Some newbie HD questions

[mitchflorida]

I have just activated HD on my 4X3 53" screen TV, but have some questions. For whatever reason, it works very well with 480P in the 4X3 mode. And I am quite happy with it.

If I use 1080i mode, the picture looks quite. compressed and/or doesn't fill the screen like it should.

Here's my question: When I watch a fake HD channel like BETJ, the picture doesn't fill the screen. What is the picture quality of BETJ HD, as it doesn't look like HD to me. CNN HD also doesn't look very good. A smaller image than CNNSD version, and lots of border space around the cnn picture that just says CNN.

What is Dish doing here?

The other question is about my SD channels. They seem to look a lot better to me now that I have upgraded to HD. Is that just an illusion, or are those channels now at a higher quality now?

 

[levibluewa]

4x3 53" screen...

isn't an HD set would be my guess. 480i is perhaps the max it can put out. HD is displayed in 16x9 aspect ratio thus the borders you see on your set.

 

[harshness]

You're going to either get a horizontally squeezed picture or letterboxing on a 4x3 TV. If you choose an HD mode, you're going to get windowboxing (black borders on all sides) with SD content.


It isn't very likely that the HD receiver puts out a substantially better SD picture than your old receiver, but I suppose it is possible if the old receiver was old enough.

 

[Jim5506]

Is your HD setting on 4X3#2, that should give you full width picture with black bars top and bottom for HD channels. SD channels should fill the screen.

 

[mitchflorida]

My question is in general, when you upgrade to HD service, does the quality of the SD channels also go up, or stay the same? I am thinking that I previously was receiving 480i from Dish, and am now getting 480p. Does that effect the SD channels or HD channels only?

 

[HiDefRev]

HDTV

Just wondering - why would you have HD activated on an SD TV ? No matter WHAT signal you put into it, it will ONLY display 480i. All input signals should look pretty much the same whether it's SD, HD, DVD, etc.

 

[Hemi 6.1]

My question is in general, when you upgrade to HD service, does the quality of the SD channels also go up, or stay the same? I am thinking that I previously was receiving 480i from Dish, and am now getting 480p. Does that effect the SD channels or HD channels only?

A standard def TV ONLY does 480i. If your tv isn't compatable the receiver will default to 480i.
You need and ED tv for 480p or a HD tv to do 480p
HD tv doesn't change SD tv PQ.
SD tv looks Best on a SD tv.
SD Picture Quality on an HD tv sometimes can be much worse then what Standard Def TV PQ would look like.

 

[mitchflorida]

My set is compatible with 1080i, but the image doesn't cover the entire screen.

There is a huge difference between 480p and 480i resolution. I have it working on 480p (this is Enhanced Definition), not on 480i (which is Standard Definition).

It's my understanding that Enhanced Definition (480p) is comparable to DVD quality, and High Definition (1080i) is slightly inferior to Blue-Ray quality.

 

[BuddyBoy]

I think the OP has a 4x3 HDTV, like an old Sony 53HS10 or similar. Yes, they did make 4x3 HDTVs, like nine years ago or so. IIRC they would automatically letterbox when fed 1080i, though I believe there was one that didn't, and needed the source to letterbox the signal for it (which is just plain wrong).

I think all you are saying is that you're getting windowboxed output when tuned to an HD channel that's broadcasting upconverted (pillarboxed) SD. Add the letterboxing your TV does to an HD signal to the pillarboxed signal from the broadcaster, and you get windowboxing.

Is there a zoom control on your TV to zoom that windowboxed 4x3 up to the full-screen size? It'll probably look like crap, but it will fill the screen. If not, switch the receiver to SD output and you should full-screen (though even crappier) picture.