i have a comcast HD cable box and its hooked up to my television, all the HD channels come in amazing but the other channels like mtv, tnt, tbs, etc. all look terrible, is there anyway i can fix that?
2007-09-22 14:07:40 · 5 answers · asked by Anonymous in Consumer Electronics ➔ TiVO & DVRs
superdork has two things wrong.
First your TV does upscale all set-top outputs to its native resolution (every HDTV does). It either has a terrible scaler or you try to watch Analog cable - yes analog cable looks terrible.
Second, in 2009, only off-the-air transmission has to be DIGITAL. (FCC does not care about cable bandwidth). Digital does not necessarily mean HD.
What can you do?
a) make sure you use either component, DVI, or HDMI cables to connect the set-top box to the TV
b) Cable may transmit channels in both analog and digital format. Make sure you only watch the Digital channels. Not all will be HD, but the quality should be better.
2007-09-22 14:43:34 · answer #1 · answered by TV guy 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It could be settings are off. Make sure you are set on 480i resolution on your tv and any set-top boxes you may have. Also check your screen format and make sure that your tv isnt stretching a standard sized picture on your (assuming) widescreen tv. So that you dont have to change the resolution as you change back and forth between HD and STD def, turn on native mode on your tv set or on a set-top box. Native mode will automatically put the resolution in whatever resolution the programming is showing in. Do not set native mode on both the tv and set-top box as it can cause problems with your picture. Then just set the tv or set top box (whichever IS NOT in native mode) into the highest resolution your TV supports. STD def pic will always be worse than HD though, but it shouldnt look bad. If it continues, call Comcast.
2007-09-24 19:25:56 · answer #2 · answered by Somaesthesia 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There's nothing you can do about it because those channels only broadcast in 480i. If you're TV can upgrade the signal to 480p, you'll see a slight improvement. But don't expect to see HD quality on non-HD channels.
You could wait until I think 2009 when all channels are required to broadcast in HD.
2007-09-22 14:13:47 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
I'm in a similar situation with my satellite and LCD TV. My regular channels don't sound as bad as yours, but they're still not that great to watch. I'll be keeping my eye out on this.
2016-05-21 02:36:17 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The only way for now is to change to DirectTV. All the channels you mention above will be in HD by end of next month.
www.directtv.com
weeder
2007-09-24 08:59:50 · answer #5 · answered by weeder 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋