On Sun, 17 Dec 2006 11:52:03 -0800, Andy Cuffe
wrote:

On Thu, 14 Dec 2006 23:05:23 -0500, mm
wrote:

Converting High-def to low-def, does it work?

I live alone, and I had planned, rather than buy several high def tv's
in 2009, to buy one converter which I will put where my VCR is, and
use it to pipe low-def signals to all the tv's in the house.

I have been told that the converters which will be offered for sale in
2009 will output low-def tv signals that are not as good as what we
have today, that the picture will look worse than it does now, or that
it won't fill the screen, or both, or worse.

Can you fill me in on the facts?

Thanks.

You can already buy converters which will output both HD and standard
NTSC signals (although not always at the same time). A HD signal
converted to SD should look excellent (better than digital cable, or
satellite). Any artifacts in visible in the HD signal will be shrunk
down to the point of being almost invisible on an NTSC TV.

As far as filling the screen, the HDTV receivers I've used all allow
you to pick how you want a wide screen image to be displayed. You can
choose letter box, zoomed in to fill the screen, or stretched to fill
the screen.

The converters planned for 2009 are meant to be a low cost solution
for people with NTSC TVs. They will only output NTSC (no HD). The
picture would look worse on a HDTV, but they aren't meant for use with
HDTVs.

Maybe this accounts for what I read, but it's silly for someone to
complain about what it looks like on HDTV. I guess if I had some HD
and some SD on the set of wires (co-ax) running through my house, it
might come up, and eventually I will start finding HD tvs at rummage
sales or in the trash so that could happen some day, but probably not
for a decade or so. And when it does, I'll just run a second co-ax
for HD.

The picture should look as good, or better than a DVD on your
NTSC TVs.
Andy Cuffe

acuffe@g mail.com

Thanks. This is reassuring, such a product is totally fine with me.
I'm not crazy about having all my tuning go through one location, but
I have a remote that works in the basement and first floor, that will
change stations for me. (I really don't need HD, especially if it
will cost me money. )

Sorry I didn't see your post earlier

P&M

Doesn't putting your email address in your sig generate lots of spam
for you? Spambots and all that?

If you are inclined to email me
for some reason, remove NOPSAM :-)