Help with SD and flat panel.

[deuce73]

I have been happy with my Analog cable for some time, and I get a great deal on it. I remodeled my house, and put the cable jacks in each room at flat screen wall height. Well, maybe I was a little shy on my research, one of my friends told me I would have to upgrade to Digital Cable because there LCD looked like crap on standard cable. I really hate the thought of all the expense and hassle of all those cable boxes, but I really would like to get flatpanels for my walls. I am not expecting to get a superior picture with the analog cable, I just would like to be able to get almost as good as I have now with my CRT. I can save the GREAT picture for the DVD's.

All this time I have been leaning toward a Samsung L52A530 LCD. Now with this dillema, it has me questioning this. Can I put flatscreens up without upgrading my cable? Any help would be greatly appreciated for this newbie.

Thanks!

 

[obscbyclouds]

Of course you can put up a LCD without upgrading your cable. I'm not sure "digital" cable would really make a difference, as it's still broadcasted in standard definition or 480i. What you really need to make that LCD shine is HD content! Usually this is in the form of Blu-ray (1080p) or HD Cable or Satellite Television (1080i or 720p). Some companies offer "cable cards" to put into televisions instead of using cable boxes if that is one of your concerns. You could also put the cable box in a closet or away from the display. Having an HDTV with no HD source is like driving a ferrari on a dirt road. It's possible, but isn't the optimum.


Typically fixed pixel displays (Plasma, LCD, DLP, etc.) have a hard time with SD content. Generally this is because the picture then has to be scaled to the display's native resolution (usually 1080p in the case of modern LCD's). Some do better than other, so I'd check online reviews before purchasing a specific model. Typically you can get an idea of how it will do with SD content.

Hope this long, rambling post helps. In anything you do, keep reading/researching, there's a ton of good info on this site if you use the search function or just browse around!!

 

[Davemcc]

It's very likely that your standard cable will look worse than your CRT and the bigger the panel you get, the worse it can look. My SD cable was terrible, nearly unwatchable on my 40" Samsung, so I upgraded to satellite and have much better picture quality. I'm glad I made the switch before I got my 52" display because it would have been just that much worse.

 

[ParadigmDawg]

Yep, like Dave I found SD unwatchable.

I was ok with the 50'' display from 10ft away but I couldn't even watch TV with the 73'' display and SD.

 

[deuce73]

Thanks for the info guys...appreciate it. Keep it coming