hdtv question

[MonsieurFish]

alright so here's the scneario. ive made a few of these threads involving this hdtv stuff, and recently we bought a nice sony widescreen hdtv with 1080p capability. we also got a shaw digital cable box. now whenever we're on regular channels, the resolution that we're getting is 480i. i've been rather unimpressed with this since we got it but figured its just because its a bigger tv that the quality looks poor. however on the hdtv channels we get, the resolution is 1080i which is awesome. so tonight i was over at my friends, he has a worse tv than ours that only has 1080i capability, and he does not have a shaw digital cable box. BUT... he's getting the regular channels that i usually get in 480i.... in either 540p or 1080i. can i make my tv do this?? does it have something to do with the cable box? please help me improve my resolution thanks

[skins]

that's very curious. who is his HD provider? if he doesn't have one, then the tv could be saying it's in 1080i, when really it's not. no HD provider = no HD.

[MonsieurFish]

he doesnt have a cable box or a satellite, therefore i believe he does not have a hd provider. but the picture on his tv definitely seems better than on ours.

[fanforever1986]

Im not sure how much you've fooled around with your shaw box. but if you turn the box off, but leave you tv on, then press the menu button on the grey shaw boxes, it brings up a setup menu. you can change the 480i override. (i think there is 3 or 4 options. Try out each of the 4 choices on the nonHD channels, find the one that's best for your TV. On my Projection HDTV turning the override off made the picture the best, but on my plasma another one made it look better.

Your friend isn't getting OVA channels in HD unless he's got a mini military communications building set up on his roof.

[Flames in 07]

The only thing I can add here, is that if your friend does not have a HD box, there is no way he/she is getting 1080 quality. It may very well be better than yours (although the bigger screen may make the non HD channels look worse) but it's not 1080.

[MonsieurFish]

well could it possibly be 540p? cause he can alternate between 540p or 1080i, and from my understanding they're basically the same thing

[MonsieurFish]

also...i just did what fanforever told me to do, and where it used to say 480i whenever i pressed display, it now says 1080i, which should be a good thing but im not dead sure it improved the picture quality at all. at least not alot.

[ken0042]

Upconverting a poor signal will not help.

Just like if you have a scratchy record, and convert it to a CD. It doesn't matter that CDs are capable of high quality sound; if the source is bad it doesn't matter.

[MonsieurFish]

someone i know was talking about getting a splitter so i could hook the cable right up to the tv as well instead of it going through the cable box, then through to the tv. think that'd help?

[fanforever1986]

The real problem is that HDTV's aren't made for normal tv, they're made for HDTV....so it will never look as good as it does on a 4:3 tube tv. It's a bit of a waiting game right now until all the channels are in HD...but the only way to make the switch happen is if people buy HDTV's...its a dumb and frustruating situation, but things are getting better everyday.

[Eagle Eye]

Originally Posted by MonsieurFish

someone i know was talking about getting a splitter so i could hook the cable right up to the tv as well instead of it going through the cable box, then through to the tv. think that'd help?

Yes this helps. I have split the cable coming into my Shaw HD box so that I have 1 line going into the box and 1 going into my TV. I watch all of the analoge channels on regular cable (not throught the box) and HD and digital channels throught the box. Sportsnet is one that looks really bad on my TV through my HD box

[MonsieurFish]

another question.... my tv is 16:9, but i rent widescreen movies and they still have black bars on the top and bottom. thats not supposed to happen is it? how do i stop it

edit: and on a side note, is anyone having problems with their shaw digital cable atm?

[InSutterWeTrust]

Originally Posted by MonsieurFish

another question.... my tv is 16:9, but i rent widescreen movies and they still have black bars on the top and bottom. thats not supposed to happen is it? how do i stop it

Well theres a few things that could be causing the black bars, on most dvd players you can go into the setup menu and you have to change the tv type from 4x3 to 16x9, also are you hooked up through Component cables or composite cables? Also it may depend on what type of movie you are watching, on the back of a DVD movie if it says WIDESCREEN or 16x9 or Aspect Ratio 1:78:1 you should not be getting any black bars.

Heres some more info
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspect_ratio_%28images%29'
Hope that helps.

[ken0042]

Because 16:9 is an approximation. Some stuff is:
1.78:1
1.85:1
2.35:1

A good place to see what sizes you'll get from what TV is this site designed for comparison: http://www.cavecreations.com/tv2.cgi

[GeoffSK]

There should be an option on your DVD player that you can set your TV aspect ratio. Some of the older DVD's never display properly because the black bars are part of the picture.

[LIP MAN]

In my honest opinion; Get Bell. They have a much better refresh rate than Shaw on all their channels, including the Non-HD ones. The lack of quality you are talking about has to do with the varying refresh rate on these channels, so unless you are stuck on Shaw, I would look into getting a Bell setup.

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by LIP MAN

In my honest opinion; Get Bell.

How exactly will that help him with black bars when watching a DVD?

[LIP MAN]

Sorry I was referring to the HDTV question at the beginning.

[MonsieurFish]

i got the black bars thing sorted... changed my dvd player settings. thanks