Now here is something interesting. Home Theater Mag took a look at 61 HDTV’s from the 2006 model year and tested them for proper deinterlacing of 1080i signals, proper 3:2 cadence detection, and sufficient 1080p bandwidth. And the results are rather bad.

54% of the sets failed the deinterlacing test.
80% failed the 3:2 cadence detection test.
100% of the sets passed the bandwidth test, though all but one attenuated the signal some.

And these results are from big-name manufacturers like Fujitsu, HP, Hitachi, JVC, LG, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Philips, Pioneer, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, and Toshiba. Yikes.

What’s the solution? Well, I think tests like this should be distributed widely! Manufacturers should know that consumers care about these kinds of things. Then hopefully they’ll change their ways.

But what if you already have one of these sets? I’m guessing, but if you have a direct-input mode, and and outboard video processor that does all those things correctly, you might be able to bypass these problems. Other than that, I can’t think of a solution.

Are You Getting All of the HDTV Resolution You Expected? Round 2