Shopping for an HDTV can be a confusing and bewildering experience. The HD Guru is here to help. For the past eight years he has come across many lies, false claims and utter nonsense regarding HDTV. This propaganda has been spread by manufacturers and many “so called†tech journalists.
Here is part one of The HD Guru’s list of common lies, false claims and nonsense about HDTV. (Part II will be posted later)
Item 1-Contrast Ratio
Is a measurement of the difference in light intensity between the darkest black and the whitest white a display is capable of producing. High contrast ratio numbers are thrown around in the marketing of HDTVs. A display with a contrast ratio of 3000:1 will create a better image when its compared to one with a lower rating, i.e. 800:1.
The Claim
Choose the HDTV with the best contrast ratio numbers. It will provide the best image with whiter whites and blacker blacks.
The Reality
There is no industry standard of measurement of contrast ratio and manufacturers come up with their own ridiculous schemes to create the highest ratio they are willing to print. IT’S ALL NONSENSE. Do not believe any contrast ratio specification for a moment, they are all worthless.
What to do about it?
Perform your own simple test. The ratio part of contrast ratio is the difference between black (darkest) and white (lightest and brightest). The light part is not an issue. All HDTVs are bright enough for normal viewing environments and none is bright enough for direct sunlight. (Read my LCD vs. Plasma section for more on their brightness). The part of the ratio you should be concerned with is how dark can the darkest image be. Here is a simple test. Bend your hands facing together to let your fingers and palms form circle. Place the pinky side of your hands against the HDTV you are evaluating to form a tunnel from the screen to your thumbs and index finger. This is to block out the store’s ambient light from hitting the screen. Let the store’s demo HDTV content fade to black as it does between scenes or commercials. Note how dark the screen gets and see if it is shaded towards specific color such as blue or purple. Repeat with a different display.
How to Compare
The display with the deepest and most neutral blacks will have the best contrast ratio in normal room lighting conditions. Bright retail showrooms tend to mask poor black levels. This will cause many consumers to favor the display with the brightest picture. Some retailers have very bright demo material such as beaches, sports and flowers without scenes that fade to black. If this is the case, ask the sales clerk to change to different demo content. If you are told that is not possible, the HD Guru suggest you shop elsewhere, for you will never have any idea how deep and neutral a given set makes black.
Here is the order of the different display technologies ability to make black from best to worse
1) CRT (direct view picture tube)
2) Microdisplay rear projector (LCoS/SXRD and DLP)
3) Plasma
4) LCD flat panel and rear projection
CRT direct views are limited to 34†screen size. DLP or SXRD (LCoS) microdisplay rear projectors come in screen sizes up to around 70â€Â. Currently, Panasonic plasma has the best black level of any plasma I have measured to date. LCD while improving, still does not produce the black levels I have obtained from the Panasonic plasma, CRT or Microdisplay (DLP and LCoS) rear projection.
Within all technologies (except CRT) there are great variations in black level performance from model to model, so check carefully. Showroom settings may not always have the set adjusted for the deepest black without burying dark detail. You may want to twiddle with the TV’s brightness control, which is technically called the “black level†control to find the point of deepest black without losing low level detail.
Item 2-Response Time
Response time is the amount of time it takes for a display to change (on a pixel level) from one level of brightness to another. Response time is not an issue with any rear projectors, direct view CRT or in most cases plasma. However it is a big problem with LCD flat panels. If the response time is too slow you’ll see the image blur when the subject is in motion. It could be seen as the blurry legs of a football player running down the field or an ice skater’s body blurring as she’s spinning.
The Claim
Choose the display with the fastest response time. Many claim an 8 milliseconds (ms) is fast enough.
The Reality
Lets first look at the math. A HDTV LCD panel has a frame rate of 60 frames per second. If the display completely changes every frame in (refreshes with a new image every frame), in 16.666 milliseconds (ms). This time is more than twice as long as the so called recommended 8ms safe level. All 8ms rated LCD panels I have tested blur fast motion. How can that be? Just like with our contrast ratio there is no industry specified standard to measure response time. Some companies test by going from one level of gray to the next (called gray to gray) others measure from black to white (how much change must occur to come up with a number for the spec sheet, no one knows). Every company does it their own way. What ever number a set maker prints in its spec sheet is meaningless as there is no standard test procedure to back up any claim.
What to do about it?
TV retailers tend to use flowers, trees and talking heads as demo material in part because they do not have fast motion that may show the blur on LCD flat panels. The HD Guru suggests bringing a DVD into the store (with a player if necessary). Pick a disc that has a fast scroll of the ending credits and use this to compare different displays. How blurry do the letters get with each display? The blurrier, the slower response time. If you can’t read it, you’ll probably be unsatisfied with the blur during sports. If all LCDs are too blurry for you, pick one of the other display technologies and look again at the rolling credits.
The HD Guru has rated three LCDs that have acceptable motion response. They are the JVC LT-37X987 37-Inch HDTV. HD Guru Rated ♥♥♥♥/Hitachi UltraVision Director’s Series 37HLX99 37-Inch HDTV. HD Guru Rated ♥♥♥♥/ and the Philips 42PF9831D/37 42-Inch HDTV.HD Guru Rated ♥♥♥
Copyright 2006 HD Guru (SM) All rights reserved.
41 Comments
Comments are closed.
I just got a Sony Bravia 46 inch LCD HDTV. The picture looks great, but I have a question. Why is it that whenever a game, or a movie, the screen fades darker when the whole screen gets darker? Is there a way I can stop this? It gets really annoying if I enter a dark hall in a game or when a movie ends and the credits roll. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks for reading this.
Don
I too had the lip sync issues with the same Sharp. I too got much the same response but then I managed to eventally get chatting to one of their service guys who seemed to actually want to help.
He said they were aware of the lip sync problem, software had been released to fix it and he’d mail me it. A few days later I got a USB stick with the software and ran it.
The same engineer also suggested I keep Film Mode and DNR switched off (or reduce DNR to it’s lowest setting).
I am happy to say those have all worked :o)
Jon
I HAVE A PHILIPS 42″ FLAT PANEL THAT WON’T COME ON. IT WORKED YESTERADY, BUT WHEN I ATTEMPTED TO TURN IT ON THE NEXT DAY, IT WOULDN’T, EITHER WITH THE REMOTE OR BY HAND. OH YEAH, THE POWER INDICATOR LIGHT DOES NOT TURN ON. I TROUBLESHOOT IT OVER THE PHONE AND WAS TOLD IT’S THE POWER MODULE. MAKES SENSE BUT BECAUSE THEY TOLD ME IT’S MORE THAN $700, I WANT TO GET A SECOND OPINION. IS IT JUST AS POSSIBLE THAT SOME OTHER PROBLEM MAY EXIST?
HI HD GURU, WONDERED IF YOU COULD HEPL I HAVE A SONY BRAVIA 50INCH HD TV , I HAVE JUST BOUGHT A TOSHIBA HD PLAYER, EVERYTHING IS FINE ON THE SKY TV CHANNELS AND ORDINARY DVD MOVIES , BUT WHEN I TRY WATCHING A HD DVD I GET GHOSTING AROUND PPL AND OBJECTS, I HAVE TRIED EVERYTHING TO RESOLVE THIS WITHOUT ANY SUCESS PLEASE COPULD YOU HELP YOU ARE MY LAST HOPE BEFORE THE TV GOES OUT THE WONDOW STEVE COVENTRY UK
DJJAGUAR,
I think you are better off going with the 720p TV at that screen size for a couple reasons.
1) There really is no point in getting a 1080p TV at 40″ because unless you are sitting at a rediculous distance like 3 feet away, you won’t notice a difference between the 2.
2) I’m not sure what the price difference is for what you’re looking at, but 1080p usually costs at least $100 more than 720p TV’s of the same type. That’s a lot of money for something you won’t notice the differnce on anyway.
I am interested in buying either the SONY KDL40V3000 OR THE KDL40S3000, one is 720p and the other is 1080p resolution.
Why should I get the one with the 1080p rez? Is the 720p really that bad?
HDTV Guru,
I have a number of Hd over the air channels within 40 miles of my home. What type of roof top antenna should I purchase for best reception? I get decent reception with my old UHF antenna and a Radio Shack # 15-1108 Amplifier.
HDTV Guru,
Have you spent any time with Samsung’s plasma flat panels? I’m interested in their FP-T5084 1080p plasma. Have you reviewed it? How do Samsung’s plasmas compare to Panasonic’s and Pioneer’s plasmas? Thanks for your help!
HDTV GURU,
I have a Sony Bravia kdl46v2500. The cable company has recently put in new cable lines into our home and a new line from the street to our cable box.
The picture is amazing but we are experiencing loud audi hiss
and we see horizontal, purple ghosting running up and down the screen
when the tv displays black.
We also received a brand digital box and none of this occurs when we watch a dvd.
Can you help?
HDTV Guru,
Thanks for the time you spent putting this together, I for one appreciate it. The comments about HD ready TVs and projectors reminded me of TV ready radios, what that meant is they had an external audio input and that made them TV ready. Hot chassis TVs and external antennas requiring a ground did cause a few problems, but hey excrement occurs.
That’s what made me choose a monitor (Philips 42FD9934) rather than a HD ready TV a couple of years ago when my aged Sony TV was killed. When my Sony VCR (used as a tuner) died I replaced it with a TiVo 3, my first PVR, viola, HD TV. I have quickly learned to love my TiVo.
Thanks,
Jim
HDTV Guru, I need to clean The screen of my 32 inch LCD TV. Do I need to buy those $20+ cleaning kits at the big retailers or are there home remedies that can clean the screen?
Thanks
I have 2 questions for you, the first pertains to how much safer is it for plasma-TV’s after you’ve gone thru the initial break-in period-(1st 100-200hrs), without any signs of burn-in and keep to the same calibrations and safeguards afterwards? I realize this may vary as to brand, model, size, use, etc, but was just curious. My second question concerns some new DVD-player/recorders, some of which are equipped for HDMI-hookup-(a few include an HDMI cable w/player) that claim to “upconvert” a regular DVD signal-(480P?), to near HD quality. Does this work? I’ve noticed my non-Hi-Def TV channels-(especially the higher cable movie channels) look much improved using the HDMI cable hookup over regular coax connection. Any info on both questions would be appreciated, Thank You!!!!
Thanks for the reply, you’re right, the after image I saw after playing my Xbox game was only visible after the game/console was shut off but the TV was still on just showing a blank dark screen, it was almost imperceptible, but disappeared after watching something else for a short time. I also noticed when I switched my Xbox console on and started a game, the picture setting-(brightness)of the game was already down below normal setting. I will have to remember to keep the settings on the game console reduced as well, however I intend to limit my playing on it anyway during the break-in period. Thank You!!!
I just purchased a Panasonic TH42PX600U-plasma TV and upon initial setup I set the picture settings to those I found listed on your site-(ISF calibration)to downscale contrast, pic mode, etc, and plan to keep the TV in those settings, as with using other mentioned safeguards during the 1st 200hrs of viewing to prevent any burn-in. I did notice a very-slight “ghosting” effect after playing one of my Xbox games for about 30 minutes-(longest I’ve played it at one time on this set), however a couple hours later this had disappeared. The TV works great and picture is superb-(I’m using a HDMI cable). My question still concerns burn-in, I have seen advertised a DVD-based program called “Pixel Protector” which claims to wash and repair burn-in and other problems, and supposedly can be used as a regular maintenance utility to protect your screen image. Do you have any information on these type utility programs, and are they really effective and safe to use? Thank You!!
I have not used any of the discs you refer to.
Let’s back up a little.
What you are describing is image retention not “burn in”. Image retention the “holding a charge” of each pixel. It is a short term effect, there is not damgae to the plasma panel. The slight ghost image will fade away in a short time with normal viewing. I like to refer to things like this as a “nature of the beast” issue, meaning it is simply how plasmas behave.
The HD Guru recommends you lower contrast to below about 40%-45% of maximum when playing video games, to prevent uneven phospher wear by the static images in a video game. ÂÂ
The only time you would need to “wash” the screen is if you have true “burn in”. A still frame that is all white would do the job, You can find this pattern on many test discs, such as video essentials of avai. It is called Full Raster 100 IRE test pattern.
The HD Guru    ÂÂ
Thank you. Nice handy website, but next time please be brief
oops $150. to $250.
I want to use ota signals for my Sony HDTV. I need a converter. Are the Samsung terrestial converters any good? I see they can be bought for $1.50 to $250.
Yes
The HD GuruÂÂ
I have a question about ‘glare’ on Plasma TV’s and the fact that I am constantly being pushed toward LCD rather than Plasma (due to the day light from windows in my family room) Plasma is my preference but I don’t want to make a stupid choice. What are your experiences and recommendations with respect to this topic?
You will only see reflections if the window is opposite the screen. Also, there are two plasmas brands with superior anti-reflective (AR) screen coatings (though no AR coating is close to 100% effective) . They are Pioneer plasma line and the Director series Hitachis.ÂÂ
If your problem is ambient room light, remember plasma is brighter than CRT direct view.ÂÂ
The HD Guru recommends window treatment + plasma if you have a problem vs. getting an LCD, if you want the best image qualityÂÂ
The HD GuruÂÂ
I have a new Sharp 42″ Aquos LCD. I have a terrible lip sync problem. I had the DirectTV HD box changed out but no solution. Sharp syas it is the Direct TV box, Direct TV says it is the Sharp TV and Best Buy doesn’t know.
Do you have any thoughts on how to correct the lip sync problem and how should I proceed?
Contact the dealer, it is their responiblity to determine where the problem lies. (A call to Sharp customer service too couldn’t hurt)
If BB doesn’t don’t offer a solution to the problem, return the set for a refund.
The HD GuruÂÂ
I have a 57″ rear projection CRT HDTV and have experienced some burn in. Long story short, I have a set of brand new CRTs direct from the factory, but for a 51″ TV. Do you think it is possible to use the CRTs that were for the 51″ TV in the 57″? Is the magnification of the image determined completely through the distance inside the TV and the mirror?
Also, is this something I can do myself? I am mechanically inclined and feel comfortable with electronics [BS and MS in EE]. I think my main concerns are alignment and the caps for the CRTs [making sure they are discharged].
What are your thoughts?
Thanks. This is a great website.
You would first need to check the part number for the CRTs and see if they are the same (it is likely they are). While the operation of retubing is not that difficult (gettting past the dangers of the high voltage and knowing some key connections must be made before repowering or the new tubes will be destroyed horizontal and vertical defiection circuit reconnection for example) the realignment of geometry and convergence requires a specific procedure and training. I don’t believe it can be done with just a service manual (a must have for retubing). let me be clear. I do not recommend anyone including you gets inside any TV. It is dangerous, the high voltage can kill you. All repairs should be left to trained professionals. The most difficult part of retubing is the alignment. Depending on the make, model and type of alignment, you can quickly dig yourself a deep hole and without knowing the alignment criteria ,overdrive and damage the circuitry. I would also leave alignment up to a trained experienced person.
The HD Guru
Great information source…”demystify’s” the whole HD movement…Thank You
I need to buy a LCD TV 32 or 36 inc and a 42 plasma TV to use overseas. I am looking to buy a multi-system one that can be NTSC/PAL. I am so confused with the different types and the terms . I am planning on spending $2000 each. Could you give me any suggestions as to what I should buy. Your advise will be very much appreciated.
I am not familier with any dual format, multi power LCD and plasmas for sale in the US. Pehaps another reader cold offer assistance.ÂÂ
The HD GuruÂÂ
cathy’s problem posted December 19th 2006.
I also have a Sony Projection LCD 40″ Bravia.
If you go to Sony’s web site you will find out there are certain models that under warranty need a software upgrade. They come out to your home free of charge. The problem described sounds like what cathy is saying.
Please pass on.
I have been told that some LCDs produce black by actually turning off the part of the screen that’s supposed to be black. As this is done on a pixel by pixel basis, would this not create an extremely good black level? If this is the case, wouldn’t the test be flawed in the cases where absolute black is not necessary?
No, LCD flat panels do not operate this way. Think of the backlight as a projection lamp in a microdisplay projector. It is always on. What you describe would require an individual backlight behind every pixel. There are some interesting new LCD panels with innovative backlights that will be shown with a couple of weeks at the International CES. The HD Guru will be attending and will provide unique coverage of all things high defininition at the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show.
The HD GuruÂÂ
Ihave a 3-5 yr old mitsubishi 65″ diamond projection TV. Mfriends love it but it is suposed to be “HD READY” at the time I bought it.
What does HD ready mean?
I was told I needed to buy another item from mitsubishi to make it an HD TV but I still needed an HD box from direct TV or my cable company.
Should I get these items or just buy a Lcd or plasma TV ?
Its up to you. HD ready means you need a high def source box such as the cable box you mentioned. Until you an HD source you will not experince hgh defintion television.
The HD GuruÂÂ
I bought a mitsubishi 65″ dlp. The picture when not on hd 720 or 1080 was terrible. Blurry blotches on the picture. I took it back and exchanged it for a sony 55″ sxrd. I had them put all the tv’s on the wall at 480I and this one seemed to have the best picture when in this mode. The hd with the 65″ was good to great depending on the channel. The fan also was very loud and I even had them replace the original 65″ because it was so loud. The second set wasn’t as loud but still could be heard at times. I haven’t recieved the Sony 55″ yet ….I think I did the right thing but only time will tell!
The Sony SXRDs have fine image quality. A blog entry covering SXRD will be posted soon.
The HD GuruÂÂ
We are looking at 40 to42 inch HDTV’s. What are your recommendations at this time.
We will be sitting from 6 to 15 feet from the screen and using a cable hookup. Do you recommend this size ?
The answers you seek are in the HD Guru archives, check out the LCD & Plasma article and the seating distance chart that covers all screen sizes from 17″ .
The HD GuruÂÂ
HD Guru:
Do you have any experience or data with LCD response times from Sony’s XBR2/3-series TVs? They have received great reviews, and I am very much interested in them. However, I am a serious sports fan and want to make sure that this Sony TV will provide a satisfying picture for HD broadcasts of football, basketball, etc. I have noted your 3 recommendations for LCD TVs with satisfactory response times. Thank you for your input.
LCD response times are covered in the HDTV Lies and the LCD vs Plasma. . Please check out these articles in the archive. For faster motion response (i.e. sports) the HD Guru recommends plasma.
The HD GuruÂÂ
I’m the guy that wrote about the burn-in two spaces above. I have a Samsung LCD and was concerned about eventually getting burn-in. Should I rotate black boarders to grey borders to prevent burn-in?
Besides that I thought my brother-in-law’s TV is a DLP. It is some kind of rear projection wide screen with the problem, not a Samsung.
I have been living with a Sharp Aquos 65 inch LCD since December,2005 or 1 year.I previously owned a Pioneer 50 inch Elite plasma. In the opening sequence to the Tonight show with Jay Leno,the fast panning would drive this set crazy. The Sharp has no problem,no break up or pixelization as the Pioneer did. In football games often a problem again,the Sharp is very good,however I have seen a split second breakup,but 90 per cent better then my previous plasma. In analogue broadcasts,the Sharp exhibits none of the “jpg-like video compression blockness” artifacts as my previous plasma. I had my Sharp calibrated by a ISF (Image Science Foundation)technician. It’s important to have this done as you will get the best possible grey scale.When the gray scale is at it’s best,the colors will be more acurate. You will find that you will never need all the brightness and contrast offered by todays sets. The factory setting is much to high. Ever notice when you see a video image on tv,it is usually blue? That is because the color temperature is set way to high,over 13000 kelvin. Makes for a bright picture,but lousy color. I have owned Kloss Novabeam front projection tv’s,a Pioneer rear projection tv, Sony XBR trinitrons,a 40 inch Mitsu,a RCA 38 inch HD crt,Pioneer 50 inch Plasma and now the Sharp Aquos 65 inch LCD. Staring with the Mitsu,all have been professionally calabrated.I would have to say the Sharp is giving me the best viewing experience. The Sony XBR3’s LCD’s introduced after my purchase look better to me but to vivid.I think this set,after calibration could be one of the best current offerings.
I have a Samsung LCD. I recently visited my brother-in-law that had a DLP. While watching a full screen football game I noticed that his DLP had some sort of burn in where the edges of his screen had better color than the main part of the screen. These edges are the part of my screen that are usually black while watching standard image chanels. I’m afraid that over time I may experience the same problem with my LCD. My question is, can I reduce my changes of getting this type of display deterioration by using the grey boarder option 1/2 the time? I have Dish Network and I can choose between black or gray boarders. I was thinking about switching from black to grey from one month to another.
It is impossible for a DLP to “burn in”. If the color intensity of his TV is uneven, he should notify Samsung customer service, the TV requires a repair. You do not have to be concerned with any type of image retention with DLP. Simply can’t occur
Burn is typically describes uneven wear of the red, blue and green phosphors. This can occur in the phospher based technologies, namely CRTs and plasmasÂÂ
The HD Guru
Two questions really: Do manufacturers use the same methods with all their displays to obtain a contrast ration or will they use different ones depending on models?
What is the difference between p and i?
There is no standard and manufacturers don’t disclose their measurement methods so it is anyones guess.
P is progressive every horizontal line of resolution (either 480,720 0r 1080 for TV) in each frame of information are displayed every 1/60 of a second is interlaced .
i is interlaced. Only the odd numbered horizontal lines (1,3, 5 etc.) are displayed in 1/60 of a second followed by the even ones 2,4,6,8 etc in the following 1/60 second followed by odd the next 1/60 of a second then even etc.
All microdisplays (DLP, SXRD, DILA, LCD) and LCD flat are progressive. All plasma except the 42″ Hitachi are progressive displays too. This means these displays must convert all interlaced signals to progressive internally.
The HD GuruÂÂ
Help. I just bought a Panasonic 42″ Plasma TV. Overall I love the TV and picture. I just have a problem when watching sports (Football), there is a lot of blurring and ghosting. I have HD and the HDMI cable. Can this be fixed.
You do not state the type of source material. Standard def cable, satellite or over the air??? It is impossible for me to make recommendations. I will make a few assumptions. You have to learn if the incoming signal is poor due to a weakness such as inherently bad source material (like old quiz shows on the game channel), or is it getting bad in inside our home? How is the picture on your old analog TV? If it is clean and sharp, then it mayd help to optimize the user setting s(see plasma lcd article in archive). If it is weak (as i you suspect)you need to clean it up. I can’t go through all the permutations here (perhaps this calls for an article) but if it is cable – call your cable provider . Many homes have too many splits in home distibution. Bad signals become worse on HDTVs, simply put, the upconversion amplifies the errors in the signal. Your situation is too vauge for me to provide more assistance. Sorry.
The HD GuruÂÂ
I have a sony KDF-70BR950 70″TV and a samsung TX-
S3082WH 30″model TV.Both of these TV”s are using idental cable boxes(Comcast)but,I am having trouble
with one of the boxes.So,I switched boxes on the TV”s and the problems switched also.So is it anyway
possible that the problem could be the cable box?
The picture doesn’t come in clear sometime and all the channels doesn’t come up.Both TV cables are hooked up correctly.
If swapping the boxes makes the bad TV look good and visa versa it is the cable box (I assume you did not swap the wires with the boxes). To verify connect the cable directly into tv without the box and scan channels in (see TV owner’s manual instructions) if the pictures are fine using the TV tuner instead of the cable box, you have correctly determined it is the cable box. call you cable provider for a replacement.
The HD GuruÂÂ
I’m also interested in the Sharp Aquos 46″ as Figured Maple above, but I’m concerned about the blurring or ghost effect that FiguredMaple above asked about and I see that you didn’t have a comment. You’re probably too busy but I’m all ready to buy the Sharp Aquos and I’d like your advice. Has the Sharp Aquos lcd an lcd fixed the blurring problem? Do you still like the plasma picture better than lcd? Could you comment? thanks, Don.
Sorry, but DLP does not reproduce blacks with the same accuracy as a good plasma…
I have a sony Bravia 40-inch lcd. I’m having a terrible time with either (1) the tv itself or (2) the HD dvr from my cable company. Is it acceptable when changing from a HD channel to nonHD channel (and vice/versa) that the TV screen should just go black??? When this happens we must turn the tv off then on again to and then continue changing channels and not lose the picture. This has become so annoying that we are thinking of taking the TV back–Sony says it’s the DVR cable box, cable company says it’s the TV??? Can you please help us — we are desperate. Thanks.
You don’t say which model Sony LCD you have, but you should try the following tests.
I assume your TV has a built-in unencrypted QAM cable tuner (it does if it is a KDL40V2500 or an XBR model.) Cathy, you must eliminate some of the varibles in order to figure out where the problem lies. So I would first try the following before contacting the retailer to make it his problem.
Disconnect the cable TV line from the cable box and screw it directly into the F connector jack in the back of the TV. Follow the owner’s manual on making this connection, then read in the owner’s manual how to scan in all the unscrambled cable channels once you make the direct cable connection.
Once the channel scan is performed you can press the TV’s channel up/down button and see if the set blacks out and needs to be switched off and on. If it doesn’t it is possible the cablebox is defective or another issue you will see when you read ahead) and its losing its connection with the TV, and the cable provider should exchange it.
If the TV blacks out without the cable box like it has been doing, (TV connected directly to the cable without the box), then the problem is definitely with the TV and you should return or replace it.
Please be aware that the channel numbers using the TV without the cable box will probably be a completely different numbers than with using the cable box. i.e. CBS HD might be 702 on the cable box but it is 89.1 on the TV without the box. Don’t worry about number order, just see if the goes black when you channel up or down.
This test does not assure you will learn which unit is defective, unless the TV fails the test. If it doesn’t fail , I would swap out the DVR and if the problem persists with a new cablebox read on.
 There’s one more varible to consider after you performed my test. You do not say if the cablebox is connected via HDMI or component video cables If its connected by HDMI this could also be a HDMI compatiblilty problem.  In that case I recommend you temporarily switch to a component video cable to connect the DVR to the TV and test that way.
An HDMI issue could cause you to need to reboot the TV for it to reaquire the channel on the TV. That could mean it is a box problem, TV problem or HDMI cable problem, (if everything suddenly works properly when testing with the DVR-TV connected with component video cables.
If you are already using component video cables, performed my test and exhanged the cable box you are back to square one,
At that point I recommend making it the retailer’s problem to figure it this out. If he wouldn’t solve the problem, return the set. Then it automatically becomes his problem.
 Good luck. Let me know how you make out.
The HD GuruÂÂ
We recently purchased 42″ plasma and we are disappointed in the amount of HD channels available. We have trouble getting the over-the-air HD channels and Directv doesn’t have much in the way of HD programming. How do you convince them to carry more HD channels?
DirecTV says they will be adding more HD in 2007. Have you considered cable?
The HD GuruÂÂ
as a person that watches alot of tv,(big sports fan)will the lcd tv hold up? will it over heat? thank you for your website,i used it to by my tv and set it up correctly.
Should hold up as long as it has air space around it to keep it running cool
The HD GuruÂÂ
I am interested in the JVC HD-70FH97 70inch TV. When you performed the tests in Home Theater there were no sets of this size tested. Have you tested this set to see if it meets the criteria. If not, what about similar size Sony’s or Mitsibushi. Thanks
These sets were not available at the time of my tests. I will try to locate samples and post the results.
The HD GuruÂÂ
“Pick a disc that has a fast scroll of the ending credits and use this to compare different displays.”
What are some examples of the discs you used?
Also, I’ve heard many people say how the new Sharp LCD’s are as good as Plasma and have corrected any of the older LCD flaws.
Could you please give us an in depth review of the Sharp Aquos LC-42D62U 42-inch LCD?