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HDTV Image Quality Question

Last response: in Home Theatre
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I'm really confused about all of this. I have an HDTV with basic cable and the image quality is grainy (due to low res signal being stretched to the bigger TV's resloution I would assume). Is there any way to clean the image quality up with just basic cable to at least match the quality of that signal on a non-HDTV, like using better coaxial cables or something, or do I have to subscribe to Digital/Satellite to improve the quality?

Also, are all digital/satellite channels HD or at least better quality than basic cable or do you have to subscribe to HD channels once you get Digi/Sat?

Thanks =)

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What comes out of the cable is roughly enough picture information to draw an area 1/5 to 1/6 of your total screen. Stretched over a big enough canvas, the limitations of that source will be very apparent. Can't polish that particular road apple, but you should be able to use your tv's tuner to sniff out the HD versions of your local tv broadcasts.

The quality of digital cable and satellite broadcasts varies widely depending on programming package, equipment, connections, geographic location and neighborhood density. That being said, my history has been that Directv HD is the easiest to jump into and get a consistent experience and friendly hardware.

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Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do to get better quality picture from SD channels.
The only thing possible is to get HD channel from Satellite or perhaps IP-TV or simply change your digital cable provider to any provider which gives you HD channels.
Programs or channels offered are different from place to place.

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It depends on the television and/or the digital decoder..how good is their upscalling...
and also perhaps you will get HD channels through the digital line..
1 thing is for sure...digital television (even if it is still SD) is better than analog television...this is because of the noise coming into analog signals..

guanyu210379 said:
It depends on the television and/or the digital decoder..how good is their upscalling...
and also perhaps you will get HD channels through the digital line..
1 thing is for sure...digital television (even if it is still SD) is better than analog television...this is because of the noise coming into analog signals..


+1. My Pioneer Elite plasma has at best a mediocre upscaler so analog TV looks much worse than on my Sony TVs. However it beats them soundly on HD broadcasts, and is even better than that with Blu-ray.

As cable companies offer more services, I'd bet that eventually analog cable will disappear except for the most basic (local) channels, due to demand for bandwidth. Just this month, my cable company, Comcast, upped the rate for analog to the same as for digital (non-HD), and I've heard that Comcast is encrypting the HD broadcasts in other markets, so the writing is on the wall it seems. Hopefully Comcast won't encrypt before the Lost series finale on 5/23 :p ...
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