What is an HDTV upconverter?

Question

i just bought a LCD that has a built in HD tuner but i am only getting a few channels in HD. I understand in order for me to get more HD channels i would have buy a set-top box and pay extra to my cable provider. now is this cable set top box (HD tuner) the same as a HDTV upconverter? or are they two different things? will it convert my SD signals to 1080p? so i wouldnt have to pay extra? thanks.

Answer 1

Your cable provider will provide you any HD channels available in your market via antenna. That means ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, probably PBS and any local independent stations. Those channels aren't always where you would expect to find them though. I get a lot of my locals on wierd channels like 94, 112, 105, etc. Call your cable company and ask them for the channel numbers they are using to send all of your local HD programming. That will be the sum total HD you will see without a cable box.

If you want to watch channels like DiscoveryHD or ESPNHD, you will have to rent the cable box. The cableco is under no FCC requirement to provide anything other than your locals in HD at no additional charge.

An HD Cable Box is not an upconverter, however is will display any HD cable channels you are willing to pay for. Upconverting, by the way, does not turn a standard television picture into an HD picture. It simply sends the standard picture up an HD "pipe." Your picture quality might be slightly better than SD, but it definitely won't be HD.

Answer 2

They are 2 different things.

Your cable company is offering MORE HD channels if you get a box.  These are true HD channels, not up-converted. (Although EspnHD does not always show things in HD.)

Your TV already up-converts standard def signals to it's internal format - but as you can see it does not look very good.

Answer 3

Your HDTV already upscales any incoming signals to 1080p. Most HD channels are only in 720p.

This means that your normal SD channels will also be upscaled to 1080p.  This can be a problem, since not only are these channels are in 480i, but they're usually compressed by the cable provider.  As a result when they're upscaled to 1080p, non-HD channels can look slightly fuzzy on a HDTV.

For DVDs, be sure to connect your DVD player to your HDTV with component video cables, and configure your DVD Player to output in progressive scan.  If you decide to get an upscaling DVD player or a blu-ray player (which will also upscale regular DVDs) be sure to use a component video or HDMI cable, and tell the player to output in 1080p.  Otherwise you'll end up upscaling the video twice, which will result in  a worse picture.