HIgh Definition Reception question?
Been keeping up with the “fuss” about getting ready for the conversion next year…no problem, I already have HD TV and on Direct TV….the answer is probably simple, but if all of the stations are converting to HD….why do we have to pay “extra” for HD from your Cable or Satellite company? Or is this conversion something else not releated to HD???
BUT…they tell you if you have an HD TV, you don’t have to worry about it…so I guess its just a play on words on my part….it is a “digital” conversion and HD is a different item..correct?….I guess it was tooooo simple for me to “hear” and figure out!
What is happening is not so much that stations are converting to digital TV, because almost all are *already* broadcasting digital TV and have been for some time. But they will be cutting off their analog signals, so once that happens you’ll need a set with an ATSC tuner to bring them in from an antenna.
To add to the confusion, all HD TV is digital TV, but not all digital TV is HD: The DTV they send will not necessarily be high def. It might be, but it doesn’t have to be. One of the signal formats defined for DTV is 480p, which is about the same spatial resolution (but better temporal resolution) as good ol’ analog NTSC. It will look much better because of the “digital” aspect (if you receive it at all there will be no “snow” or etc.), much better color, no interlace, etc., but it isn’t considered high def. (It’s called “enhanced definition”, fwiw)
Another way you won’t necessarily be getting high def: maybe you’re getting a 1080i signal… but if it originates from a standard-def source, well, the picture can’t be any better than the source.
Why do you have to pay extra for high def? For over the air from your broadcast stations, you don’t.
For cable or satellite, it is up to the cable or satellite provider. The DTV transition doesn’t directly affect them and they are not affected by this law.
In fact some cable companies will likely still carry analog versions of your local stations – watchable from the cable with a standard old school analog TV, without even a cable box – except that instead of simply relaying the stations’ analog signals, they’ll have to downconvert from the digital. These and the other “basic cable” analog channels (about 60 to 90 of them on most systems) do take more bandwidth on the cable than digital, so the cable companies want to phase them out. But they won’t do that soon, because they still have a lot of customers with analog “cable-ready” TVs and no cable boxes. And one of cable’s big selling points right now is “if you’re on cable, you don’t have to change a thing!” for the digital transition.
And on my cable system (Cox Cable in San Diego) they are not charging extra for high def channels. The digital HD box does cost a tiny bit more per month than the old analog box, but after that, any “basic cable” channels that now have HD equivalents (like Discovery). And new ones that never existed in analog (like Universal HD), I just get in HD automatically. Same for any premium channels like HBO I had subscribed to before – I now get HBOHD, no extra charge.
So it’s really up to the cable or sat. provider whether to charge extra for HD.
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