HD upgrade questions

[jhansman]

Wanting to upgrade to HD in affordable steps, we decided to start with the bedroom TV and got a 32" LCD (720p). Our living room set is an aging Sony WEGA, which is, of course, an SD (480) tube TV. My questions is, if we upgrade to HD (DirecTV), can we feed the Sony an HD signal? My understanding is it will look poor. I also understand that we really don't want to feed an HDTV a SD signal. So, it sounds like if you make the jump to HD, it's an all-or-nothing deal. Do I have this correct? TIA!

 

[Matt1970]

You will have problems one way or another. Either it won't accept the signal at all or if it is one of the "HD Compatible" sets it will down-convert the signal to 480 and you will have the black bars top and bottom as the HD signals are 16:9 widescreen format where as 480 is 4:3 letterbox. If money is an issue you can hunt Craigslist for a 50" or so DLP set for $200 to $250. Those will rival an LCD all day long.

 

[bobdole369]

Willing to bet you can find a direcTV HD set with component, svga, and/or composite output. This would let you still view the HD channels, just downconverted to SD and as mentioned - black barred for the HD content. All DTV sets I've seen have an option to set what they output to.

 

[jhansman]

Willing to bet you can find a direcTV HD set with component, svga, and/or composite output. This would let you still view the HD channels, just downconverted to SD and as mentioned - black barred for the HD content. All DTV sets I've seen have an option to set what they output to.

Right, this is what others have told me. Problem is, my component input on my SD TV is used by the DVD player now; might have to demote it to composite. Time to give DirecTV a call. Thanks.

 

[bobdole369]

Right, this is what others have told me. Problem is, my component input on my SD TV is used by the DVD player now; might have to demote it to composite. Time to give DirecTV a call. Thanks.

One of these is sat under my TV (well one just like it). Works a treat for PS2/Wii/SD DVD/extra input from the cable box when I had it.

 

[jhansman]

Turns out I can just have HD in the bedroom, and leave the SD connection in the LR for the time being. At least, this what the nice man from DirecTV told me. Also, when I mentioned possibly leaving them for Comcast, he offered the entire HD upgrade (bedroom only) for free. I just had to let them autobill me. If I learn anything that might be useful to others considering an upgrade, I'll post back here.