HD Tuner/Reciever (1 Viewer)

[Bill Griffith]

I Have a 47" Panny (HDTV Ready)and I need some help with some very basic HD Tuner/Reciever Questions. There are quite a few :b

I want to send my Basic Time Warner Cable signal into my TV as a 420p or 1080i signal. Is this possible with a store bought Tuner/Reciever?

Which is is Tuner or Reciever or both?

Is there a Tuner/Rec. with Multiple inputs available? Multiple Outputs?

I rent the HD tuner box from the Cable company which I use to play the 6 HD Channels they offer, why am I not able to use this box to upgrade regular cable signals into HD? The way I see it is that this box is might be the difference between a reciever and a tuner. Tuner upgrades the signal to HD where a reciever merely recieves the signal and transports it to the TV.

Would I notice a difference using a Tuner/rec. to upgrade the basic cable signal from the basic signal going in?

Would I be able to give Time Warner there HD box back and just use the unit I buy to recieve the HD signal and send it to the TV?

If I got an Antenna to show the 6 or so channels I get could I run it through the box and upgrade the signal to HD and send to my TV?

I use my Xbox as my DVD player (For now) could I send the signal into the Tuner/recieevr and send a HD signal to my TV, and would I notice a difference?

Baiscally what I'd like to do is send the video signals from my Cable box, Anntenna (If I ever get one), and DVD player into this Tuner/Reciever upgrade the signal to HD and then send it to my TV. So what I would see as a perfect machine would be a unit that can take multiple signals and either have multiple HD outputs or a single HD output conver the basic signals to HD and send them to my TV. Any such animal?

 

[Robert_J]

Nope. There are a lot of things that will do part of what you want. Have you looked at video scalers that have HD pass-through? There may be something along those lines if your budget is big enough.

-Robert

 

[Bill Griffith]

Thanks Robert, on the antenna question the question was meant be be could you connect the Antenna to the Tuner/Rec. and send a HD signal to the TV for a better picture.

 

[John S]

Generally no... Would be the short answer...

 

[Bill Griffith]

Had an idea posed to me.

Could I run everythign into My reciever then send 1 video output via Coax Cable into a HD Tuner and then send the upgraded HD signal to the TV. The switching is being done at my reciever.

 

[Robert_J]

Over the air digital will have a great picture. Upconverting analog via the receiver will give you varied results depending on the receiver and TV.

-Robert

 

[John S]

I'm not sure I understand.

What do you think you are going to do to upgrade the signal?


The HDTV Tuner, will not take any converted signal, by coax, this is the antenna / cable / sat input for it depending on what type of HDTV tuner it is.

 

[Tim K]

there seems to be some confusion here. A high definition broadcast is one that is transmitted in 720p or 1080i. You cannot convert a standard definition picture (480i or 480p) into "high definition". There are components like scalers and line doublers (most HDTV's have built-in doublers)which take the standard 480 lines of resulution and duplicate existing lines of resolution or extrapolate additional lines. However, this is not high definition nor will it come close to the quality of high definition. Also, if the picture quality of your standard cable broadcasts is poor (which it is for just about everyone due to compression), then trying to add resolution is likely only going to magnify the flaws.

As for using an HD tuner/receiver for cable, sat. or over the air... Cable HD is in a separate format and ONLY HD cable boxes can decode the broadcast and they can decode nothing else. There are some OTA tuners that can only decode over the air HD (like those built in to some HDTVs). There are also HD satelite boxes which can decode both OTA and Satelite HD...but not cable. These are the only options that I am aware of at this time.

Your options are to either keep the HD cable box, get Dish/Directv with a satelite and OTA HD decoder, or get an antenna and an OTA HD tuner. As for "running" other things through an HD tuner to improve the picture....No. You can run cable through your HD cable box and that is it. You cannot "make" other sources into high definition using your cable box. If you want to add lines of resolution you'll need a scaler/doubler as I mentioned earlier.

 

[Jim-M]

Unless you're speaking specifically to TWC Houston, this isn't accurate for all TWC operators. TWC San Diego transmits local HD channels in clear QAM, so you don't need their box to receive local HD channels. Some of the HD channels in their basic HD package are scrambled, such as Discovery HD. Some of the SD digital channels are also transmitted in the clear, although nearly all aren't.

One device that would address at least a few of your wants is the LG LST-3510a that combines an HDTV Receiver and DVD player. It has component and DVI outputs and can upconvert DVDs to 1080i over the DVI connection. The HDTV receiver portion will receive clear QAM HD channels and unscrambled digital channels via cable, and also can act as an OTA HD tuner. This would probably not address your issue of upconverting the SD channels to 1080i unless they are unscrambled digital on your system.

 

[Bill Griffith]

OK so when My TV says HDTV Ready, maybe I don't understand what that means. I figured that ment as long as I have an external tuner it will except the signal and show a clearer picture than it would if I didn't have one.

But if I understand what your saying is that the signal has to be sent in a HD format. If it is already sent in an HD format than why do I need a tuner to pass it through to send to the TV. I guess an HD ready TV does not have the components internal to do what it need to do with the HD signal, hence why you need a tuner?

Also, If the signal is not HD than a simple Tuner/reciever will not give me a better picture. I would need this scaler/doubler item to upgrade the Picture, then I would still need to send it through a Tuner and into my TV?

Pretty much the gist of it?

 

[Tim K]

HDTV "ready" means your TV is capable of displaying 720p or 1080i resolution material. TV signals are not broadcast in a display format they are radio waves. Your TV cannot decode radio waves itself. You need a tuner or a descrambler to convert the broadcast signal to the displayable format. For over the air, you need a tuner. For cable/sat you need a unit which is a combination descrambler (to receive the "encrypted" signal) and a tuner (to pass the display on to your monitor). If you have an HDTV (not HDTV ready) that simply means it has a tuner built in that will convert the broadcast signals from your local station into a display format. The OTA tuners are not capable of descrambling the "encrypted" signal from satelite or cable providers.

Think of it like a boombox vs. a speaker system. The boombox has speakers and a radio tuner built-in (like an HDTV) so you can play music from local radio broadcasts. On the other hand, a speaker system is "capable" of playing music but can't do anything without a receiver to accept the radio waves and convert them into audio waves. The speaker system is like an "HD Ready" TV, it cannot receive a broadcast on its own.

As for scalers/doublers...most HD and HD ready TV's have built in line doublers. They will take a standard broadcast and increase the resolution. BUT..as I said, if the picture is poor, you are not going to be impressed with it blown up even with a doubler. Don't expect cable TV to look great on a big screen TV no matter what equipment you have. DVD's and HDTV will look awesome. Cable will look anywhere from barely watchable to OK.