Why do my SD channels look bad after HD upgrade?

[BLiTzNicK]

My "regular" channels look awful! They looked fine before the HD upgrade. I've now got an H20-100, connected via HDMI/DVI. Before I had a 2 year old Hughes box connected via Svideo. My HD channels look good, especially ESPNHD, but these SD channels are awful. Is this normal? If not, what can I do to fix it?

 

[FlyingJ]

Are you watching these channels on a large widescreen designed to watch HD programming. My SD is fine on my regular 36 crt set, but try to watch them on my 106" HD screen, yikes!! But that's not what it was designed to show.

 

[BLiTzNicK]

Yes, I'm watching them on the same 55" Philips RPHDTV that I was watching before the upgrade to the H20. There was a noticable difference between my 55" and 27" TVs before the upgrade, but now it's just terrible.

I'm running the H20 in 1080i/Stretched, but have also tried the other 1080i modes as well. While 1080i/Pillar Box looks the best, it still looks like crap, plus I've got the dreaded "black bars" running down the edges of my RPHDTV. I've even tried the 480p modes. The SD quality just doesn't compare to my old reciever when shown on the same TV.

 

[CWS_kahuna]

You might try an s-video cable for SD viewing. Just to see if things improve for you.

 

[digideal]

Just got installed yesterday, SD channels on the HR10-250 do look like crap, I would agree. Watching on 61" JVC HD-ILA. HD looks fantastic, but the SD channels even in the 480P format are bad.

Is it football season yet?

 

[BLiTzNicK]

Is it football season yet?

I wish.

 

[iceturkee]

somebody say football?

when i upgraded to HD last summer, i noticed the same thing with my SD channels and i'm watching on a 21 inch sony flat panel lcd!

 

[directvfreak]

This is because your eyes have now seen HD and now what to see HD more of the time. Your eyes are paying attention to the detail more.

 

[tds4182]

Why do my SD channel look bad after HD upgrade?

My "regular" channels look awful! They looked fine before the HD upgrade. I've now got an H20-100, connected via HDMI/DVI. Before I had a 2 year old Hughes box connected via Svideo. My HD channels look good, especially ESPNHD, but these SD channels are awful. Is this normal? If not, what can I do to fix it?

Have you tried using a S-Video cable and toggling the resolution to either 480I or 480P. I seen posts by other people saying that his made their SD pictures look better.

Is your set and is it 4X3 or 16X9 ratio?