Video Asylum

Posted by DavidLD (A) on March 18, 2008 at 10:18:34

In Reply to: RE: understanding digital tuner boxes posted by DavidLD on March 18, 2008 at 04:37:17

1. I always assumed that a composite video signal (yellow RCA jack) is always 480i interlaced. Am I wrong on this?
2. Standard progressive scan DVD players generally have component video outputs Py Pb and Pr. I assumed that these were 480p signals coming fron a regular (Non Blu Ray or HD) DVD
3. S video has always been something of a mystery to me. I realize S video separates the video signal into chroma and luma, which the composite signal does not. But is this a true 480p signal or could it be something different from that?
4. I assumed that if I bought a Blu Ray player I would go in through into the display device either via an HDMI connector, or in the case of my Sony the DVI. But now I think you are telling me that going out of the Blu Ray from the component video outputs and into the display device through the component video inputs will get me at least a 720 p or 1080i signal, and with a true 1080p TV, the full 1080p picture. Is this accurate?

5. IF I were entirely clear on questions 1-4 above, then I could probably figure out how to connect a digital tuner too.
a. My new Panasonic flat panel which has a built in ASTC/QAM tuner found digital signals broadcast from two local stations but that is it. I can watch these stations either via the analog channel also on the cable as a different number or the digital channel and compare the two. I will see some programs on the Digital version of the channel and there will be a note on the screen that says this is HDTV, and

a. the program is broadcast 16:9 noticably clearer than the version on the analog channel sometimes switching to 4:3 on commercials (I gather these are being broadcast in 480p but what exactly is going on here too is not entirely clear, either.)
b. I cant get the digital local channels from the raw cable on my 2004 Sony, because, despite having DVI input and component input, it lacks an internal ATSC/QAM tuner. However, with the right box I would think that should be able to do the same thing I'm doing with the Panasonic, that is, pulling local HDTV channels right off the raw cable.

I THINK the cable company has more HDTV on the cable than just the ones the Panasonic finds, but some reason (perhaps they want to make money renting converter boxes?) perhaps they are scrambled or somehow the Panasonic cant find them. I THINK there is HDTV ESPN, discovery channel, animal planet and perhaps more.

I was hoping to be able to get my Sony operating as a true HDTV TV with just the addition of one of the $59 converter boxes, but I think I'm stuck as that outputs neither an HDMI or component signal so I'm back again to either paying full price for the $179 Samsung box which apparently I cant use a coupon toward or renting something from the cable company for another $10 or so a month. I really hate my cable company and in particular their penchant for converting every little piece of electrical gear into a cash cow that pays them rental money every month for 10 years or more. In short, as I see it the less I am forced to rent stuff from them the better. They are just like the phone company in the 50s that made every telephone a device that paid them money each and every month for 20 years.

All of this seems incredibly more complicated than it needs to be, and in my mind they should have never permitted the cable companies to only rent the needed boxes.