Posted on 01/16/2002 6:12:20 PM PST by redangus
I know there are a variety of smart people of different professions on this forum so I hope someone could help me with a question. I am looking at replacing my 43 inch Sony TV. We have been looking at HDTV projection sets, plasma screens - HDTV and analog, and regular analog projection sets. We have digital cable available, plus the option of the digital satellite. The hdtv's are very expensive, in most cases double a big screen analog(you don't want to know the cost of a HDTV Plasma). My question is does hooking a digital source to an analog set give you the same or nearly the same quality of picture as running standard cable into an HD set? What about digital cable into an HD set? What about picture quality from a DVD player to either of the sets? What is the difference between a digital cable box and an ATSC HD decoder? Any assistance with this decision will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
1) Analog cable and digital cable are both NTSC signals-- 480i (interlaced) resolution if memory serves. Digital is usually considered better, if only because signal noise is minimal (you won't see "snowy" images). On the downside, a digital signal can be over-compressed (you may see intermittent large square pixels on your tube during fast action scenes, for instance, although this is pretty rare in my experience)
2) Many HDTV sets have built-in line doublers (convert 480i to 480p), so watching even regular TV channels (whether coming from analog or digital cable) can show noticeable improvement over a non-HDTV set. But don't expect miracles. Garbage in = Garbage out.
3) Picture quality with DVD is where it starts to get really good. If you get a progressive scan DVD player and hook it up to an HDTV using component cable inputs-- not S-Video or composite-- you will start to see what an HDTV monitor is capable of. BIG improvement.
4) Digital cable boxes merely allow the display of digital cable content (still NTSC signal). An HDTV decoder for NTSC/ATSC allows you to view HDTV signals on an NTSC set, so you would not need one if you are buying an HDTV set.
Sorry, that's about the extent of my knowledge and I'm sure I'll be corrected if I missed something. By the way, my area still doesn't offer HDTV, so I bought the set strictly for DVD-watching right now. When HDTV arrives, I just hook up a tuner and I'm in business. Get a 16:9 ratio set if you're mostly into movie-watching. Makes a big difference.
When I was Christmas shopping I went into Circuit City and couldn't help but notice all the HDTV, Digital TVs etc etc.
Which one is better or are they the same thing.
HDTV= High definition TV. The show needs to be broadcast in HDTV to receive it in HDTV. This is not the same as digitial cable. Digital cable just transmits in 1's and 0's -- enabling you to get more information than analog (waves). A DVD player will work on any of them.
Not much is being broadcast in HDTV yet so I don't see why you should pay for it now. I got a 59' rear projection 16x9 television from Pioneer that is HDTV ready -- which means when I am ready I can buy the adapter and it will be able to receive HDTV signals. Meanwhile it is hooked up to digital cable, which is decoded by a digital cable box provided by my provider.
Digital TV means it is capable of getting these signals directly.
HDTV is a whole nuther step in quality. It takes up more channels (bandwidth) to broadcast, and has a much higher quality picture. Something like 1080 horizontal lines of resolution compared to 400 something for the current standard.
From Digital Video Formats compared DTV, the new method of transmitting TV to our homes sometime between now and year 2006, also has a number of standards and formats. They are all devised to deliver 19.2Mbps (million bits per second) of MPEG-2 compressed data via satellite/cable/broadcast venues, resulting in one channel of HDTV, or maybe five channels of SDTV (Standard Definition TV) plus maybe some Internet data.
The answer: Who cares? There is almost nothing on TV worth watching, nor on DVD, which is all Hollywood crap. I don't need to have HDTV to watch the only worthwhile channel..the Fox News Channel. And that I mainly listen to the audio while working on other things.
Sure, but which system shows the junk most clearly? You know commercials during the Superbowl are going to be mindblowing. Don't want to miss that, do you? BTW, I expect a full report, since I will be reading a book at that time, or possibly will be online at FR.
57 channels, and nuthin's on :)
HDTV is used to improve picture quality by doubling lines of resolution.
Now if these future tv's are cheap, say $100 for a 19 inch high resolution digital tv, then all bets are off.
My question..who actually sits down and watches tv all evening? If you do you need to think seriously about your life.
1) HDTV paints your television screen with lines in one pass from top to bottom a certain number of times each second (30, 60, 64, etc.). The number differs for analog TV, HDTV and movies tranposed to DVD's. Analog TV paints your screen in alternating lines from top to bottom, then goes back and fills in the lines it just skipped. Analog TV is thus interlaced and HDTV is non-interlaced. Analog TV has a slight flicker because of the two-pass painting - half of what you are looking at is from the prior frame! (if you will). If you look closely at an interlaced screen you can see the lines - on a non-interlaced screen you can't see them.
2) A special tuner is required to "read" the new signal. An HDTV-ready TV can accept the non-interlaced signal, but it doesn't have the tuner. AN HDTV TV has the tuner and is more expensive. You can purchase a line-doubler to "convert your interlaced output to a non-interlaced appearance, but that isn't really HDTV. You will purchase a new receiver to read the signals from cable or air, a new, non-interlaced TV to accept them, and a new combination DVD, CD, CD-RW MP3 Progressive-Scan player in the next few years. Don't argue - you'll do it. :>)
3) To make this all seem worthwhile, new movies, DVD re-releases (and eventually regular television) are presented on DVD in a 16:9 aspect ratio - Wide-Screen format. Your regular TV presents the picture in 4:3 aspect ratio. These numbers describe the relationship between width and height. Think of 4:3 as 12:9 and you can visualize the difference.
4) DVD's and HDTV broadcasts can be presented on your 4:3 TV as 16:9 pictures by putting black bars above and below the images. We know this as letterbox format on a few videotape movie restorations like the chariot scene in Ben Hur. Widescreen TV's fill the entire screen with the wider picture. They can also expand 4:3 pictures into 16:9 aspect ratio (but it looks ugly) and compromise with a ratio that clips part of the sides off and expands the rest. That is called Pan-and-Scan. The same thing in reverse can be done on a 4:3 TV. It looks ugly, too.
5) The newest DVD Players will output non-interlaced pictures, called progressive scan, if your receiver and/or TV monitor/tuner can accept them (but they probably can't). Better older DVD players (like 6 months ago technology) allow you to control the analog image on your TV monitor in the setup utilities, play all the audio formats if you want to hook them up to your stereo receiver and give a better picture on regular TV's for $150-$170. Progressive Scan DVD players with all the bells and whistles cost between $260 and $499 (and up).
I hope that answers some of your questions. www.Crutchfield.com is a good resource for various manufacturers, options and price ranges, but doesn't necessarily have the best prices. Sears often has great, short sales if you already know what you want (by reading Crutchfield), as does Target. You just have to watch and wait.
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