OK, so I understand why standard definition shows look like crap on my HDTV set. But what makes no sense to me is what standard def DVDs look really really GOOD on my HD set.
How do these compressed, standard def signals work so well with my HD screen when all others don’t?
SD shows look great on my HDTV (Toshiba 42HM66). They don’t look HD, but they look great.
It may be the quality of your connections. The DVD is probably a digital connection rather than analog. Digital DVD to digital TV is better than digital DVD –> analog connection –> digital TV. Also, my DVD is player upconverts to 1080i. The DVD is 480p, the player converts it to 1080i and sends it via HDMI to the TV. The TV downconverts to its native resolution (720p).
My bet is you’ve got a bad connection between your antenna or cable/sat box and the TV. Or, you could have a bad TV. I have a Philips 32" HDTV that is crap even with an HD image.
A great website to check is AVS Forum. There are lots of smart people over there who love to talk about this sort of thing.
Standard DVDs are still higher resolution than TV signals, which means that while you don’t get as good a picture as you do from HDTV, it’s still a step above standard definition TV.