Sharpen your image with a new HDTV
A few tips on how to make the picture on your HDTV look a little more like it did in the showroom
Marc Saltzman, The Gazette
You spent weeks researching which television technology to invest in and an even longer time looking for the right price by scouring flyers and checking websites. Finally, you buy your dream HDTV, bring it home, plug it in, and sit back to bask in its magnificence.
But somehow the picture doesn't look quite as good as you had anticipated. Why does the hockey game look better on the same TV at your electronics store and at John's house across the street?
This scenario is a familiar one to many Canadians who recently purchased a high-definition television.
Chances are there's nothing wrong with your set. You just need a little help setting it up for optimum performance.
With some advice from La Boutique Electronique (www.laboutiqueelectronique.com), here are a handful of pointers on getting the best picture on your new HDTV, be it a flat-panel LCD television, plasma or rear-projection unit.
Is it really HDTV?
First, make sure it's truly a high-definition television, capable of displaying up to 1,080 lines of resolution. Don't assume a widescreen LCD or plasma television is an HDTV set just because it's flat, as it may only be an EDTV ("enhanced digital television").
EDTVs can display only 480 or 576 lines of resolution, so be sure you read the television's specs before you buy.
HD programming
Depending on where you live, you might receive some free over-the-air HDTV broadcasts (if your television has a built-in ATSC tuner), but most of us will need to buy or rent an HDTV receiver box from our cable or satellite TV provider.
Be aware that you will likely have to pay a few extra dollars per month for access to the HDTV programming, too (but it's worth it).
Cable guy
To view HDTV programming, you also need the right cables. In the past, you've probably used the red, yellow and white composite (RCA) cords or a round-ended S-Video cable, but high-definition programming requires component cables (red, blue and green), a digital visual interface (DVI) cable or the high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) cable, the latter of which is the preferred pick for the ultimate in audio and video quality.
Take a look at the back of your new television and you'll see a few options; you might have to buy these cables separately.
Contrast up, brightness down
"A quick and easy way to vastly improve picture quality - right off the bat - is to crank up the contrast on your television almost to full and reduce the brightness down to below half," advises Chris Porteous, president of La Boutique Electronique.
"It makes blacks blacker, colours richer, and gets rid of the washed-out look many HDTVs have." Most TVs are too bright to begin with anyway, adds Porteous.
Widescreen tip
Though many of his customers tend to do the opposite, says Porteous, leave the television's video setting on full-screen but change your receiver box's video output setting to 1080i, and you'll end up with a much clearer and sharper picture.
"Many HDTV owners zoom in on their television to remove the black vertical bars on the edges of the screen but this can result in a more blurry or pixilated image."
