Discrepancy in signal recieving and capability of hardware??? (1 Viewer)

[flabotinum]

My first post and im getting right into it, ha...

i have a question for anyonw willing to help. I emailed my cable tv company about it and got a response from them. Ill post my inquiry to them and their response. It has all the pertinent info for anyonw willing to assist me. FYI, im not an expert, and yes i did purchase the more expensive HDMI cable before i read on here how it is a waste. Anyway...here it is:

MY EMAIL TO THE CABLE COMPANY:


"I just purchased a 1080p HDTV at 120Hz. I have the scientific atlanta explorer 4250HD box. I also have an ultra high speed HDMI cable (10.2 Gbps for 1080p+ at 120Hz) from monster that is connecting the box to the TV. However when i choose the video output for the HDMI on the screen it says 1920x1080i @ 60Hz. Also on the front of the box 1080i is lighted up. I have 2 questions - Isnt it supposed to be 1080p, if so why is 1080i lighted up. Also, it should be @ 120Hz. Since i have the hdmi cable and TV that can run on 120Hz, im assuming the problem is the box. Any advice?"

THEIR RESPONSE:

"The highest format broadcast is 1080i and thus the reason this appears on the cable box. 1080p formats can be found on Blu-ray DVD.

The signal that you are receiving comes in at 60 Hz but your 120 Hz television will allow you to receive a brighter and crisper picture."


So it seems that getting a 1080p TV is pointless unless you have blu ray or a hd gaming system. As far as tv signal is concerned (at least my cable company), 1080i is the highest.
Ok im fine with that....however the second part is a bit confusing. They are saying their signal comes at only 60Hz but my TV's 120Hz capability will improve it. Does this sound correct? Also is it normal that an HD cable signal only comes at 60Hz, or is it just my company?
THANKS

 

[gene c]

Sorry, can't answer this one.

 

[Ed Moxley]

Dish Network has some PPV or On Demand channels, that broadcast in 1080p.
None of their other HD channels do.

 

[flabotinum]

Thanks for the responses.

Can anyone shed light on the 60/120Hz issue of mine?

 

[SethH]

To my knowledge there are no broadcast (nor even BluRay) that have a 120Hz refresh rate. Your TV will translate a 60Hz signal to 120Hz by refreshing the screen 120 times per second . . . so if you have a 60Hz signal your tv will repeat each frame twice.

This does provide you a benefit by helping to "smooth out" 60Hz material. The bigger benefit comes with 24Hz material. Older TVs had to use a 3:2 pulldown to translate 24Hz into 60Hz. The good 120Hz TVs can now simply take 24Hz material and repeat each frame 5 times since 24 goes into 120 evenly. There are, however, so 120Hz TVs that still do a 3:2 pulldown to get to 60Hz and then double those frames to get to 120Hz which is not the preferred method.

 

[flabotinum]

thanks for the info

 

[Allan Jayne]

Non-CRT 1080 HDTV's only come in 1080p. But they all accept 1080i and convert that internally to fit the screen namely convert to 1080p.

A few cable boxes preconvert their output to 1080p saving the TV the need to do so. Except that on average TV's convert 1080i to 1080p better than cable boxes do.

Meanwhile no 1080p@60fps broadcasts or disks exist. No 120 fps disks exist. Some 1080p@24 and 1080p@30 shows may be broadcast some time in the future. Blu-Ray disks are 1080i or 1080p@24 or rarely 1080p@30. The player may or may not offer you the choice of preconverting to 1080p@60. I don't think any cable boxes or players preconvert to 120 fps; that part of the conversion is done only inside the TV.