DTV vs. Digital Cable

R

rnatalli

Audioholic Ninja
I might be losing my mind, but I've come across something this week that just seems off to me. I was setting up an HK receiver for someone and hooked up a typical Comcast Motorola cable box and a simple 0.5lb DTV converter. Both were being hooked up because apparently there are a couple of DTV channels not available from Comcast that his wife likes. In any case, the cable box is running component to the AVR and the DTV converter running composite (only option). The cable box is set to output 1080 with the 480 override off and the DTV only outputs in 480i. I swear, the picture from the DTV box is crisper than the SD channels via the cable box. I tried HDMI from the cable box, messed with settings, still looks worst. I don't get it. How can an over-the-air transmission being sent over composite look better than a cable transmission sent via component?
 
Adam

Adam

Audioholic Jedi
It's possible that the quality of the cable signal is so poor that any benefit that you'd get from the better connection is outweighed by the lack of quality in the source material.
 
BMXTRIX

BMXTRIX

Audioholic Warlord
Standard Definition analog cable tends to look pretty poor and is typically bested by the digital SD channels, which aren't ONE BIT better in quality than analog over the air if you are getting good reception.

All of it is 480i and hooking up better cables or using a better connection (component/HDMI) won't change the 480i source into anything more than 480i.

Keep in mind, many cable boxes have really lousy scalers in them, which really won't help the situation at all.

It's why many people are strictly viewing in HD for almost everything they watch.
 
agarwalro

agarwalro

Audioholic Ninja
Were you using a Monster Composite Video Cable? :D
 
highfigh

highfigh

Seriously, I have no life.
I might be losing my mind, but I've come across something this week that just seems off to me. I was setting up an HK receiver for someone and hooked up a typical Comcast Motorola cable box and a simple 0.5lb DTV converter. Both were being hooked up because apparently there are a couple of DTV channels not available from Comcast that his wife likes. In any case, the cable box is running component to the AVR and the DTV converter running composite (only option). The cable box is set to output 1080 with the 480 override off and the DTV only outputs in 480i. I swear, the picture from the DTV box is crisper than the SD channels via the cable box. I tried HDMI from the cable box, messed with settings, still looks worst. I don't get it. How can an over-the-air transmission being sent over composite look better than a cable transmission sent via component?
I had Time Warner cable and I thought the video quality looked like crap. The audio was OK on the HD channels but the SD and music channels weren't very good, even thought they have always advertised their "digital quality sound". I used their HD box's composite video output at the time because my TV wasn't HD. When I was watching a Packer game, I turned the HD local channel on and the sound was much better, so I went there with my SD box to exchange it for the HD which of course, wouldn't work that way according to their technical people. It worked fine, other than the dull, lifeless picture and sound, but it was better than the SD channels.

I switched to DitecTV because of the high price of cable and the free install/4 receivers/free HBO & Skin-a-max/free mini DVD player deal that was also cheaper. Audio AND video are better, I have had fewer blackouts because of weather and have been very satisfied with it, even with composite video.
 
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