Ten Steps to a Better Picture: Part One
When television sets were sold like
appliances, manufacturers assumed that their customers would accept whatever video
performance they chose to provide. To make things simple, therefore, they didn’t
offer much in the way of controls or other options, and North American TV gained an
unenviable reputation as a second-rate system -- wags claimed that its name, NTSC, stood
for "never twice the same color."
In the past decade, television sets or image display
devices, or monitor receivers or whatever you choose to call them, have improved to an
amazing degree, and it is now possible -- even easy -- to get really good video
performance at home. We're talking regular TV -- HDTV is a subject for future
consideration. But old-style TVs are what most of us still buy, and it's natural to want
to get every last bit of quality out of the technology.
Here are some simple steps to that end.
1. How good’s your set?
Achieving a superb video image may or may not mean buying a
new television monitor, and if what you now own is capable of a high enough level of
performance, you may be able to save a considerable amount of money. To assess this,
it’s probably worthwhile to go through steps eight to ten in my article next month to
optimize what you already have. Look especially at black level and overall brightness --
older sets do tend to get darker with age, and some images may be so murky as to be
unintelligible. Also look carefully at resolution, if you have some means of doing so, and
picture graininess -- video noise -- which may signify a tuner-sensitivity problem. With
careful adjustment, you may find a surprising amount of improvement for no cost and choose
to live with that.
On the other hand, you may well find that your set just
doesn’t cut it visually, especially if its more than about five or six years old. It
may be time for something new.
2. What can your set do?
Even if your current television is capable of excellent
images, it may be limited in other ways. The term "monitor receiver" is commonly
used for today’s better analog sets, and it suggests not only a higher level of
performance but greater system flexibility: the set has some means of input and output
access for at least one set of line-level signals. Older sets only had antenna terminals,
and while virtually all videocassette recorders, and even some DVD players, can provide a
radio-frequency (RF) signal to feed to these terminals, most experts advise against this
sort of hookup. Line-level (composite) connections are almost always better; S-video
inputs are theoretically even better; component-video better still, but only if you have a
DVD player or satellite receiver that can take advantage of them.
The audio in the set may or may not be important. If you
intend to hook the video up to an external audio system in a home-theater configuration,
what the set has built-in in terms of audio may be irrelevant. But many viewers use the
internal audio for normal day-to-day TV watching, and decent sound with stereo may be a
real plus.
3. What do you want to do?
The simplest of the modern monitor receivers offer a single
set of line inputs plus antenna terminals. That may be adequate if you intend to watch
off-air television mostly plus the occasional videocassette. If you add a video-game
system to that, you’d probably be better off with a set offering several switchable
inputs, which can be selected from the remote. Similarly, multiple video sources -- VCR
plus satellite receiver, say -- may well benefit from the same facility, although in many
systems, video switching through an audio/video receiver is more convenient. If you mean
to use the television’s own tuner as a source for recording, the set will require
line outputs. Few older sets have these amenities.
And even though it has nothing to do directly with improved
picture quality, the remote control provided with either your existing television or a new
one should be given some careful consideration -- the most frustrating thing about
television watching (or any other electronic activity) is often a badly realized remote.
If the remote isn’t intuitive to use, you’ll end up hating it.
And, while it’s often useful to be able to see
onscreen indication of what you are doing, a picture that fills up with gibberish every
time you touch a button on the remote can be extremely distracting. There have even been
sets that obscure most of the image with onscreen garbage, making picture adjustments
almost impossible. It hardly matters that a set is capable of a good picture if you
can’t make it realize its potential because of ergonomic shortcomings.
4. What’s out there?
Rule number one: the television monitor that perfectly
suits your needs does exist. Rule number two: you may have a devil of a time finding it.
So a little research is in order.
Often the best starting point is to ask your friends and
acquaintances about their experiences. When they praise their sets (or curse them), find
out what brands they are talking about and what’s so good (or bad) about them. If you
can, play with the sets themselves to see how good they look and how easy they are to use.
You may find that your friends’ criticisms are more
worthwhile than their praise. Some people delight in bragging about their possessions,
while others simply believe that certain manufacturers can do no wrong -- the
"I’ve-always-owned-a-Buick" mentality.
While personal recommendations can be very important and
informative, they are unlikely to give you all the purchasing options you need to achieve
a worthwhile upgrade. Reviews of television sets -- especially garden-variety NTSC models
-- are not as common as those of audio components, but they do exist and can steer you
toward a brand that may suit you. Consumer-testing magazines often evaluate television
sets and there are a handful of video magazines that do periodic tests as well.
They’re worth perusing for a few months to help you get your bearings.
5. Pounding the pavement
The best form of research, however, is to take a few
afternoons to check out what’s available in the stores near you. You will probably be
appalled at the variation in picture quality from set to set; in addition to real
differences, you will be looking at the mistuning of many of the sets by earlier browsers.
The result is often a wall of screens with faces ranging from bright green to violet.
Don’t be disheartened. Unless a set is actually
malfunctioning, it is rarely as bad as it looks in the showroom, so don’t pay too
much attention to picture quality at this stage. Check out who carries what brands and at
what prices. Ask about warranties and in-store service facilities. And generally get an
impression about whether or not you’re going to like dealing with a particular store
and whether its staff is competent and knowledgeable -- one of the most important aspects
of your upgrade may be the technician who helps you carry it out, if you choose to seek
professional aid.
When you've narrowed things down to a couple of stores and
a small number of brands, then go back and see what you can make the sets do. While
dealers may not be pleased to have walk-in visitors twiddling the knobs on the display
sets, most will let a genuine prospect play with a few of the sets. So get your hands on
the remote for each candidate and see if you can make it really perform. If you can get
the dealer to feed a high-quality signal to each set -- a DVD movie or a crisp, live,
local broadcast -- so much the better.
More next time.
...Ian G. Masters
ian@mastersonaudio.com
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