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LCD Questions HDTV

BlizzardUKBlizzardUK Posts: 4,965
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in TV and Home Entertainment Technology #1
Does anyone know if there is a way to upscale a Sky signal like it is done with HDMI DVD players ? Or does the Sky HD automatically upscale ? Just that I miss the good quality CRT picture for standard definition and although I know budget LCDs can't match that quality, I am hoping to increase it to at least a small degree. I currently only have Sky+ but am looking for Sky HD perhaps. Main reason I want to do this is my room is quite small so I sit about 3 to 4ft from the TV which is great for HDTV and XBox 360 but not great for SD like Sky as the quality looks poor at this short distance. No worries if not though, it is only a minor thing.

My TV is a 32" Technosonic LCD HDTV. I am told this is a rebadged Thompson but that may just be the remote control.

Comments

  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 18,132
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    #2
    You can buy standalone scalers/deiinterlacers but they are not cheap since they tend to be very high performance units, far superior to anything built into a HD box or "cheap" DVD player. You may be able to pick up an older design much cheaper and it would probably still outperform the units included in the HD receviers and lower end displays.
    SKY HD has a built in scaler and de-interlacer (so does a HD telly) and it also has a digital connection which many report improves the PQ over the analogue RGB scart.

    The biggest problem is that broadcast SD on all platforms is pretty poor, if everything was upto DVD standard then there wouldn't be so many issues with SD on HD displays.
  • BlizzardUKBlizzardUK Posts: 4,965
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    #3
    Cheers for info. You are right about scaler prices. I saw the perfect one for sale but it was nearly £2000, haha, so there is no chance of me getting that. But I did see a cheaper £350 one which may be worth it for me.

    What do you reckon to this one : http://www.lektropacks.com/view_item.php?product=1000841&&category=128
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 18,132
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    #4
    I don't know anything about it's performance but it does lack scart and s-video inputs which are useful for STB analogue sources.
    You may be hitting diminishing returns though, sitting that close to a 32" screen is going to highlight the picture structure and any imperfections, even with HD you may see a better image if it was possible to sit further back.

    You could try the AVForums who have a dedicated scaler/video processing forum.
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