HDMI ?
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- rodzilla
I have an HDMI cable linking my HD-DVR Cable box to my TV.
Anyone know why regular digital cable would look so grainy?
The HD picture is extremely clear, as it should be. Even with the HD A/V cords that I switched from did seem to be as grainy as when I used the HDMI cable.
- SungRyan0
are they digital channels? most cable companies still have analog channels even though they say digital cable.
- rodzilla0
Its time warner - They claim to be "all" digital, but knowing them its still analog.
Is there more of a compression when going from analog to the HDMI cables?
- Time Warner is digital but its not all HD. hehe I have the same box as you Im sure and yes, a lot of stations are still pixelated. They do have amazing high def on Discovery channel though.TheTofuFactory
- Buckyball20
I have Comcast here in Atlanta and regular channels do look awful. They say they're digital but it doesn't make a difference.
Part of it has to be HD sets. I have a high end Sony and even it doesn't handle SD channels very well.
HDMI is your best bet though for picture and sound.
- SungRyan0
no, not really. compression happens before it get to your cable box. the cable box decompresses and sends the picture to your tv. cable has the worst picture. cheap TVs with bad video processor also hurts analog channel picture.
- rodzilla0
I have an LCD Sharp Aquos. I'm pretty sure the Aquos is their "high end" tv.
I tried to do some research on the whole compression thing, but couldn't find anything that made much sense to me.
- Sharp Aquos is in the top 3 LCD's made. Sony Bravia, Samsung, Sharp Aquos. Either way, nice LCD you have.TheTofuFactory
- sung_konajalinejox0
yeah with a sharp aquos, i would say that it's times warner's fault. although, i don't know how bad your grainy-ness is. i have Cablevision and all the analog channels look terrible.
- rodzilla0
Its pretty grainy. My wife is the one who initially started complaining. She is the one who couldn't tell a bit of difference between HD and the regular channels. I told her she is finally noticing the difference between HD and regular cable.
- Raniator0
Digital and HD aren't the same thing.
On an LCD TV, HD should look very good. I've got Sky and the picture is pretty shitty on my LCD, but HD games and Blu-ray content through my PS3 look awesome.
- Yeah, I know they are not the same thing. My 360 looks amazing on the TV and so does the picture of the HD channels.rodzilla
- Raniator0
Yeah, sorry, I wasn't assuming you didn't know the difference...
It's a bummer... I got a better 'resolution' picture out of Sky on my old CRT TV, but the colours are much much clearer and brighter on the LCD. It's a bit strange how this new technology can make existing digital TV technology look worse, but hey, you can't have it all...
- sung_konajalinejox0
cable has limited hardware and bandwidth compared to satellite and fiber optic. to compete, cable companies have been adding more HD channels by haevily compressing all channels. right now on cablevision, all channels look terrible. the hd channels look worse than copies I can bitorrent.
- ok_not_ok0
is your TV 1080i/p?
- tkmeister0
the standard definition is 480i. HD is 1080i. so when you watch SD on your 1080i HDTV, you are stretching the SD image to fit to HD dimension and that's why it looks grainy. Some HDTV handles SD better than others but native 1080i content always look better.
- Not sure that further explains why my the TV looks more grainy when using the HDMI cable vs. the HD Cables.rodzilla
- I thought the HDMI cables were supposed to give a better overall picture/sound?rodzilla
- i think i misread something. HD cable usually shows more flaw when the signal is not high. maybe that's why.tkmeister
- sung_konajalinejox0
digital cables like hdmi and dvi can't really work bad unless it's a really long cable. either they will work or it won't. so it's not your hdmi cable. maybe it's the hdmi port on the cable box that's bad.
- joyride0
hdmi is a digital signal, so if the cable was missing info, you would see black boxes on the screen. HD cables, or component cables, are analog, they could degrade the signal. Is your tv trying to upconvert the signal? is it really grainy or just not crisp like HD
- I know it won't be as crisp, but its fuzzy/grainy. It's not upconverting, I have an HD Box. The cord is only 3ft. I am going to plug the HD cables back in and compare the two, it didn't seem to be as grainy with the HD cables as it does with the HDMI.rodzilla
- seed0
I recently got an LCD tv and it really made it more clear how poor my cable signal is. It is very grainy and has heavy ghosting. The ghosting is even more apparent on text. That makes sense about the compression.
- In my experience, ghosting is usually a byproduct of poor shielding on the connector cables. (not the coaxial)monNom
- djurizen0
I have a 42" panasonic plasma, and I found that component out of the cable set top box just looked better than HDMI, but my DVD player looked great with HDMI. I think you have to just plug in and see what looks best... check this article, it helped me out when i bought my set, and had the same questions ... http://forum.ecoustics.com/bbs/m…
- Read that last night, thanks! I was just seeing if there were any more findings, since that article was kind of old.rodzilla
- chossy0
probably cause the SD picture your normal cable gives is pretty much twice the size of it's native resolution on your HD telly, the only advantage of these HD tV's is if you have an HD signal for all your stations :)
- Yup... and your cable companies native compression rate for its signal.
blackfrancis - that's "company's"... duh.blackfrancis
- thats true blackmamba virgins compresion settings are ghey whereas skys is not ghey (UK)chossy
- Yup... and your cable companies native compression rate for its signal.
- rodzilla0
actually figured out what the "problem" was. pretty stupid actually. the cat thinks its fun to crawl around on the cables and wiggled loose the connection on the box itself. The HD channels were fine, but the regular cable ones were fuzzy, weird, but I tightened it and presto perfectly fine again.
- I should have read before posting
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- I should have read before posting
- ornj0
Trace back the cable. We found that the dipshit from comcast had put all sorts of filters/splitters on the cable going to my grandparent's house and when we removed it the picture was clearer than ever.
- fooler0
I bought that 42 Sharp Aquos and had the same problem until COMCAST told me I needed to upgrade by cable box and service plan. At first I felt ripped off but the picture looks great now!
Have you upgraded the cable box?
- nope never upgraded...they swapped out my old DVR box for an HD-DVR box, so I wouldn't think I am in need of an upgrade, I'll call to make sure
rodzilla
- nope never upgraded...they swapped out my old DVR box for an HD-DVR box, so I wouldn't think I am in need of an upgrade, I'll call to make sure