I'm kinda ticked. I bought this new LCD 32" tv, on my sister's rec because she has the same one and likes it. I hate it. The picture is muddy. My old tv was perfect. Now I guess this is because it's trying to display in HD a tv show that wasn't filmed in HD, but the fact is most of what I watch on this tv is tv shows. I've fiddled with the settings, changed picture mode, everything I can find to do, and it hasn't helped. I'm mad that my expensive new tv is WORSE than my 15-year-old analog tv that always worked and looked perfect.

So, is there a solution, or should I just retire this one to the bedroom for movie watching and bring back my huge old tv for watching, you know, tv?

Is upgrading to HD cable an option? But yes, sadly, the stuff that's in lower resolution will now look worse, because the TV displays in such high resolution.

I could upgrade, but I'm dropping cable entirely. And I'm pissed. I feel like Sylvania ran a con on me. I mean, I knew stuff that was in lower resolution wouldn't look AS GOOD, but I did not know it would look like complete shit.

So if I get a smaller tv, will it be better because the picture is smaller? I don't think so, really. Is there any new tv that will display non-HD as well as my old analog tv? Swear to god, this is ridiculous.

My 37" LG displays SDTV wonderfully. It looks far better than the old CRT did.

I don't know how much difference this makes, maybe it makes all the difference, but everything goes through a computer so basically the TV is one big monitor. The resolution isn't any better than what comes over cable, but maybe the computer does a better job scaling than the TV's software.

Yeah, I think something else is up. I have 2 40" LCD displays, a 47", and a 32" and while you can see a difference when it is SDTV from HDTV, it's not as pronounced as it sounds like you are getting.

Are you going through a cable box right now, or is it just coming in on coax to the TV? Also how does a standard DVD look on the TV? Is that also massively degraded?

Three of our flat screens are Samsung which have excellent picture, but one of them is the Best Buy cheap brand of Dynex, and even that looks reasonable, though now that I think about it I've only used the Dynex in 1080p, I haven't viewed anything in SD on it, I'll have to test that out.

I have the Sylvania 32" HDTV used with an antenna and my picture seems fine. Are you talking about over-the-air shows?

I watch over-the-air SD on my cheap Dynex fairly regularly. It looks.. .okay- not as good as HD, of course, but not terrible. It's definitely slightly muddy, though. Whoever makes cheapo HDTVs isn't spending much of their limited budget working on the software that upscales SDTV to HDTV, I'd guess.

That said, my dad's 42" super-nice Sony plasma looks fantastic with SD TV. Better than his previous giant CRT, for sure.

If I were you, I would return it. It doesn't sound like you've had it long, and if you have the original box and whatnot you should be able to do that. Go for a Samsung, like ND says, if you can afford it. The software inside the TV is likely to be significantly better, so SDTV will be much more clear, and you'll get better video quality on the HDTV stuff as an extra bonus. When I move to a bigger apartment, the Dynex is becoming the bedroom TV and my main TV will probably be a Samsung.

My standard definition TV looks better on my new HD than my old CRT. I would return what you have, because it shouldn't be that much trouble to get a good picture out of it.

Hm. My setup right now is satellite tv coming into the television through their DVR. If the incoming signal were the problem, I probably would have had it with the old tv too. And my sister does have the same tv, and I've only watched it once, but I didn't see this problem. Maybe the set itself is a dud.

I just put in a DVD. The picture is better, but I'm still not real impressed. I think I'll go with the plan of moving this one to the bedroom for movie watching, and buy a Samsung for the living room. (I wanted a Samsung in the first place. Never let your sister talk you into buying the cheapest option.)

What kind of cables are connecting your TV to the DVR? When AT&T hooked up my DVR, they used that single yellow cable and the picture wasn't very good. When I changed them to component cables, the picture improved dramatically.