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Question about HDTV service

B

bctbct

Diamond Member
Could somebody explain HD service to me please. I looked on Cox Comm. website and could not figure it out.

Someone I know is buying a 50 HD LCD and has basic cable.

Will they need to upgrade to digital and then have a HD receiver and service. A salesperson has told them they could stay with analog and just add a booster antenna and skip the HD service.

He did tell them it wont be the best picture avail, but would be suffiecient for their needs.

thanks
 
The TV they are buying most likely has a OTA HD tuner, so they could just get an antenna to receive the OTA HD programming which would include PBS, CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox...thats all I can think of ATM. If they want more selection (Discovery HD, HBO HD, ESPN HD, InHD, HDNet...), they should get HD service through their cable provider.
 
You can get HD over the air but it's not the same quality as HD delivered digitally over cable or satellite. YOu need a HD tuner, usually included in the box you get from your provider, or with OTA HD you'd need something like a PCI HDTV tuner or buy a box from BB for about $200, or some TVs have them built in.

Basic cable will look fine on a HDTV though, some people (especially older) don't even notice the difference unless you point it out. If they want HD and already have cable I say upgrade the service to HD service.
 
As far as I know most cable companies are passing the local network HD programming unencrypted QAM so they should be able to connect the cable directly to the set and receive HD from the 4 networks without going out and buying an antenna. It works that way with Comcast, I just connected it directly to the TV and was getting the HD feeds.
 
Originally posted by: Linflas
As far as I know most cable companies are passing the local network HD programming unencrypted QAM so they should be able to connect the cable directly to the set and receive HD from the 4 networks without going out and buying an antenna. It works that way with Comcast, I just connected it directly to the TV and was getting the HD feeds.
Click to expand...

That too, I forgot to mention it.


but it's not the same quality as HD delivered digitally over cable or satellite.
Click to expand...

Where did you get that info from? I thought that, if anything, cable/sat was worse if the signal was too compressed.
 
Originally posted by: Excelsior
Originally posted by: Linflas
As far as I know most cable companies are passing the local network HD programming unencrypted QAM so they should be able to connect the cable directly to the set and receive HD from the 4 networks without going out and buying an antenna. It works that way with Comcast, I just connected it directly to the TV and was getting the HD feeds.
Click to expand...

That too, I forgot to mention it.


but it's not the same quality as HD delivered digitally over cable or satellite.
Click to expand...

Where did you get that info from? I thought that, if anything, cable/sat was worse if the signal was too compressed.
Click to expand...

I can't see any difference between the HD I get from Comcast cable and what comes over DirecTV. I have basic cable since I have the cable modem service so I have it hooked up to the TV as well as the DirecTV HD.
 
Originally posted by: Fraggable
You can get HD over the air but it's not the same quality as HD delivered digitally over cable or satellite.
Click to expand...
WRONG! Satellite, and to a lesser extent cable, both compress their HD feeds. OTA HD is pure, uncompressed High Definition streams.

YOu need a HD tuner, usually included in the box you get from your provider, or with OTA HD you'd need something like a PCI HDTV tuner or buy a box from BB for about $200, or some TVs have them built in.
Click to expand...

Most likely the new TV has a tuner built in, in which case he only needs an antenna for OTA HD. The HD box from Cox will connect to the TV through a digital (DVI or HDMI) or Component connection.

Basic cable will look fine on a HDTV though, some people (especially older) don't even notice the difference unless you point it out. If they want HD and already have cable I say upgrade the service to HD service.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, basic cable is going to look worse then on an equivalent-sized SD tv. The TV is going to be scaling the SD signal up to the TV native resolution. HD is going to look 10x better, and you'll definitely notice a difference between SD and HD, especially with digital (compressed) services.

Linflas: Thanks for mentioning that, I need to try that with my TWC. Now, where did I put that -3db splitter......

 
Originally posted by: Raduque
Originally posted by: Fraggable
You can get HD over the air but it's not the same quality as HD delivered digitally over cable or satellite.
Click to expand...
WRONG! Satellite, and to a lesser extent cable, both compress their HD feeds. OTA HD is pure, uncompressed High Definition streams.

YOu need a HD tuner, usually included in the box you get from your provider, or with OTA HD you'd need something like a PCI HDTV tuner or buy a box from BB for about $200, or some TVs have them built in.
Click to expand...

Most likely the new TV has a tuner built in, in which case he only needs an antenna for OTA HD. The HD box from Cox will connect to the TV through a digital (DVI or HDMI) or Component connection.

Basic cable will look fine on a HDTV though, some people (especially older) don't even notice the difference unless you point it out. If they want HD and already have cable I say upgrade the service to HD service.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, basic cable is going to look worse then on an equivalent-sized SD tv. The TV is going to be scaling the SD signal up to the TV native resolution. HD is going to look 10x better, and you'll definitely notice a difference between SD and HD, especially with digital (compressed) services.

Linflas: Thanks for mentioning that, I need to try that with my TWC. Now, where did I put that -3db splitter......
Click to expand...


If that works, please let us know, because that would be awesome.
 
If they are buying a new LCD then the best thing to do is to upgrade to Digital Cable with HDTV service. There is no need to mess with an antenna and there is some cable programming in HD that you cant catch over the air. Examples are Discovery, ESPN, INHD1/2 etc... The programming is better on the dedicated HD channels and worth the money with the right TV.
 
Originally posted by: Linflas
Originally posted by: Excelsior
Originally posted by: Linflas
As far as I know most cable companies are passing the local network HD programming unencrypted QAM so they should be able to connect the cable directly to the set and receive HD from the 4 networks without going out and buying an antenna. It works that way with Comcast, I just connected it directly to the TV and was getting the HD feeds.
Click to expand...

That too, I forgot to mention it.


but it's not the same quality as HD delivered digitally over cable or satellite.
Click to expand...

Where did you get that info from? I thought that, if anything, cable/sat was worse if the signal was too compressed.
Click to expand...

I can't see any difference between the HD I get from Comcast cable and what comes over DirecTV. I have basic cable since I have the cable modem service so I have it hooked up to the TV as well as the DirecTV HD.
Click to expand...

Uh, I was talking about OTA HD when compared to Cable/Sat. Another poster made the claim that OTA HD was not equal in quality to HD through cable or sat.
 
Originally posted by: Fraggable
You can get HD over the air but it's not the same quality as HD delivered digitally over cable or satellite. YOu need a HD tuner, usually included in the box you get from your provider, or with OTA HD you'd need something like a PCI HDTV tuner or buy a box from BB for about $200, or some TVs have them built in.

Basic cable will look fine on a HDTV though, some people (especially older) don't even notice the difference unless you point it out. If they want HD and already have cable I say upgrade the service to HD service.
Click to expand...


Actually, it's the other way around, OTA is not compressed like the subscriber based ones. Until they switch over to MPEG4, the cable/sat people will keep compressing the channels so they can get more channels and charge you more.
 
Yeah, I was going to say before I moved, the OTA HD picture quality was much better than the comcast feed I get now.
 
Don't mean to hijack this thread but if I go with digital cable or satellite cable will I still need their HD box even though my tv came with a hdtv tuner built in?
 
That's weird about the OTA HD, I played around with some OTA HD on my 23" HDTV once when I borrowed a tuner from someone and it didn't look all that great. Maybe my antenna wasn't set up right somehow. I can see how compression would degrade quality though, that makes sense.

My HDTV has a built in SD tuner but when I tune to HD channels they all show up black and white, though some of them are pretty clear. I don't really know why I get them at all if it isn't an HD tuner... There's a good chance that a quality 50" TV would have one built in though.
 
Originally posted by: jtvang125
Don't mean to hijack this thread but if I go with digital cable or satellite cable will I still need their HD box even though my tv came with a hdtv tuner built in?
Click to expand...

To get HD over cable, yes. Some here were saying they got local HD channels for free I think but to get things like ESPN and Discovery you'll need an HD subscription. You can always stick an antenna on it and get OTA HD free if you've got the tuner.
 
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