I’ve always just hooked up my TV to the cable box with the old antenna-type screw-in connector, and never had HD feed from cable. I’m not very invested in watching TV, but I do spend some time doing so.
So yesterday we went out and bought this huge new TV. Now regular cable shows look kind of crappy because they’re blown up so large, and the picture is either stretched out of recognition, or it’s sitting there in 4:3 ratio with a bunch of black space around it. Hence, my ignorant questions below:
How might getting HD feed from cable improve things? Will regular network shows look different/better? Will I have more or better choices about the picture ratio? I don’t have or want any premium channels.
I know I can stream shows from the internet, if I pay for the services, all I have to do is get the new TV to recognize our home Wi-Fi (not successful at that yet). Will the picture look substantially the same as cable TV?
I can’t help with the streaming, but usually you need an HD box from your cable company to receive HD signal. IF you have that, hook up your cable box to your TV with an HDMI cable, and then only watch shows on the HD channels.
Your standard definition (old) images look bad because they’re low resolution and blown up. Much like taking a small photo on your computer and trying to make it a large photo gives you a blurry mess. One thing that will immediately help is to check your TV for how to set its handling for non-native sized images. There should be something that will display the 4:3 image in its native dimensions with black bars on the top/bottom/sides rather than stretching and distorting it to fit the screen.
You’ll definitely want to get a cable box that handles high definition feeds to get the most out of your new television. Anything filmed in the last 10-15 years will look better. It won’t make old sitcoms from 1986 look better but anything in the recent past was filmed for high def display. Get an HDMI cable if you don’t own one to connect your TV to your new cable box. If you can, buy your cables online and NOT from a box store where they get marked up a ridiculous amount. Monoprice used to be the go-to place for cables but these days I assume you can get them from Amazon for the same price and save on Monoprice’s insane shipping costs.
Without knowing your new TV, it’s hard to say how it handles streaming. Many TVs have native apps like Netflix and YouTube built in and you can use those. Some allow you to download new apps like a tablet. Some may require a third party device like a Roku or Fire stick to access most streaming services. Assuming you have a good connection (I recommend directly wiring it if you can but maybe you have strong Wifi), the images should look comparable to what you see on cable. Maybe even better if your TV supports 4K and you stream 4K content from Netflix or other places.
“Websites, including TV Fool and antennaWeb.org, can help you make an informed guess as to the type of antenna you’ll need and how many stations you can expect to pull in. Plus, you won’t have to lay out a lot of money to find out whether an antenna works well at your home. Indoor models sell for as little as $20, and even relatively pricey models typically cost $80 or less.”
Everything above is good info, but some specifics to your questions.
Any current network shows will look immensely better. Nearly everything is being made in HD these days. You won’t have any choices about aspect ratio, because the HD content your watching will match the 16:9 aspect ratio of the TV you just bought. Make sure you have an HD capable STB and HD box from your cable company - if you’ve replaced it any time in the past 5 years, it’s almost certainly HD capable already, even if you don’t currently have access to HD channels. Look for the HDMI connection on the back.
For the big services - Hulu, Netflix, Amazon - it will look just the same, or better, as the HD channels on cable.
Buy HDMI cables, throw everything with an RCA jack or coax connection away.
Thanks for the thoughtful answers, especially muldoonthief. I went ahead and pulled the trigger today, went to Comcast and got two HD boxes to replace the old analog boxes; they threw in HDMI cables. Setting up was a challenge, especially on the older TV, I had to call Comcast twice, but both times they helped me without much to-do about it.
Now that I have HD for cable, I can see that it’s going to take some getting used to. I think I’ve seen this mentioned before, but closeups of people -whoa! Let me count your zit scars and your nostril hairs. Actors’ makeup looks phony and overdone. And so on. I’m sure I’ll get used to it in time.
One question about streaming: can I just connect the internet to the tv from the cable box? They have a USB cable connection.
If I were five, I’d already know more than I do about anything with electronic controls on it. In other words ask the neighbor’s five year old to come and show you how.
I know Wi-Fi is convenient but if it is possible get a wired connection to your internet. It will cut down on buffering and ensure a more consistent experience.
Probably not. I assume you meant a Cat5/ethernet connection, but Comcast cable boxes in general won’t behave as a router/access point for internet connectivity, even though they’re physically capable of doing so. You’ll have to either go wifi for the TV, or run an ethernet cable from your actual router to your TV.
You get used to the actors being in more detail than before. One thing you might want to check is whether or not your television has a movie mode. On my television, the frame rate is so high that movies look sort of cheap, like they were filmed on videotape instead of film. The movie mode puts the frame rate back at 24 per second.
TVs have a “sharpen” mode. It can exaggerate small details and insert extra lines that aren’t there. You may want to turn “sharpen” to zero or 50%, depending on the model of TV. Online guides will have instructions how to get the best picture quality for your specific TV.
TVs tend to have their color and brightness set incorrectly (not to recognized standards) by default. This is so they appear ‘brighter’ and more colorful than competitor TVs in store displays, but it creates a picture that is incorrect and not what the authors of the TV programs were intending. You may need to turn your color and brightness settings back to correct, again, that will depend on your model of TV, check online guides.
Well, the router is downstairs and the TV is upstairs, so I don’t see running a cable between the two.
I took the old boxes back to Comcast today and damned if I didn’t forget to ask about the USB port connection. Maybe I can do a chat session with them or something.
I have looked at the Sharpen control, but I’m not sure where it is set at this moment (being downstairs on the computer). I also remember seeing a “Movie” mode, so I’ll check that out.
It’s a link to a TP-Link brand ethernet to powerline kit. You just plug one into the nearest outlet to the router downstairs, and plug an ethernet cable from the kit adapter into a router socket. Do the same upstairs for the TV.
This is still more reliable and higher bandwidth than wifi.
Seriously. They’re broadcasting in digital now, and the stations that used to come in all fuzzy (since I live ~30 miles from downtown DC and even further from Baltimore) we now get in sparkling clarity.
And this is with a 1990s-era (and not really any different from something you’d have seen in the 1960s) rooftop-style antenna sitting in my attic.
How to get the most out of my new TV? I suggest you look into Professional ISF-certified calibration for the TV. It’s a bit pricey - probably $300-$400 depending on where you live and the type of TV - but a new television is quite capable of having a near “broadcast quality” picture with careful calibration.
There are also DYI options available (Spears & Munsil, Disney World of Wonder discs), but they won’t be nearly as good as calling in an experienced Pro calibrator.
Also, don’t be tempted by calibration services offered from the store where you purchased the TV - they are usually shit…unless they really are ISF or THX trained and equipped.
