E44w46lcd

[spdj]

Purchased my Zenith E44W46LCD from Best Buy last week, and so far, I’m having a tough time with it. This is my third set I bought there. I started with the Panasonic 50” LCD but returned it due to the fact it was too big for my room and I was too close so the picture looked like crap. Then I went with the Toshiba 46” CRT but returned that because I couldn’t hook up my computer to it. Now I’m back to RPLCD.

What’s troubling me right now is that the set looked very comparable to the others in the store with a somewhat HD signal on it, with the exception of the SDE (screen door effect). Once I got it home that changed quite a bit. I don’t have HD and I have Dish Network. I did notice however, that having it hooked up to my Sony prog scan DVD player it looks pretty good, especially on a digital movie like Star Wars Ep II. It also looked pretty good on my Xbox with HD component on that. Now here’s what I don’t get….

Prog scan DVD only outputs 480p and my Dish is outputting 480i, so how do the pictures look so different. I have the Dish hooked up to the TV using Monster S-video, and it looks just as bad as RCA cables. The DVD is hooked up with AR component cables.

The other issue I have which I’ve heard about is the overall green hue of the picture. Now I can only see this when I’m watching SD on my Dish, don’t see it on Xbox or DVD. Also the complete lack of black levels. Again, this is only noticeable on the Dish. I’m having DISH come out this weekend to inspect the system, but I called Zenith tech support and they said that even if you’re watching SD on the set it shouldn’t be grainy or pixilated or blotchy which is what my picture looks like now.

I’m really in a bad spot right now. I can’t really afford to spend anymore on another TV. The only 2 I would remotely consider are the Sony 42” and the Samsung 46” but the reason I would like to keep the Zenith is that it gives me the ability to do PC P-I-P and PC split screen. Which you can’t do on any other TV in that price range.

Is anyone else having these issues and if so what did you do to solve them?

[jamis]

First off, you can't really compare picture quality when one source is using S-Vid and one is using component cables. Not to mention that 480p is supposedly about 30% 'sharper' than 480i (if I remember correctly). That isn't trivial. If your DISH reciever has component out, I'd suggest using it instead of S-Vid.

SD broadcasts will always look somewhat crappy on a 40+ inch TV. It can also vary by station/channel has to HOW bad they will look. For example, with my cable providor, the major networks in SD look MUCH better than channels such as SciFi or TBS.

As for the green hue, you should be able to fix that by adjusting the color/tint settings in the TV's Setup menu.

Black levels on DLP and LCDs are not as good as a good CRTRP, but you should at least make sure your brightness and contrast settings aren't cranked all the way up (also in the TV's setup menu).