Bought an HD-TV: Waste of Money

[Alpha_Geek]

If you're in an urban area, try a set of rabbit ears or an indoor amplified antenna.

www.antennaweb.org can help you determine if an indoor antenna will help you.

As to the analog signals looking like grainy shit on your new set. It's because analog cable signals ARE grainy shit, you're just able to determine that fact due to the larger screen.

FWIW, consider an over the air antenna for your next move also. Cable companies often rob bandwidth from off the air HD signals in order to cram more channels into the limited bandwidth their coax can carry. It can be amazing at how much difference there can be between off air and digital cable!

 

[Marc]

I don't get why Mr Light's standard cable would look worse.

Are you telling me that if I upgrade to an HDTV that I can no longer watch basic cable, only channels that are HD?

Why wouldn't the basic cable look at least as good as it does on a standard TV?

Nope you can watch regular tv and it will look the same or you can watch HD tv and it will look very good but basically you're not blocked from anything.

If you get a HD box and content through your cable provider you'll be able to watch both regular staff and the HD.

 

[Scout101]

When you take a signal with imperfections, and magnify it, it's not going to look as good. Kinda makes sense, right? Look at a photo on your computer, looks fine. Zoom in enough, now looks blocky and pixelated...

What the OP did is basically that. Got the TV (although a fairly small, low-end version at that), but kept the old signals, shitty low-signal cables, and expected some sort of improvement. Just not how it works. Of course, easier to blame the TV for being bad, I suppose...

 

[Misfit Toy]

Has anyone mentioned changing the resolution on the non-HD channels? My Sony automatically sets the res at 480p for non-HD channels, but a lower end model might not do that.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

Why would someone buy an HDTV while knowing absolutely nothing about what would be required to actually take advantage of it?

Its very easy to do, i could kick myself now for falling for all the 1080p hype and spending the money on a 1080p 42in LCD when for the same money i could have got a 52in 720p LCD for the same money, all i ever use is 720p for games and other media, only thing that runs at 1080p are three BR movies i own.

What a donut i was, but whats done is done.

 

[Alpha_Geek]

Well, that and that in the US, analog sets are no longer sold.

 

[StarshipDefiant]

This topic reminds me of what kind of issues I tend to get with my equipment, I wish I could remember what kind of connections I made, and where my documentation and such is. I'd likely be able to post what issues I was having and what set up I've made easier >< I know that I have an RCA SDTV, and it's pretty cool, except that some of the regular channels tend to look grainy or something. Bah.

As for the OP, sorry to hear of your issues, I'd buy the equipment people are recommending, mostly because I've been doing some research (very little, admittedly), and from what I can tell, all around things would be easier on you, and in many cases would look better (you wouldn't get the grain, your games would look pretty cool, etc...).

 

[Sparky]

I would have to agree with a previous poster who suggested to turn down the brightness on the TV. My parents bought a 47 inch TV and the picture from their standard cable looked horrible at first. We looked at the settings and discovered that the brightness was set to almost 100%. After turning down the brightness and adjusting the contrast the picture quality is actually quite acceptable (for a standard def signal of course)

 

[Mr Light]

Had a conversation with my cable provider about the prices and upgrades. First year it's the same price with free install, after that it's $15 more a month. Now my question is... this is for "digital cable" with the box, and it only has like 20 HD channels (broadcast and some cable channels like Animal Planet) for an extra $4 a month. So if "digital" isn't HD, is it going to be a better resolution than "craptacular" cable?

 

[Amaris]

Had a conversation with my cable provider about the prices and upgrades. First year it's the same price with free install, after that it's $15 more a month. Now my question is... this is for "digital cable" with the box, and it only has like 20 HD channels (broadcast and some cable channels like Animal Planet) for an extra $4 a month. So if "digital" isn't HD, is it going to be a better resolution than "craptacular" cable?

With the addition of the digital box, it will definitely look better than straight from the wall cable.

 

[Saturn0660]

Had a conversation with my cable provider about the prices and upgrades. First year it's the same price with free install, after that it's $15 more a month. Now my question is... this is for "digital cable" with the box, and it only has like 20 HD channels (broadcast and some cable channels like Animal Planet) for an extra $4 a month. So if "digital" isn't HD, is it going to be a better resolution than "craptacular" cable?

With the addition of the digital box, it will definitely look better than straight from the wall cable.

not 100% true... Only if he's going to pay for said HD channels.
"most" cable companies still run analog and digital on the same lines. In most cases if your TV has a QAM tuner built in you can access said digital channels. Or at the very least you'd pick up local in HD that way from them. They can't scramble those..

Like i said.. My local cable company(who also has a monopoly). Tiptoes the law as far as they can. They won't give you an inch.

 

[Mr. B]

Its very easy to do, i could kick myself now for falling for all the 1080p hype and spending the money on a 1080p 42in LCD when for the same money i could have got a 52in 720p LCD for the same money, all i ever use is 720p for games and other media, only thing that runs at 1080p are three BR movies i own.

What a donut i was, but whats done is done.

1080i broadcasts have to be downsampled for 720p sets. Even without a 1080p source could still enjoy some benefit to a 1080p set... like CBS over the air (in some locations).

 

[RobertVA]

The cable provider could have two different models of digital converters, one for SD digital and another for HD. The digital converter I am using only has composite and analog RF outputs. A cousin residing in the same city getting service from the same provider has an HD converter that also has component and HDMI outputs. The cable provider charges the same for analog, SD digital and HD digital converter/remote rentals. The rates are based on which of the optional digital programming tiers the subscriber selects. If a customer subscribes to a channel that has an HD version and has an HD converter they will be also be able to watch the HD channel at no additional charge (Example: if you subscribe to SyFy you can watch SyFy HD).

The local provider duplicates the local 16:9/HD channels in cropped 4:3 SD digital and analog. Yes, some channels are duplicated on two digital streams and an analog channel.
Of course different providers could have different pricing structures, and even different pricing structures for the same provider in different cities/counties. Just make sure you and whoever is quoting rates to you are aware that SD digital and HD digital aren't quite the same thing.

 

[Amaris]

not 100% true... Only if he's going to pay for said HD channels.
"most" cable companies still run analog and digital on the same lines. In most cases if your TV has a QAM tuner built in you can access said digital channels. Or at the very least you'd pick up local in HD that way from them. They can't scramble those..

Like i said.. My local cable company(who also has a monopoly). Tiptoes the law as far as they can. They won't give you an inch.

I didn't say with the box it will look like HD. I said it will look better than the from-the-wall signal. I have an HDTV and when I got my little digital converter box the quality was vastly improved. It wasn't and isn't HD, but it's much sharper and clearer than the poor quality before I had the box installed.

 

[buckeyenation]

What's an STB? I get basic cable. I also have AOL dial-up internet and I don't have a cell phone. I don't have high technology The digital changeover only involved broadcast TV, by which I mean people using rabbit ears on their TVs and not cable.

Guess you're trying to watch HDTV with "stone knives and bear skins"!

 

[Haggis and tatties]

Its very easy to do, i could kick myself now for falling for all the 1080p hype and spending the money on a 1080p 42in LCD when for the same money i could have got a 52in 720p LCD for the same money, all i ever use is 720p for games and other media, only thing that runs at 1080p are three BR movies i own.

What a donut i was, but whats done is done.

1080i broadcasts have to be downsampled for 720p sets. Even without a 1080p source could still enjoy some benefit to a 1080p set... like CBS over the air (in some locations).

Yeah spot on, dont get me wrong i enjoy my 42in LCD, and it became a lot more enjoyable when i got Star Trek TOS and the movies on BR recently.......still though i could kick myself for not getting that big 52in TV, size in this case is everything, it would also mean i would not need my glasses on when gaming.

 

[Guartho]

While we're talking about cable companies:

One of my best friends had to have the cable guy come out for some reason. My friend had connected his box to his very-nice SDTV via component video. Cable guy looked behind the TV and said "Well to start, this is all hooked up wrong." and started pulling cables and connected a single co-axial cable from the box to the TV. That didn't fix whatever problem he was there for, but it did knock the picture quality down a respectable amount. Naturally that didn't fix whatever problem they had called him for and he went on to do something else.

After he was gone my friend put his component cables back.

Typing that story reminds me of the time I was in the local mom and pop appliance store when the salesman told my dad that a progressive scan DVD player meant the DVD player "reads ahead" on the disc for skip protection.

 

[RAMA]

It just still boggles my mind anyone posts stuff like this...the difference between 1080i and 480i is just staggering...the picture looks almost 3D its so sharp. I still marvel at it.

In 1999 I was watching ST Voyager on a local channel and it was usually grainy and sometimes lost reception...now, I can watch Fringe on crystal clear HD with no discernable flaws in the picture.

BTW to the original poster: When you get an HD box, make sure they give you an HD multi-cable.

RAMA

 

[Mr Light]

So if HD is 1080 and normal cable is 480... what is "digital" cable?

 

[Amaris]

So if HD is 1080 and normal cable is 480... what is "digital" cable?

Digital has nothing to do with resolution. Digital is the signal type. When you go from analog cable to digital cable, you're changing the type of signal you receive.