Tuner question (1 Viewer)

[matt_matocha]

Tell me if ive got this straight. Ive noticed tv's having both the ntsc and atsc tuners. NTSC being for hdtv and ATSC for standard cable. Without the ATSC tuner you wouldnt be able to receive cable out of the wall with out a box? Without the NTSC you wont be able to receive off air HD channels again without a box or cable card? So is it that even though a tv has both tuners, standard cable looks bad on a HDTV because the HDTV has to create info to fill the void in lack of full signal?(scan lines?) Thanx alot in advance.

 

[Elinor]

ATSC is digital tv, both SD and HD.

NTSC is the old SD standard (480i).

You need NTSC to tune SD cable channels coming out of the wall.

You need ATSC to tune HD channels coming OTA and out of the wall.

Some sets have a cable card slot to insert a card from your cable company which, I believe, allows you to get scrambled channels (premium content, e.g.).

SD can look bad on HD sets because there are only 480 lines to work with, and yes, the HD set has to "fill in" the missing info.