Why does an LCD TV with HDMI input need a "sharpness" control?

[VirtualLarry]

Why can't I just get pixel-accurate 1:1 mapping? It's digital, after all?

And why is my red smearing? I thought that only happened on analog TVs.

I have a Westinghouse 32" LCD TV, the one with the DVD player integrated.

 

[0roo0roo]

Its a cheap panel.
There really is no crt like sharpness adjustment, some of those settings are hold overs from crt era, sorta bs'd into flat panel era because the consumer "expects it".

 

[vi edit]

Because it is actually helpful to sometimes "unsharpen" the image. Some HD images are so crisp that they almost look fake. A little softening and they look a little more natural. With SDTV content dropping the sharpness can help smudge out some of grain and generally crappy picture.

 

[0roo0roo]

i doubt that on hd images, esp broadcast is over compressed..never has enough bit rate to have that level of detail. if the tv fails to reproduce color correctly smoothing it out might soften the ugliness i guess. and sure if the processing of sd is weak..perhaps blur it is the weak sauce solution.

 

[vi edit]

I'm talking more about BR movies and Video Games being "too sharp".