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greg_mitch
Joined: 03 May 2006
Posts: 5320
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| Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2008 8:57 pm Post subject: HD Cable Box Questions |
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I have an HD cable box for OTA HD in my theater. I only watch the locals in HD for two reasons. I only pay $5 a month for the locals and also when I switch to another station it outputs 480i and it looks like complete crap.
Do all HD cable boxes output whatever the source is? I have it set up for 1080i and when I am watching sports (that are really 720p) it still outputs 1080i, but when I switch to SD it outputs 480i. I am currently using component output but I am pretty sure it did the same thing when I was using the DVI output.
What are you guys doing for SD from cable or dish boxes without scalers?? Please don't say HTPC, I just got rid of mine.
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Person99
Joined: 09 Mar 2006
Posts: 4899
Location: Flower Mound, TX
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| Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2008 9:34 pm Post subject: Re: HD Cable Box Questions |
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| greg_mitch wrote: |
Do all HD cable boxes output whatever the source is? |
No. Some allow native output (i.e. 720p stations like ABC HD get output at 720p while 1080i stations like HBO HD get output at 1080i). The moto boxes don't do this. They either do 720p or 1080i, and they use their crappy scaling to get one to the other. You have to go into the menu to change from 720 to 1080.
different boxes also have different options for SD. Many will do 480i or 480p (again, crappy scaling to get 480p). So will upscale 480i to HD resolution.
| greg_mitch wrote: | | I have it set up for 1080i and when I am watching sports (that are really 720p) it still outputs 1080i, but when I switch to SD it outputs 480i. |
Is this an SA or Moto? If moto, then it has the ability to set to either so you just have to keep flipping it, but not all software makes that easy. The old verizon software made you shut off the box and go into a text interface to do it. The new one can do it 2 menus deep of the main menu.
| greg_mitch wrote: | | What are you guys doing for SD from cable or dish boxes without scalers?? Please don't say HTPC, I just got rid of mine. |
Honestly, I don't watch SD other than DVD on the projector if I can help it because it looks so bad.
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greg_mitch
Joined: 03 May 2006
Posts: 5320
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| Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2008 10:03 pm Post subject: Re: HD Cable Box Questions |
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| Person99 wrote: | No. Some allow native output (i.e. 720p stations like ABC HD get output at 720p while 1080i stations like HBO HD get output at 1080i). The moto boxes don't do this. They either do 720p or 1080i, and they use their crappy scaling to get one to the other. You have to go into the menu to change from 720 to 1080.
different boxes also have different options for SD. Many will do 480i or 480p (again, crappy scaling to get 480p). So will upscale 480i to HD resolution. |
I want one of these upscaling cable boxes. Are they very common? I wonder if cable companies upgrade their cable boxes very often...wait...I know that answer. Chances are slim that a third party box besides tivo wouldn't be activated by mediacom anyway.
| Person99 wrote: |
Is this an SA or Moto? If moto, then it has the ability to set to either so you just have to keep flipping it, but not all software makes that easy. The old verizon software made you shut off the box and go into a text interface to do it. The new one can do it 2 menus deep of the main menu. |
Its a moto box, but I dont see a model number. The only options in the menu seem to be about aspect ratio. Maybe I am not looking in the right places.
| Person99 wrote: |
Honestly, I don't watch SD other than DVD on the projector if I can help it because it looks so bad. |
lol, yes good point. Usually I am only channel surfing just before or after a movie to see what is on tv. I get the bitter beer face everytime I have to switch back to 480i. Yuck.
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greg_mitch
Joined: 03 May 2006
Posts: 5320
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kal
Forum Administrator
Joined: 06 Mar 2006
Posts: 18114
Location: Ottawa, Canada
TV/Projector: JVC DLA-NZ7
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| Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 12:53 am Post subject: Re: HD Cable Box Questions |
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| greg_mitch wrote: | | I want one of these upscaling cable boxes. Are they very common? |
Yup. Every HD cable or satellite box that I know of allows you to upscale SD channels.
The scaling on my HD PVR isn't great but frankly SD on cable or satellite looks so bad to begin with it really doesn't matter. So while my ExpressVu 9200 (aka Dish network 942 I think) box doesn't let you pass the native HD resolution of 720p or 1080i I prefer it this way as having the PJ switch between memories and reconverge as you channel surf would be very annoying.
I've got mine set to output 1080i so it does this for everything, including SD channels. In fact, 1080i is the only rez I use ... other than some PS3 games that only work at 720p (Which we play rarely).
Kal
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greg_mitch
Joined: 03 May 2006
Posts: 5320
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| Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 1:12 am Post subject: |
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Well, now you know of one that doesnt upscale the SD...at least that I can find.
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