Clear picture...Fuzzy Text

Hello
I saw a strange thing on a Samsung 27" yesterday; The picture was clear, but all the text, whether movie titles, moving script, even the cable menu was so fuzzy as to be impossible to read unless I was right on top of the thing.
I have never encountered this before, but maybe someone here has a clue?

Much appreciated and my thanks in advance!

als.

[Rob]

Two reasons, Cable and Samsung.

Rob

Rob,
Thanks for the reply. Any suggestions? Can this be fixed, or is this something that cannot dealt with? Of course, the cable company says all is well...

Thanks again,

als.

[Rob]

als,

My reply was somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but in reality many people have lousy pictures from their cable suppliers because the cable systems are totally overloaded with too many channels and still nothing on. They go to measures like excess crispening to try to make the pictures look better and this can screw with lettering. I'd suggest disconnecting the set from cable and getting another source of signal. DVD player would be good. Play a tape in a VCR if you cannot get a DVD player that will feed your TV directly. This will tell you if the problem is in the cable service, or your TV.

Rob

Thanks Rob, I had thought about doing just that, but didn't have the time to do it. If it proves to be the cable co., which is a very likely possibility IMO, then I will raise a little hell with them.
Granted, the Samsung may not be the most advanced TV, but I wouldn't think it would be causing this problem.

Many thanks again !

als.

[dgwojo]

TV's are outside my usual but I've seen "sharpness" and "contrast" controls that were set so high they caused the text to bleed and be fuzzy, good luck!

dgwojo,
Thanks for the reply. You are correct in what you say. In fact, the owner of this TV always has all the picture settings way too high. I've tried to convey this, and even re-adjusted the set to lower levels, but bleeding pictures seems to be prefered over more natural tonal balance.

However, I do not think this is the direct cause of the problem with the fuzzy text.

FWIW, I will post the results of a couple of the fixes I will try.

Thanks again, much appreciated!

als.

[andy]

You should definitely check the low voltage power supply for good regulation. I've seen sets defocus badly in high brightness areas of the picture because the B+ voltage changes slightly under load. An open cap in the power supply might allow high frequency dips in the voltage while maintaining the correct average voltage to avoid blooming.

[kc8adu]

it may be a crummy tube.
seems samsung is now making their own 25-27 tubes and they are no better than the imfamous blue label monitor tubes.it may have ok focus but bright areas have a blurry halo effect or streak to the right.

Whatever the cause, reducing the contrast and sharpness will certainly make an improvement!