Yesterday I purchased a 30" LG widescreen HDTV and, so far, am mostly loving it. I realized going in that HD sets have a tendency to bring out the flaws in interlaced programming, but I had no idea it would be this severe a difference. I subscribe to DirecTV mainly for the DirecTiVo, but now the programming looks pretty muddy and over-compressed. This just one of those 'HD things' common to most sets? If so, I may move my old interlaced TV to my bedroom for watching my DirecTiVo and use the HD set for gaming, movies, HD programming, PC output, etc. I've looked into DirecTV HD stuff and so far it's pretty lacking for the price.
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Watching interlaced programming on an HDTV.
- Thread starter tedtropy
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Bluecondor
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I am no expert on this, by any means, and please correct me where I am off/wrong, but....
From what I understand about regular TV programming and HDTV sets, the same technology that makes HD programming look so great on an HDTV is what makes regular programming look so bad. HD programming, right now, is usually either 720p or 1080i, which translates to programming in 1,200 X 720+ megapixels on screens that are around 1,300 X 800 on a widescreen with 16:9 (on, say, a 42" LCD or plasma HDTV). As such - an HDTV with these dimensions would, by nature, fully display this highly-detailed programming - with or without interlacing.
With regular programming, which is typically somewhere under 800 X 400 (or even lower probably) in regular 4:3 (i.e. cuts off the widescreen), the HDTV stretches out the picture to meet its dimensions (again - with or without interlacing), and it does not look anywhere near as good as it does on a regular CRT, much less in comparison with how the HDTV displays material from an HDTV source. From what I have read, it doesn't sound like there is much you can do about this - other than upgrade to a HDTV cable through your cable provider (Comcast offers HDTV at no charge for its Digital Cable subscribers, like myself).
From what I understand about regular TV programming and HDTV sets, the same technology that makes HD programming look so great on an HDTV is what makes regular programming look so bad. HD programming, right now, is usually either 720p or 1080i, which translates to programming in 1,200 X 720+ megapixels on screens that are around 1,300 X 800 on a widescreen with 16:9 (on, say, a 42" LCD or plasma HDTV). As such - an HDTV with these dimensions would, by nature, fully display this highly-detailed programming - with or without interlacing.
With regular programming, which is typically somewhere under 800 X 400 (or even lower probably) in regular 4:3 (i.e. cuts off the widescreen), the HDTV stretches out the picture to meet its dimensions (again - with or without interlacing), and it does not look anywhere near as good as it does on a regular CRT, much less in comparison with how the HDTV displays material from an HDTV source. From what I have read, it doesn't sound like there is much you can do about this - other than upgrade to a HDTV cable through your cable provider (Comcast offers HDTV at no charge for its Digital Cable subscribers, like myself).
DonasaurusRex
Online Ho Champ
basically until next year when there will be no more analogue broadcasting most channels will be interlaced. But theres still INHD channels, certain ESPN channels, and I think all the movie channels have an HD channel. Direct TV should have atleast those...comcast isnt much better. The difference is drastic aint it!
Marty Chinn
Member
Visual quality will vary depending on the quality of your line doubler and scaler of the TV. Some HDTVs look a lot worse than others. Sony TVs tend to have good doublers and scalers so SD stuff doesn't look so bad on them.
Where do you live, tedtropy? DirecTV is going to be providing HD locals in 12 major markets by the end of this year, and expanding nationwide over the next several years. There's supposed to be some new nationwide networks too (maybe we'll finally get TNT HD 
). We'll have a no-cost upgrade for the new technology when it rolls out, so you aren't going to miss out on anything by upgrading now. The only thing I'd hold off on is the HD DVR, since it won't support the new technology (a new model with MPEG-4 support is expected in early 2006, but probably won't be TiVo-based).
Nathan
). We'll have a no-cost upgrade for the new technology when it rolls out, so you aren't going to miss out on anything by upgrading now. The only thing I'd hold off on is the HD DVR, since it won't support the new technology (a new model with MPEG-4 support is expected in early 2006, but probably won't be TiVo-based).Nathan
vatstep
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Comcast is honestly much better for HD programming.DonasaurusRex said:
A lot of people have the problem of crappy standard def programming (480i; it's not because it's interlaced - 1080i is interlaced and that looks fantastic, doesn't it?) and it's usually the fault of the set top box. They almost always have crappy tuners. Some people with cable will actually split their line - they'll connect one to the box and use it strictly for HD and some digital channels, and the other to the TV's RF input and use it strictly for standard/analog channels. In most cases the TV will have a much better scaler than the box. But that doesn't really help a satellite user.
gblues said:Where do you live, tedtropy? DirecTV is going to be providing HD locals in 12 major markets by the end of this year, and expanding nationwide over the next several years. There's supposed to be some new nationwide networks too (maybe we'll finally get TNT HD
Nathan
I live in the Houston area.
Beer Monkey
Member
DBS Satellite and digital cable are pretty muddy and overcompressed. 640x480p MPEG2 but with only about 1/3 of the bitrate of a DVD...there's a reason it looks that way.
Smaller, interlaced screens hide a lot of flaws.
A good scaler will reduce scaling artifacts and deinterlacing artifacts, but an overcompressed source is never going to look stellar.
beermonkey@tehbias said:
That's what I was afraid of. It's no big deal - I was thinking of selling my old TV for a few bucks, but now I think I'll just keep it and try to have the best of both worlds. Old TV in my bedroom for my DirecTiVo and the HD set in the living room for everything else. Looks like I'll be making some coax extension cables soon. Whee.
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