upgrade to high def digital cable?

[jerseycop]

I currently am using a hitachi 42 edtv with old cable...i recently connected the cable box to the tv using composite cables and the picture quality increased tremendously , i would guess probablly about 80 % better..

my question is , should i upgrade to digital cable and get high def?..would the high definition signal with the digital cable improve the picture on my edtv?.

just curious, if the high def signal enahnced my picture i would def upgrade to it...right now, im actually shocked at how using the composite cables improved the picture quality...the dvd player using component cables still has the best picture , just curious if thats the type of picture i can expect with high def...any help would be appreciated.

[57U]

High def should be as good or better than your DVD player, when displayed on your EDTV.

I would say definitely give HD a try. If you can, get an HD DVR. People love their DVRs. It'll change your life.

Digital may be a minor improvement over analogue, but don't count on any major improvement because it depends on the quality of your analogue signal and the compression of the digital channel in comparison.

Nice thing about cable is when you rent the STB, if you don't like the results, you're not out anything except a few $ for the time you rented.

See also the HDTV FAQs, especially the one on "poor SD PQ".

[jerseycop]

thanks for the info, i think im gonna go for the hd cable...see what it looks like on my hitachi...to be honest my friend has a samsung HDTV and my EDTV looks 100 times better then it...go figure....i actually own a tivo..had it hooked up with s-cable..but had to disconnect it because the picture quality was horrible..everything looked boxy...my friend had the same problem with his tivo..hopefully the one provided by the cable company keeps a clean picture....( the picture quality im talking about is the live picture, not the taped picture during playback)..

[mjones73]

The PQ setting on the Tivo does not impact the live picture... I'd suggest hooking it up via composite and/or RF and compare the PQ...

[splinter]

I have a 20" LCD EDTV in the bedroom that we use mostly for watching regular 4:3 material. But the HD channels look very good on the TV in 480p, slightly better than a good DVD.

[jco]

HD on analog and EDTVs should look like the best DVDs assuming your
getting good HD signals. I havent seen it published much but HDTV 1080i
is virtually identical to good DVD in every respect except resolution of course.
So the HD should look like DVDs which is pretty darn good except of the
extreme sharpness of true HD.
jco