If DVD players can upscale a 480i picture to 1080p, why can't they do the same for basic cable?

Question

Since new dvd players can make SD dvds nearly HD quality, why can't they make a cable box that uses the same technique and allow all channels that don't come in HD to be nearly there?

Answer 1

Exactly the same as the answerer above me, except to cover that thinking ahead, they would need to first be broadcasting in some form of higher picture quality. And because there are way too many gaps that would need to be covered, they would never make an up-convert cable box, and if they did,  the image would be entirely too pixelated.

Something more reasonable to ask is why can't they just do that to all standard cable boxes, BUT add the actual HD picture that it can fill-in for instead of charging extra money.

Don't worry, by 2011 just about everything should be in HD even if you don't have the TV to cover for it. The FCC has already taken the first step in this by killing all analog signals by February 19, 2009. That doesn't mean they'll all be in HD though.. just digital =(

Answer 2

Several reasons,

dvd's are encoded computer files that have a higher quality than is being displayed, dvd's are recorded at 720p..this takes more bandwidth and compression...   cable doesnt send out at 720p because it would increase their bandwidth significantly....

also

dvd players arent really playing back at 1080, they are simply using a computer to fill in the gaps of space with estimations, they can do this with dvd because its a dedicated source from a computer rom file that allows the computer to read AHEAD of what you are actually watching, theres no way for a cable box to read ahead of whats coming...

personally id ditch cable and get dish network, the bandwidth limitation isnt there and i get a ton of really great HD channels, but thats just me.

Answer 3

First of all, standard DVDs are not encoded in 720p, but in 480p.  The player contains a scaler that converts that to 720p, 1080i or, in some cases, 1080p.  Picture quality is better because the TV's 720p and 1080i inputs are designed for HDTV and have broader bandwidth.  Therefore there will be less loss of quality.  Also, the DVD scalers may include some processing to "sharpen up" the pictures that require wider bandwidth than a 480i input on a TV provides.  However, the upconverted 480i, while it can look pretty good, is NOT HD and it is easy to see the difference.

Finally, if you are willing to spend the bucks, you can get stand-alone scalers that will convert 480i to other formats.  All you need to do is connect the 480i output from your cable box to the scaler input and select either component or HDMI output from the scaler to the TV.

See http://www.google.com/products/catalog?h...