Poor man's HD Signal

[deal4you]

Newbie question:
I am planning to buy a DVD recorder with 1080p upconvert feature. Since DVD recorder has cable/video inputs, can it upconvert live cable signal to 1080p? Is the upconvert function only work on DVD playback?

[emacs]

Is the upconvert function only work on DVD playback?

upconversion is for playback only, yes.

[mr_raider]

Your TV will upconvert standard cable just fine. The technical term is "stretching".

[deal4you]

Your TV will upconvert standard cable just fine. The technical term is "stretching".Interesting... This explains why there is no different between my Philips upconverting DVD player (HDMI) and cable SD (S-Video) signals. For my LCD HDTV, I can save money with just a regular DVD player!

[mr_raider]

That was sarcasm actually. But you got the point. SD only has 640x480 pixels (720x480 in case of DVDs) to work with. If you stretch it to fill the screen that's 1920x1080, you have a lot of empty space to fill out.

This is the same thing as resizing a window on your computer screen. I don't know when the word "upconversion" came into being, but we call the process interpolation. The quality of the final product depends on the sophistication of interpolation algorithm. Your DVD player just happens to have slightly better algorithm than the scaler built in the TV.

[maniacshopper]

the poor man's HD signal is by buying a HDTV antenna, and then straight hookup to your ATSC tuner (often built in to your HDTV).

You don't get 1080p, you can get 1080i, 720i, 480i.

If you're in TO, you can get CFTO, global, CHCH, WUTV29/FOX29, and a few others, SunTV-HD/SD also.

As long as I get CTV, global, citytv, fox, CBS, I'm good. At least I can watch some TV episodes. I think this is called FTA, legal, none of that stuff that other people do.

You can really tell the diff between 1080i and 1080p on the tv. at least comparing fta to bluray.
1080i you can see some small artifacts or shadows, compared to bluray it is super crisp.
Can't complain, it's free vs rent/buying movies.

[brunes]

The difference is most DVDs that you are upconverting are 720x480p and digital, whereas the TV signal you would be upconverting is 480x480i and analog. So your results do not look very good at all - mainly because of all the static inherent in an analog signal.

[ppl4golf]

the poor man's HD signal is by buying a HDTV antenna, and then straight hookup to your ATSC tuner (often built in to your HDTV).

You don't get 1080p, you can get 1080i, 720i, 480i.

If you're in TO, you can get CFTO, global, CHCH, WUTV29/FOX29, and a few others, SunTV-HD/SD also.

As long as I get CTV, global, citytv, fox, CBS, I'm good. At least I can watch some TV episodes. I think this is called FTA, legal, none of that stuff that other people do.

You can really tell the diff between 1080i and 1080p on the tv. at least comparing fta to bluray.
1080i you can see some small artifacts or shadows, compared to bluray it is super crisp.
Can't complain, it's free vs rent/buying movies.

HD from UHF antenna is called Over-The-Air or OTA. And yes, perfectly legal.

For anyone in GTA and has a newish HDTV with a built-in ATSC tuner, it makes no sense to me not to attempt getting HD channels aiming an antenna at the CN Tower (or even better at Buffalo to get both US and Canadian channels). The quality is actually better than cable/satellite HD.

Upconverting SD cable via a upconverting recorder is still crap. Upconversion is only good if you have a half decent source like dual layer DVDs. Analog cable is not what I'd consider a good source.

[ZenOps]

Interesting... This explains why there is no different between my Philips upconverting DVD player (HDMI) and cable SD (S-Video) signals. For my LCD HDTV, I can save money with just a regular DVD player!

Depends on the HDTV.

The Philips has an excellent upconverter. Many HDTV's have built in upconverting, but it is not the same quality as the Philips.

Sort of like how if you playback a DVD using a PS/3 it will look worse than playing back a DVD using a Philips or Toshiba. If you have a HDTV that compensates for the weaknesses of some low quality DVD upscalers, then you might not notice the difference.

Upconverting means much more than just upscaling, it means interpolation, Faroudja, motion compensation, deblocking, etc..

http://www.hqv.com/benchmark.cfm

[tsatsa]

HD from UHF antenna is called Over-The-Air or OTA. And yes, perfectly legal.

For anyone in GTA and has a newish HDTV with a built-in ATSC tuner, it makes no sense to me not to attempt getting HD channels aiming an antenna at the CN Tower (or even better at Buffalo to get both US and Canadian channels). The quality is actually better than cable/satellite HD.

Upconverting SD cable via a upconverting recorder is still crap. Upconversion is only good if you have a half decent source like dual layer DVDs. Analog cable is not what I'd consider a good source.

I totally agree, and the colour is soooo much better when in SD signal.

[squall458]

My lcd has a ATSC tuner but its in the basement. Can I get a good signal if its in the basement? The antenna is mounted indoors, correct? And how much would a good one cost? I am a total newb to OTA