Quote:
Originally Posted by flyvholm
So my friend came up with a way to approximately reproduce the HDTV artifacts: The sharpness setting on the VLC player. Crank that up to the 2nd bar and similar artifacts appear. Not only does the noise become much harsher, it also arranges in patchy blocks that change quite artificially. Below are links to a VLC screenshot and a video showing the artifacts up close on an HDTV.
Screenshot of artifacts simulated with VLC
Video showing artifacts on HDTV
If enlarging the screenshot you can see how that noise becomes really ugly on a large screen as the video shows. Like on VLC, minimizing sharpening on the HDTVs can reduce the noise to an acceptable level. Unfortunately, unlike VLC it will make the image very soft. There's no reasonable compromise.
It just seems beyond bad luck that I (or anybody else I've asked to test) have not encountered the issue while it's present on every one of the 10+ HDTVs he has tested. But given the variety of setups he has tested for playback - laptops, USB stick, portable media players, different cables - I really don't know what to blame.  |
Your VLC screenshot generates a 403.
If sharpening shows the issue, it's not surprising. TVs in stores in the US aren't going to be set up properly, so whatever settings they default to out of the box are used. Generally, the default sharpness settings are much too high.
I have the sharpness on my TV turned down as it should be. Maybe the TVs you've tried have also been setup better with the sharpness turned down.