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Simple HDTV Question I hope
I bought a Sony WEGA 26" LCD monitor last week and I am trying to figure out what I need to get broadcast HDTV signals, like FOX provides for football games. Currently I have comcast cable with no box. The cable attatches to the side of the TV and I get all the channels. nO hbo OR sho. Just basic cable. Can I just buy some sort of box to get the broadcast channels in HDTV when they are showing sports in HDTV? This is all really confusing, but thanks a lot.
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You need an over the air hd receiver and an antenna. Or try talking to your cable company.
Samsung makes receivers among others and antennas can be bought a Radio Shack and elsewhere. |
Go to
www.antennaweb.org Put in your info it will tell you what type of antenna you would need to get OTA signals. In my case it would require the largest directional antenna (not good for me). This option requires antenna purchase, installation/aiming antenna, HD OTA box purchase. Probably cost around $1000 to do correctly. The cable provided option if available is likely the better option. For me it costs just a little more than digital cable. My cost breakdown is approx: $45 (basic cable), $35 (cable modem), $30 (digital cable one package, HD DVR box (records HD), remote, HD channel pack. ESPN HD DISCOVER HD, HDNET, HDNET Movies). |
Just so the original poster knows, initial cost for Over the Air HD reception can vary greatly. I signed up for Dish Network with their HD package for a year and they gave me a free HD receiver. So the initial cost was $120 to buy the antenna for Over the air HD reception, including installation.
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My cable company offers the HD box for no additional charge [over the regular cable box]. Some HD channels for free, HBO/Showtime HD if you get the regular HBO/Show, and an HD Suite of 5 more HD channels for 7.xx a month.
I thought about getting an antenna, but I figured we were having a cable guy install a cable box, so we'd just do that, especially since the networks on HD are basically free. You're going to have to get an HD tuner anyway, so you might want to go ahead an upgrade to digital cable if your cable company offers it. When I was looking I found an OTA tuner, only for the networks, for about 200; which would get me many months of box-level cable. |
I have comcast cable and you can rent a high definition/digital cable box from them. That's what I'm doing. The particular deal I've got is you get something like 130 digital channels as well as your high definition channels. If I remember correctly it there are 5 or 6 channels in high def but it may be different in different states. It costs $5.00 a month extra for the high def. box but since you have to rent the cable box in order to get high def. channels it's a pretty good deal for only $5.00 extra.
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Yep, I have Comcast also....I have the HD box also. It's $5.00/month here. Here are the Hi-Def Channels I get:
FREE: ESPN Discovery INHD INHD2 (both are neat channels) ABC CBS NBC FOX PBS They also have your basic movie channels too: HBO, Showtime, CineMax, Starz... I think that's it. |
In my area Comcast gives out the Cable cards for free. I get all the channels mentioned above plus HBO HD. The only drawback is that it doesn't have the onscreen display with info---at least not yet. I get the rest of the local HD they don't offer OTA. 14 HD channels altogether.
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I got a Motorola off air receiver and pull in about 14 channels so I am happywith it :)
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My cable company offers the HD box for no additional charge [over the regular cable box]. Some HD channels for free, HBO/Showtime HD if you get the regular HBO/Show, and an HD Suite of 5 more HD channels for 7.xx a month. I thought about getting an antenna, but I figured we were having a cable guy install a cable box, so we'd just do that, especially since the networks on HD are basically free. You're going to have to get an HD tuner anyway, so you might want to go ahead an upgrade to digital cable if your cable company offers it. When I was looking I found an OTA tuner, only for the networks, for about 200; which would get me many months of box-level cable. The particular deal I've got is you get something like 130 digital channels as well as your high definition channels. If I remember correctly it there are 5 or 6 channels in high def but it may be different in different states. It costs $5.00 a month extra for the high def. box but since you have to rent the cable box in order to get high def. channels it's a pretty good deal for only $5.00 extra. I can tell that the audio does switch from the FOXHD channel, from the other, but the video isnt as crisp as I thought. Thanks |
Mits HDTVs do not display 720p so your cable STB needs to be set to output all HD signals at 1080i. So if the station is broadcasting a 720p the STB will convert the signal to 1080i for display. If the video doesn't look like HD then there are two possiblities that I see; one is the the signal is being down converted to 480p or two the STB is doing a crappy job with the conversion from 720p to 1080i. A third possibility is that the Cox signal is compressed so much that the image is converting properly but the over compression is giving a softer image.
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As far as I know, on my high def. channels as long as I'm on the high def. channels according my cable box, the picture and sound automatically switch to it. If you can't tell the difference between "normal" channels and high def. channels then, something is seriuolsy wrong b/c it's like night and day. When you walk into Bestbuy or Circuit City and look at all the screens. There's a reason why all the pictures look amazing. High Def should definetly stand out no matter what type of tv you have.
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