Park cable with HDTV

For those who use "basic" CG/park cable AND HDTV, what's the picture quality like?

I've read a number of posts where people complain that their "basic" cable (no HD cable box) looks much worse on an HDTV than on their old analog TV.

We still watch "basic" cable on an analog TV at home and are used to what we consider to be an adequate picture. However, the Cat has a much better/newer HDTV. Not having experienced analog cable on a HDTV yet, is the better quality TV going to make the cable programs look like, well...you know what?

TC

Hey TC,

IMHO ...

Yes, Std Def channels look worse on a HD tv than on a SD tv. But the degree of "worse" is related to the screen size. In my den I have a 58" HD and all standard definition programing looks TERRIBLE; so much so I won't watch anything that's not in high def. On the 32" HD in the living room, its not so bad. And on the little 22" HD in the bedroom, the difference is minimal.

With the availability HD programing rising at the current rate, I believe it will only be a couple more years before there will be more HD channels than SD channels.

Joe

Thanks Joe,

I was hoping it wouldn't be too bad. I have a 26", so I'm hoping as with your 22" the difference in picture quality will be minimal.

TC

Joes right. At 26" you won't notice it at all.

I have a 34" HD tube TV that has a bad Pb component input (no blues) and I'm forced to the S-video input. I have an component-to-Svideo Scaler to down converter from 1080i to 480i. You can't really tell the difference between downres'd HD coming in Svideo input vs the component at 1080i. I'm sure in the 40"+ class, it would be more apparent.