Home audio & video forum: HD Scenes look fake - is it my Samsung TV?

Average CGI can look really bad in HD. And some people find HD pictures a bit distracting when they first start watching them because they keep noticing inconsequential details like blades of grass or something happening in the background. It will pass after the novelty wears off.

Pixelation (or macro-blocking) usually has nothing to do with hardware. It has to do with a crappy, over compressed signal and too much motion happening onscreen. Its very apparent with streaming services and cable and satellite "HD" content. Try a blu-ray or a really well encoded DVD on an up-converting player and you will see how good your picture can look.

Thank you so much for responding. I did try turning off the 120hz but I don't notice the difference. Also i'm trying to understand the "soap opera" effect. Is that just about seeing judders or what I described like the images in the foreground look superimposed over the background? Or like actors walking around on a set?

Also here's my full hookup info:
HD Cable Box - Samsung
Cable Company - Time Warner Cable - New York City (cable box is set to 1080i, 16:9)
HDMI Cables - i'm using the ones that came with my HD Cable Box from Time Warner (they are 1.3)

It makes movies seem like they were filmed on a camcorder or something. I'm watching Rocky, it looks hilarious. I've never seen this b4

You shouldn't notice such 'realism' issues on a plasma IME. If you want a quick way to make the comparison, during a weeknight view a show like CSI in HD, then drive to a local big box store and view the exact same show on one of their plasmas. It will generally look much more realistic on the PDP IME.

While I don't think this is necessarily what you are noticing in this particular situation, it's noteworthy. Some of the newer LED-LCDs are truly splitting hairs though. Not entirely certain about backlighting in general though.

n/t

First, I saw a 32" (I think it was 32") Panasonic Plasma at Costco for cheap.

Second, I have two 120Hz LCDs that do not exhibit any of that weird "soap opera" effect. Many people complained about this effect but I didn't see it until I setup my father-in-laws Samsung 240Hz TV this past weekend, and that weird effect was so evident, I couldn't watch the TV. My father-in-law doesn't see it. My two large LCDs are a Sony and a Toshiba Regza. Both have stunning pictures in both HD cable and Blu-Ray Dics vieweing. The Toshiba was rated as having the best 120Hz processing of any TV, which I didn't know until I bought this TV. Many people also thing Toshiba makes low-end TVs, which they do but for that market, but they also make very good expensive TVs too. I've had mine for 1 year and I love it.

I have both a Samsung Plasma and a Panasonic HD LCD, and Time-warner. Neither of my sets exhibit a fake look, the detail should be uniform.
Some HD shows look better then others, but not fake.
Something else is going on with your set, go to a store showing a HD broadcast signal and compare.

I know exactly what you are referring to. The first time I saw it was watching a blu-ray DVD of U-Boat 471(?). What may be happening is the the resolution is getting so high that one picks up on the lighting of the sound stage in which the film was shot. In other words, the pictures may be getting 'too good'. I install home theater systems and this issue has been bantered about for the last few years. We call it garbage in, garbage out. The lower resolution technology wasn't able to pick this nuance up. Tweaking the picture as mentioned in other posts can help. I personally have stayed with the 720 resolution for its film like quality.

Auto Motion Plus 120Hz Off / Clear / Standard / Smooth / Custom / Demo Removes drag from fast scenes with a lot of movement to provide a clearer picture.
If you enable Auto Motion Plus 120Hz, noise may appear on the screen. If this occurs, set Auto Motion Plus 120Hz to Off.
Off: Switches Auto Motion Plus 120Hz off.
Clear: Sets Auto Motion Plus 120Hz to minimum.
Standard: Sets Auto Motion Plus 120Hz to medium.
Smooth: Sets Auto Motion Plus 120Hz to maximum.
Custom: Adjusts the blur and judder reduction level to suit your preference.

Blur Reduction: Adjusts the blur reduction level from video sources.
Judder Reduction: Adjusts the judder reduction level from video sources when playing films.
Reset: Reset the custom settings.
Demo: Displays the difference between Auto Motion Plus 120Hz on and off modes.

What would judder have to do with the color of the picture? I thought judder was when the picture skips for freezes for a second?

The most common source of pixelation for the general populace is not broadcaster related, but rather signal reception issue.

Pixelation is most often a sign that your signal is low which will adversely affect the performance of your digital system across the board.

Whether speaking of DirecTV or Dish Network, neither exhibits regular or frequent pixelation when properly installed. Plenty of people see little or no pixelation. A properly set up satellite system will rarely drop signal and provides consistent viewing through all but the worst of weather.

The providers have not crossed the line to the point where everyone has problems because of the way they use compression. The problem is not usually over compression. The problems are usually due to poor installation, and the solution is for the satellite companies to provide better training for installers and to change priorities from speed and volume to quality.

I have also seen widely varying quality in cable systems.

There are a few things a person can do with cable systems.

1. Start where the cable enters the home and check all fittings. They should be just over finger tight. Inside they should have no corrosion and the center needle should protrude from the fitting 1/16th inch. Check the ground block and replace if necessary.

2. Make sure cables are RG-6 not RG-59.
3. Remove any unnecessary cables.
4. Remove any unnecessary splitters.
5. Use correctly sized splitters, or cap (terminate) any open ports
6. Remove any excess length of cables.
7. Calibrate your television.

These things will decrease pixelation and increase PQ in most cable installs.

While some pixelation can come from the broadcasters, this is a small portion of the pixelation witnessed.

The majority of pixelation is caused by poor signal reception in the home.

i have an older samsung lcd and also a last years model samsung lcd tv. the older samsung lcd tv does not have as good of image quality that my newer model samsung lcd tv has. all images are good quality on the older samsung lcd. however, fake images look fake on my newer model samsung lcd tv because this tv has such an excellent quality that you can see fake backgrounds on tv sitcoms and fake lighting, etc. an excellent video source without any fake video looks better than i have ever seen on my newer model samsung lcd tv, such as the superbowl live hdtv over the air antenna video, amazing indeed. i suggest if you dont want the best image quality tv that will show fake background and cgi, then get a 720p hdtv. if you want one of the best image hdtv images ever, stay with a newer model 1080p samsung lct hdtv (if you can handle seeing fake images that are in a lot of video sources)