I was about to buy a $49 SD box for my CRT non-digital TV in my bedroom. The salesman told me that if I bought the $119 HD box, I could get channels like One HD on my non-HD TV, albeit in SD. So, is that right? Can I get One HD (And other HD channels) on my SD TV if I get a HD box? Yes - I know the picture won't be HD, but as long as it's SD, I guess getting a HD box would be better.

HD set top boxes will have an SD output option, so you can see all HD channels (and SD of course) this way.
Regards

But you don't need a HD box to recieve One. They have an SD equivalent as well - OneSD. It's a simulcast of the HD channel.

Thanks guys.

But there's more channels (Future channels included) on free to air, via the HD box? Or should I just spend the $50 for the SD? What's the benefits of getting the HD one (When connected to a SD TV)?

If you're getting a STB, then yes spend the extra $50 and get a HD one.

Lots of changes afoot at the moment and there's sure to be some stuff on HD channels that's not on SD ones.

While Ten do provide a SD version of their HD 'One' channel its a pretty poor picture quality (even by SD standards). So having the HD channel will still look quite a bit better on your SD CRT.

As a last note, if you're looking to get into digital I always suggest considering a PVR (STB with harddrive). Have a read about them here

Regards

Peter Gillespie

Definitely worth going for HD if you are after more choice.
For example Saturday afternoon in Melbourne the ABC were showing 3 completely different programmes on ABC1, ABC2 and ABC HD!

Yeah, definietly get the HD box.

7HD and 9HD sometimes show alternate programming. 7 doesn't show a lot at the moment but 9HD have announced some alternate programming:

http://www.tvtonight.com.au/2009/05/9hd-br...th-jeannie.html

Plus, who knows what will change in the future. I'd prefer to have all options covered.

double post

Thanks guys.

Any of these worth looking at? Preferably the sub $150 ones...

http://www.westwell.com.au/catalog/partlis...?CategoryID=337

Sure. Although I'd suggest it a better bet to take an avro and visit Dick Smith, Good Guys, Myer, etc. They'll have a bunch set up that you can flick through and try out. $100-$150 should be plenty to spend on a pretty good HD STB.

Make a note of your CRT inputs (component (best), svideo (good) , composite (okish)?) and hook the TV to the STB using the best type of cable you have. Note spending more than about $30 on said cable is of little use for picture quality. Your HD STB will possibly come with various cables anyway.

Regards

Peter Gillespie

What exactly do you mean by 'poor picture quality' of One SD? Is the signal too weak and you often get those garbled bits or is the picture too dark or is it badly compressed or sth else? Cause I mean it's still digital so on an old CRT it shouldn't really be much different to HD signal (in theory of course).

It's very badly compressed. Watching some NBA the other night and the SD version was unwatchable. Lots of artifacts arouns players. It was hideous

Basically over compressed. Each channel only has so much band width and you can fit in 1SD and 1HD channel of pretty decent quality. But having now added in another SD channel is making things "tight". Channel 10 have opted to cut a bit off the HD PQ and keep the main SD channel pretty much as is. The secondary SD channel (simulating the HD one) is the one they've lopped a chunk off.

Apparently for things like fast movement (ie sport) the lower bitrate can make things like the ball get a little lost. Wide angle pans of the camera in particular suffering. The HD channel should provide a better PQ even on SD.

However as you say, a CRT is pretty forgiving of this and the PQ degredation is only more readily apparent as you blow the SD channel up on a 42"+ TV.

Should be fine IMO, its just nicer to have the option of the HD channel because its always good to maintain the highest PQ as far along the chain as possible even if ultimately the CRT can't use it all.

Regards

Peter Gillespie

Thanx a lot Peter!
I had no idea they actually squeeze all these channels into one frequency.
NBA was really the only reason why I thought of going digital - now I know I'm definitely skipping SD and going straight to HD.

It's pretty obvious even on a PC monitor.

Within the 23 MBits total bandwidth TEN have, a typical breakdown of the stream bit rate is something like:-

ONE HD 13.5
TEN Digital 4.5
ONE SD 3.5
and various audio streams etc.

The figures are dynamic, varying all the time.
(Readings from TSReader)

i have watched NBA on one digital on my SD box and it looks great, i dont know what you all have been experiencing, but i get a sharp clear picture, looks fantastic

What type and size of screen?

3.5 MBits is still 10x more than you can normally stream from those P2P internet TV channels though...

But those probably use much more efficient MPEG4 or AVC.264 type codecs

Following along from the OP’s post, how is HD to analogue handled? Basically do all HD STBs, and for that matter HD PVRs, have S-VHS or Component output that is analogue compatible when an HD station is tuned? How is aspect ratio handled?

If all this has been discussed to death somewhere else please point me in the right direction.

TIA,

Phred

I don't know if all HD STB's and PVR's have S-Video out, but would expect them all to have component out. Most also have composite out.

S-Video and Component are analogue formats. Some have selectable progressive/interlaced scan for component.

Aspect ratio is usually selectable as full widescreen, letterbox, or pan n scan/centre-cut, so if using one of these devices on a 4:3 screen, you have a choice to display the full 16:9 ratio picture in letterbox, (black bars top & bottom of the screen) or zoom in to fill the 4:3 screen, but losing some image from the sides.

Unless you're using a HDMI cable, the any STB is basically converting digital to analogue (that's what they do). So you can just plug your Tv into to the STB using any other cable type and it will provide a decent picture. All digital is broadcast in widescreen, so you need to use the TV remote or STB remote to change the aspect ration or zoom up the image if you want it to fill up a standard 4:3 box (same as when viewing most DVDs)

Regards

Peter Gillespie

And what about that 567p standard that was mentioned in one of the other threads?
Apparently CRT TVs have 576p, however some older models have 567p. Is there any point in time when they switched from 567p to 576p or is it more of a regional thing? Also, how do we check whether our CRT TV is 567p or 576p and how do we find out whether our set top box supports both standards?

567 is a typo. It doesn't exist. CRTs are basically 576i devices which all STBs can output.

Regards

Peter Gillespie

Having just installed a Digilink Hdv-2500 via my surrund sound home theatre to a 68cm CRT TV, it's worth the extra to get the HD channels. I've noticed a better quality picture.

My only question is at what resolution is it best to run the STB at? The Digilink supports 576i, 576p, 720p and 1080i.....so many choices!!!

FWIW, I've used S-Video connectors from the STB to the home theatre and from the home theatre to the TV. Unfortunately the TV supports S-Video or RCA connectors only.

Thanks for any advice. I searched the forum for a while but couldn't find anything.

Having just installed a Digilink Hdv-2500 via my surrund sound home theatre to a 68cm CRT TV, it's worth the extra to get the HD channels. I've noticed a better quality picture.

My only question is at what resolution is it best to run the STB at? The Digilink supports 576i, 576p, 720p and 1080i.....so many choices!!!

FWIW, I've used S-Video connectors from the STB to the home theatre and from the home theatre to the TV. Unfortunately the TV supports S-Video or RCA connectors only.

Thanks for any advice. I searched the forum for a while but couldn't find anything.

Having just installed a Digilink Hdv-2500 via my surrund sound home theatre to a 68cm CRT TV, it's worth the extra to get the HD channels. I've noticed a better quality picture.

My only question is at what resolution is it best to run the STB at? The Digilink supports 576i, 576p, 720p and 1080i.....so many choices!!!

FWIW, I've used S-Video connectors from the STB to the home theatre and from the home theatre to the TV. Unfortunately the TV supports S-Video or RCA connectors only.

Thanks for any advice. I searched the forum for a while but couldn't find anything.

The best setting is usually found with the following process:

1) Switch between resolutions and decide what image looks best to you.

Regards

Peter Gillespie

since you're using S-video, you only have 1 option, and that's 576i

I have a Wintal stb-x5a connected to a 10 year old Philips CRT which has RCA inputs (mono) only.
So I am using the yellow RCA connector on the STB for the Video, but also found one of the SCART connections worked for the video.
The STB scans and finds all the Standard and High Definition channels and the SD ones display perfectly, with almost no picture break-up.
But I cannot get the HD ones to display at all. I just get a black screen. I get audio only on one of the HD channels.
Can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong?
Thanks.

You have an SD STB. This means it can't display HD. In general STBs can't tell if a channel is HD or SD per say, so they just scan in everything they can find. Those that are HD they'll have a go at displaying (hence you can get audio on one of them) but pretty quickly they give up and just show a blank screen.

Either delete the HD channels from your STB or create a favourites and put your SD channels in there - basically you don't want to know about the HD channels with that box.

Regards

Peter Gillespie