Thread: ...I watch TV in SD.

Originally Posted by ...bigdog...

yup. Or have your wife/roomate sign up for it instead. switch back and forth.

comcast finally, in the last year, added a lot more HD channels. Most of the cable networks, more of science/history ones, FNC HD, CNN HD, etc.

can't stand watching crap not in HD. And, the black borders on the edges make the center content burn my plasma.

thought about that too

I cant get time warner, the only cable option, they wont run across the street 100 yards to my house. I dont watch much tv, thats my wifes thing. I love my movies, ps3 works great for my old dvds

Originally Posted by Veovis

Nope, no south park or sports for me. :P

who doesn't watch southpark?

that's nuts.

and you watch the wire and the simpsons?

you need to watch some southpark. Hippies love it.

Originally Posted by ...bigdog...

Originally Posted by Veovis

EDIT: Your STB might also be doing an upconversion, which you could disable in favor of letting your TV do it (maybe)... there's a lot of things that could be happening here.

I think you misunderstand what upconversion is?

"upconversion" is about converting a 480 into 720p into a 1080p, etc. Adding/removing pixels to match the resolution of the screen. Not the aspect ratio.

Yeh, I know... was never referring to aspect ratio.

The "adding pixels" is where the quality of the upconverter comes into play. If both your TV and STB have the ability to upconvert, it makes sense to force the one with better quality to do it. They actually make standalone signal upconverters (pricey) that can do a really good job. If you know you are going to watch a lot of 4:3 TV, then you want to make sure you have a decent upconverter in whichever hardware you are using to do the upconversion. It's like the difference between using MSPaint or onOne's GenuineFractals to perform a JPEG upconversion (GF is amazing... I used it to turn 1MP into 20MP and sold the final image for a lot of money). It takes good math (which they charge you for) to add fake pixels more believably.

I recently just got my first HDTV, my family has had one for a while but this one is my first, and I must say that it does screw the picture up when trying to watch regular tv and you dont have HD.

My HD TiVo does a decent job of upconverting, but it's still a noticeable quality difference. I've already removed the non-HD versions of all the channels from our lineup. My kids are about the only ones who watch non-HD programming.

I was forced to watch the USA-Canada hockey game on non-HD MSNBC... We've got 4 other NBC Universal owned HD channels, but they had to use MSNBC... BAH!

poop on it. no matter what you convert....a 480 image on a 1080 screen is going to look like pooponastick.

Originally Posted by ...bigdog...

you need to watch some southpark. Hippies love it.

I've watched a few episodes, and watched the movie a long time ago... just doesn't keep my interest.

I started watching Sons of Anarchy on Blu-Ray last night (totally off topic). Made it through 3 episodes in one night. Pretty decent... not Sopranos-good, but maybe TrueBlood-good.

Originally Posted by WileECyte

My HD TiVo does a decent job of upconverting, but it's still a noticeable quality difference. I've already removed the non-HD versions of all the channels from our lineup. My kids are about the only ones who watch non-HD programming.

I was forced to watch the USA-Canada hockey game on non-HD MSNBC... We've got 4 other NBC Universal owned HD channels, but they had to use MSNBC... BAH!

I know. it's disgusting. Try watching an NBA game in non-HD after you've gotten so used to the wide screen, and being able to see people's faces and names and numbers and brands of shoes clearly. It's not even worth watching.

Originally Posted by ...bigdog...

poop on it. no matter what you convert....a 480 image on a 1080 screen is going to look like pooponastick.

With the low bitrates they use for most cable/sat broadcasts, you're right. However some 480 DVD's (especially the "superbit" ones with really high bitrate) can be upconverted to look extremely impressive even at 1080.

Originally Posted by Veovis

Originally Posted by ...bigdog...

you need to watch some southpark. Hippies love it.

I've watched a few episodes, and watched the movie a long time ago... just doesn't keep my interest.

I started watching Sons of Anarchy on Blu-Ray last night (totally off topic). Made it through 3 episodes in one night. Pretty decent... not Sopranos-good, but maybe TrueBlood-good.

I watched the first and second seasons. Not the recent one. You should watch the Shield. And FX has a new one coming out called "justified".

and I hear damages is supposed to be great.