How come we don't see HDTV tuners that attach to a regular TV?

[StormRider]

I think something like that would sell like hotcakes if it was inexpensive. The tuner could have S-Video or component output and would produce a better picture on ordinary analog TVs than a regular cable/antennae connection.

 

[Ameesh]

because normal tvs cannot display HD resolutions so it would be pointless.

 

[StormRider]

But the reception would still be much better than watching off-the-air TV. I think that would be worthwhile. It would be like watching TV but at DVD quality (when connecting a TV to the S-Video output of a DVD player.)

Originally posted by: Ameesh
because normal tvs cannot display HD resolutions so it would be pointless.

 

[Viper GTS]

I suppose in theory a HD signal converted to interlaced NTSC video would look better than over the air broadcast SDTV material, but why bother?

Every TV has a tuner built in that works just fine, the people that want better have cable/satellite/etc.

There would likely be some fairly unhappy HD providers, & likely some copyright issues as well.

Viper GTS

 

[Kremlar]

My HDTV cable box has an s-video jack that outputs at 480i.

Not sure about other OTA tuners.

 

[Doggiedog]

First of all because HDTV is 16:9. Most regular TVs are 4:3 and small. The picture you'd get would be tiny. Secondly, regular TVs can't handle 1920x1080 (1080i/p) or even 1280x720 (720p) or even progressive scan. Why bother adding a device that is more expensive than the TV and when the TV can't even handle a progressive scan?

 

[StormRider]

Wouldn't it still look better than cable TV?

I have cable and some channels are noisy. You would think they would all be the same quality since it is coming from the same wire but some channels are very good and some are bad.

Originally posted by: Viper GTS
I suppose in theory a HD signal converted to interlaced NTSC video would look better than over the air broadcast SDTV material, but why bother?

Every TV has a tuner built in that works just fine, the people that want better have cable/satellite/etc.

There would likely be some fairly unhappy HD providers, & likely some copyright issues as well.

Viper GTS

 

[Ameesh]

Originally posted by: StormRider
But the reception would still be much better than watching off-the-air TV. I think that would be worthwhile. It would be like watching TV but at DVD quality (when connecting a TV to the S-Video output of a DVD player.)

Originally posted by: Ameesh
because normal tvs cannot display HD resolutions so it would be pointless.

true but if the market pandered to luddite non-hdtv users then we would never make any progress. plus they cant sell them new tvs which is what they want them to do.

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: StormRider
Wouldn't it still look better than cable TV?

I have cable and some channels are noisy. You would think they would all be the same quality since it is coming from the same wire but some channels are very good and some are bad.

Originally posted by: Viper GTS
I suppose in theory a HD signal converted to interlaced NTSC video would look better than over the air broadcast SDTV material, but why bother?

Every TV has a tuner built in that works just fine, the people that want better have cable/satellite/etc.

There would likely be some fairly unhappy HD providers, & likely some copyright issues as well.

Viper GTS

It might be better, but it's hard to say. The reason for the variable quality is because there's leakage somewhere on the system that's allowing interfearance in(either in your home, or somewhere before that), and if there's leakage, then it's possible that it could still cause problems, since your current analog problem channels are simply those with the most interfearance. Should a digital channel have interfearance, then you'll still notice problems if the interfearance is greater than the error correction provided, resulting in things like blocky pictures, garbage images, etc. Digital means nothing if you have to send it through the same crappy medium as analog, and can't correct the errors.

 

[McCarthy]

There would likely be some fairly unhappy HD providers, & likely some copyright issues as well.

I don't get that. The FM stations here don't make a fuss if you listen to their broadcasts on a mono radio instead of a ((stereo)), why would HD broadcasters care if you displayed the programming at half res on a NTSC TV?

By 2006 (or did it get pushed back again) there won't be over the analog broadcasts anymore, just the HD broadcasts. So what then? Everyone has to go by a new TV to watch the networks? Ok sure, if you have cable you can probably get them there, if you're on satelite you're out of luck except in big cities where locals are provided by DirectTV and if you don't have either you're stuck watching rentals I guess.

Personally I'd like such a device as I get massive ghosting of analog broadcasts due to all the metal buildings around here. As is I can't watch PBS and NBC is barely viewable, but both are broadcasting in HD presently.

 

[LiQiCE]

I'm pretty sure most if not all HDTV Tuners can display in 480i. So if you're willing to go out and spend the $300+ for one to watch "higher quality" OTA digital TV in SDTV on it ... then more power to you.

 

[McCarthy]

BTW, here's one found with a simple google search. From the manual

2. Using your existing analog TV set
Your analog TV set can be used to view down-converted DTV broadcasts by connecting the
DTV set-top receiver to your composite (yellow RCA jack) or S-video (black circular jack)
AV inputs, as well as connecting stereo audio inputs. While the picture quality won't be as
good as you'd see on a DTV-ready TV set, it will be as good or slightly better than analog
TV broadcasts.

So contrary to the topic line, there are such tuners. Figured there had to be, but never actually looked before. Though the inexpensive part is still elusive. The price for that unit from that site is $750, seems quite high. Personally since I'm only missing out on PBS and NBC I'll wait till there's one refurbed at Newegg for $25.

 

[Wag]

Just buy a cheap PC-HDTV card and use your video card's S-Video out if you want to watch on your TV.

A PC monitor generally has a higher resolution than most HDTVs anyways.

 

[Jombo]

Originally posted by: Kremlar
My HDTV cable box has an s-video jack that outputs at 480i. Not sure about other OTA tuners.

so using that you get hd signal to the box, but just regular 480i cable sigs to the tv.. so it's like you pay extra (no problme if there's not price difference) for the hdtv, but you only get regular cable.. am i missing something?

 

[NutBucket]

Originally posted by: StormRider
Wouldn't it still look better than cable TV?

I have cable and some channels are noisy. You would think they would all be the same quality since it is coming from the same wire but some channels are very good and some are bad.

Originally posted by: Viper GTS
I suppose in theory a HD signal converted to interlaced NTSC video would look better than over the air broadcast SDTV material, but why bother?

Every TV has a tuner built in that works just fine, the people that want better have cable/satellite/etc.

There would likely be some fairly unhappy HD providers, & likely some copyright issues as well.

Viper GTS

That's cause cable sucks. Try DirecTV for a week and see if you still care about downcoverting HDTV for your regular tv.

 

[Koing]

Originally posted by: Wag
Just buy a cheap PC-HDTV card and use your video card's S-Video out if you want to watch on your TV.

A PC monitor generally has a higher resolution than most HDTVs anyways.

Yup almost always unless you run a cack 14" CRT or you have a 15" LCD @ 1024x768. Better then most CRT's but not as high as some HDTV's.

But the monitor in most cases is much smaller so not really ideal for watching with other people. Not too bad on your own or with another person but soon gets crowded.

I have a 23" lcd that runs 1920x1200 so thats nice 😀

Watch tv on my dads 32" Wega though. Hmmmmmmmmm Sky Digital, dvd quality channels 😀. But we'll never get HDTV though so I've yet to see that and probably won't ever in the UK.

Koing

 

[IEatChildren]

Originally posted by: StormRider
Wouldn't it still look better than cable TV?

I have cable and some channels are noisy. You would think they would all be the same quality since it is coming from the same wire but some channels are very good and some are bad.

The best comparison I could use for this explanation is something I read recently. You're getting many different channels from a single conductor, which means each one is set to a different frequency.

It's like taking a water pipe that's rather large, and pumping water through it. Each channel is a different stream of water being pushed through the pipe. And each channel is being pushed at a different rate. By the time they get to the end of the pipe, each stream will be at least partly mixed up with the others.

If you see cable TV in that sense, it explains why you don't get perfect picture. Because you're getting runoffs from different channels coming into the channel you're watching.

 

[McCarthy]

Looked around a bit more last night, cheapest I saw was in the $250 range. If anyone sees cheaper....

On one hand there is going to be an increase in quality, even on a NTSC analog TV, over broadcast or cable in 99% of cases. Whether it's worth ($250) for that increase in quality is at question.

On the other hand is the necessity to either a) buy such a tuner, or b) buy a HDTV (with HDTV tuner, not just a HDTV monitor which a heck of a lot of people with a High Def TV have anyway), or c) give up on broadcast channels in 2006. So if you're going to have to buy a tuner anyway, why not go ahead now if it's inexpensive?

Getting the 2006 from this PBS HDTV overview. Again, don't know if that's been pushed back or not, but even if it has been we're talking about TV, not video cards. A tuner you buy today and use for years will be just as useful when the analog broadcast is turned off and you get to enjoy a better picture starting today if you like, no matter what TV you have.

That's just picture. Of course people with analog TVs and nice sound systems can take advantage of the audio upgrades to HDTV broadcasts already as well.

Then there's multicasting, which gives you just a 480 picture to start with with any of the individual selections. No real advantage to watch one on a HDTV vs analog, but meanwhile people without HDTV tuners are missing out on the selections. How much this is being used at present I have no idea.

Downside to buying a tuner now:
Cost - likely to get cheaper.
Another thing I'm unclear about is if you would be getting everything in 16x9 from the tuner, thereby making everything letterboxed on a analog set. Really that doesn't concern me as I already prefer to rent/buy movies in wide aspect.
Hmm, can't really think of anything else, cost being the main thing.

Which goes back to stormrider asking about inexpensive, so anyone know of a > $100 tuner yet? 🙂