why does HDTV look fuzzy?

[pstokely]

At least it did on the screens at the Sony Style store.

[Kutjara]

1. Many stores don't know how to set it up properly.

They use the connector cables that come in the box that are often either analog, composite or S-Video. HDTV needs component cables at least or, ideally, HDMI cables. Also, if the source signal isn't HDTV, it can look blurry and shaky when the HDTV shows it. In effect, the non-HDTV signal only has so much information, not enough to fill the HDTV screen, so the HDTV software interpolates it by adding pixels between the ones actually present in the signal. The interpolated pixels are averages of the color, brightness and saturation of the actual pixels, so you get a "smoothed out" or blurred picture. The better the HDTV, the better job it does of making the interpolated picture look crisp and sharp.

Another thing that harms the picture is the tendency of HDTV manufacturers to turn the blue way up on HDTV screens (which apparently looks better on the sales floor). Unfortunately, this looks crap when the buyer gets their tv home, so it's important to use either the built-in balancing function or a 3rd party color balancing disc to set the tv up correctly.

[pstokely]

2. I think the source signal was in HDTV

The commercials did not cover the whole screen

[Kutjara]

3. Hmm, it might be that they were using the wrong screen resolution.

On my home HDTV, the picture always fills the screen, regardless of whether it's a HD signal or not. I know that some Sony HD products (notably the Playstation 3) have trouble scaling 1080p pictures. PS3 owners are waiting for a firmware update to fix the problem.

It took me about three hours to set my PS3 up correctly, because things you need to do to get it working with certain HDTVs are not documented anywhere by Sony. I only found out by Googling around and finding the fixes other PS3 owners used. That was after I went out to the shop and bought an HDMI cable because the PS3 only ships with a crappy analog video one (gotta love that cost cutting).

Whether the same applies to other Sony-manufactured HD sources (such as their BluRay players) I don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised.