning of the year (sony bravia LCD) and I'm glad I made the move.

 

[Dustin Wilcox]

Back in the day when I lived at home and was still in High School (4-5 years ago) my old man bought a big 60" HD TV when the technology was still relatively new so at that time, the small town cable company didn't even offer HD yet, so we were stuck watching SD TV. So I had plenty of time to experience SD video on a HD TV; Unlike your experiences, I thought the HD TV handled SD quite well, you certainly could see a difference in picture depending on which station you were tuned into, I always noticed that ESPN had great picture, not sure if it was due to the cameras or signal. But I thought the TV universally made the picture better than any SD TV I have seen. As far as chaser video, I used to shoot everything with a crappy Cannon ZR-65, I personally felt as though it was better to watch the video on the HD TV as opposed to our other SD TV's, granite it didn't make the quality of the video any better, just that it enlarged it and maybe enhanced some colors, though while doing that it also enlarged any imperfections in the video, though magnifying the imperfections was not extremely distracting as the bigger picture and finer detail benefits outweighed the imperfections, Eventually I did purchase a new HD camcorder, and must say if you have an HD TV its worth the money to invest in HD footage. As with anything you get what you pay for, and HD TV's are no exception; there are reasons some 50" TV's sell for $1,000 when there are other 50" TV's on the market for $5000.

 

[Terry Tyler]

i dont know how that video is gonna look, so i cant even say for sure, but i know someone who got an HD TV and the television itself is beautiful...but, the picture really gets distorted on some channels...some channels come in crystal clean and beautiful, but then...you got some channels, and its all pixelated and it looks like s**...

i dont know if it doesnt have the HD function, but my TV looks better then that IMO, when its all distorted and what not...

since i dont own an HD camera, and havent seen home shot footage on an HD screen i cant say...

but if that one that i seen has any indication on how footage would look, it might look kinda scraggly...but dont take my word...because i dont know...

 

[Jarrod Cook]

SD stations do look bad occasionally on HD TVs, but the severity depends on how large your screen is and how close you sit to it. The larger and closer you sit, the worse they'll look. You mentioned the local SD stations look bad - are you sure they are not broadcasting in HD yet? Most local over-the-air stations are in HD now. You'll just need a standard set-top antenna to pick them up, or something a little more beefy if you live farther away from the transmitters. Sometimes, the local cable company will send those local HD feeds on their cable too for free - you just need to figure out what channel they send them on. This eliminates the need for the antenna.

Keep in mind on the local stations, they don't broadcast HD 100% of the time. They usually only go HD for prime-time and sports.

As far as chaser DVDs that are in standard def - one thing you can do is to get a DVD player that up-converts to HD. I have one of these and they work pretty well. It takes the SD DVD signal and converts it to your screen's native HD format, either 720 or 1080. It won't be as good as a true HD DVD signal, but it's close and a lot better than without the up-converter. It's the best thing to get right now since the Blu-Ray and HD-DVD war hasn't ended. Once one of those become the standard, you could pick up one of those players...those should still up-convert and you'll also be able to play true HD content from the DVDs.

 

[Andrew Ryan]

SD channels can look good on a HDTV. Look at reviews on different tvs before buying them. Generally, plasmas have the best color reproduction for both HD and SD signals. Plasmas tend to be more expensive, but are well worth it.

About storm chaser footage. Even if they were to shoot in "HD," it wouldn't look as good as broadcast HD. That is because HDV is highly compressed and reduces the video quality.

 

[Dan Robinson]

In most cases broadcast HD is transmitted at a bandwidth equal or lower to that of HDV.

 

[Andrew Ryan]

In most cases broadcast HD is transmitted at a bandwidth equal or lower to that of HDV.

True. But broadcast HD is shot with professional lenses that produce a better picture.

 

[Bob Hall]

Dan is correct that the MPG II transport stream that high end consumer cameras like the HDR-FX1 is less compressed and higher in bandwidth than any HD signal you receive at home. Broadcast will probably look superior as it was likely shot with a $30,000-$100,000 camera with a lens of comparable cost.

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

I bought a 40 inch Sony 1080p lcd recently and it makes my SD stuff look like crap. Shadow areas are especially toast. It shows a green or red color...or just odd black patches in shadows, even on documentary stuff shot for Discovery channel etc. I was trying to correct my SD DVD I made this year, so it would look ok on my HD tv. That was a lost cause. It had all sorts of funky colors which did not show at all on my SD tv. Maybe an upconverting DVD player would help that, I don't know. I wish I had some fashion of HD feed for the thing. All I have for that is an xbox 360 and my Sony HC1 HDV cam.

 

[David Poch]

My 50 inch Sony SXRD XBR is an awesome HD set. SD looks great on it and HD is completely amazing. I have a cheap $35 Wal-Mart DVD player hooked to it and the picture is great.

I don't have any storm video yet to test it out but all of the video I have taken of random stuff looks great. My cam is a Sony HDR-SR5 HD

 

[Ronnie Bradley]

To my eyes, SD content can be hit or miss on HDTV's whether it is a LCD, Plasma, or CRT, and anything else that I haven't named . Some low priced HD sets don't have a good upconverter (for SD) and can make SD content look blurry. My parent's Vizio is a good middle of the road HD LCD set. HD over the air content looks very good on the set but SD content (DVD over component video included) not so good. I haven't bit the HD bullet yet. My TV set is analog and won't receive OTA broadcasts next year but that's moot since I subscribe to CATV.
Once HD video cams become cheaper and with better quality video, I'm sure chasers will snatch them up and offer HD video content via Blu-ray or what have you. Now if we can just get cheap hi-def media to record on (which will come to pass -- CD and DVD recordable media used to be expensive too).

 

[Bill Tabor]

After tornado season, I am thinking of finally getting a wide screen HD TV. However, after reading some consumer reports, and hearing different things about them, not sure if it is a good idea.

My big questions is...how does chaser video look on them. Apparently only things in "HD" look really good on them. But regular TV (like the local channels) look pretty bad, much worse than a analog TV. I currently have a high end Sony TV that is big and has a flat screen, but it is bulky and not HD.

Not true. I have a couple of plasma tv's now with DISH HD programming and it looks way better than any standard tv or my old Toshiba big screen. I just got a Blu-Ray player also and that is just stunning even though my max resolution is only 786p. Make sure you get the letter box type screen (rectangle) although it's hard to get the older 'square' type displays anymore anyway. Also keep in mind all Hd's have a button that allows you to change the aspect ration and toggle through some settings to make it look good. With this you can choose a standard image if it is non-hd or you can stretch it, zoom it, etc. This can be handy on non-hd sources and it puts side bars on the side.

I will add that my Dad used to have a Phillips 'square' type hd projection big screen and it did look pretty bad on standard channels with dithering and stuff. Just go with plasma, or maybe LCD and make sure you have a good quality input source.

PS: I might add that for watching chaser video on dvd from non-hd sources...that nowadays they have dvd players that will upconvert and interpolate the signal from 480p ED quality all the way to 1080p. This algorithm and hardware works particularly well on Blu Ray and HD-Dvd players, but is still good on standard upconvert players. I have a couple of those as well. Actually I will probably put one up on Ebay for sale soon as I don't need it anymore since I bought the Blu Ray. Anyway, upconvert really does make a significant improvement over the standard dvd 480p quality and it is noticeable. It's easy to tell as on this type of player you can toggle the image resolution and immediately see the difference. You may be able to see this in action at Best Buy if you ask.

 

[Bill Tabor]

I bought a 40 inch Sony 1080p lcd recently and it makes my SD stuff look like crap. Shadow areas are especially toast. It shows a green or red color...or just odd black patches in shadows, even on documentary stuff shot for Discovery channel etc. I was trying to correct my SD DVD I made this year, so it would look ok on my HD tv. That was a lost cause. It had all sorts of funky colors which did not show at all on my SD tv. Maybe an upconverting DVD player would help that, I don't know. I wish I had some fashion of HD feed for the thing. All I have for that is an xbox 360 and my Sony HC1 HDV cam.

Sounds to me like plasma does a better job in dealing with SD television. This is something that could be hard to tell or compare when in the tv store.

Also everyone definitely use the broadcast hd channels locally if they are available to you rather than standard channels. You'll need a small antenna - not much $$.

 

[Jarrod Cook]

PS: I might add that for watching chaser video on dvd from non-hd sources...that nowadays they have dvd players that will upconvert and interpolate the signal from 480p ED quality all the way to 1080p. This algorithm and hardware works particularly well on Blu Ray and HD-Dvd players, but is still good on standard upconvert players. I have a couple of those as well. Actually I will probably put one up on Ebay for sale soon as I don't need it anymore since I bought the Blu Ray. Anyway, upconvert really does make a significant improvement over the standard dvd 480p quality and it is noticeable. It's easy to tell as on this type of player you can toggle the image resolution and immediately see the difference. You may be able to see this in action at Best Buy if you ask.

I already covered that point in my post.