Why Does My High-Def TV Look Terrible?

By Des Smalls

High-def TVs are great, but they don't always look as good as promised. Worse, the issue you're having isn't always under your control to fix. Here are a few reasons you may be having problems with your picture, and what you can do to make it better.

Your Blu-Ray Disk Player Is Not Compatible.

Most people planning to get a new high-def TV are also planning to pick up a Blu-ray disk player as well. You might expect all these technologies would work together smoothly - but you'd be wrong. Unfortunately, there are some serious compatibility issues with certain Blu-ray players if you don't have the right high-def TV. Read your specifications very carefully. Your high-def TV should be able to accept external 1080p signals from a scaling media player (DVD, HD-DVD, or Blu-ray). If it does not specify this, and your media player needs to scale the picture, call tech support.

Your Cable Company Is An Ass

In most cases, your HD will work, or it won't; there is no snow, smudging, or other in-between issue. If your HD picture looks bad, it's probably your cable (or satellite) company's fault. HDTV signals need to be compressed to be broadcast properly, but they can be compressed too much. If your company uses a channel intended for only one data stream and squeezes two or more into it, your picture quality will almost certainly suffer. The only thing you can do about this is call the cable company and tell them what you think about it - or switch your providers.

You Need Better Cables

In most cases, provided your cables are short you don't need expensive HDMI or DVI cabling for your system. You will get just as good a picture by using cheaper video cables. However, longer cables, especially cables near any source of interference, may corrupt your signal. This causes you to not have a picture at all, in most cases. Try hooking back up with a shorter cable; if that works, get the shielded, or change your setup.

You're Playing Poorly-Recorded Discs

Not all movies are created the same. Sometimes the master that Blu-ray discs must use when they're copied are not in the best condition, or the technician does not set up his parameters properly. This is another issue you can't do anything about, but you can head it off by searching online before investing in any discs. New movies won't have a problem, but the older library of stuff may have issues, and other people online will have found this and posted about it.

In addition, your regular television programs and DVDs may look fuzzier on your high-def TV than they did originally on your old set. That's normal, and is due to the higher resolution having the net effect of magnifying irregularities - it's like looking at printed paper through a magnifying glass. You see all the flaws. This is something you just have to live with.

My Friend's Small Flatscreen Looks Better Than My Giant High-Def TV

Did you check the resolution? No matter the size of the screen, the resolution is what determines how clear your picture is. A large LCD TV often has lower resolution than a smaller plasma TV, resulting in a lower quality picture. Always look at the resolution before making a decision.

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