Coaxial Cable and HDTV and me!

Thundyrkatz

So, I just got a new flat screen TV for my bedroom, I believe its this one...

LG 32" LED TV

It was a gift form my birthday, and it works pretty well so far. However, that room only has a Coaxial cable jack and I would like to improve the picture quality by using HDMI, r something better then coaxial. I don't know much about this sort of thing, so I am looking to you talented people for some help.

My cable is through Comcast, and there is currently a small black digital converter box in that room. I am not interested in getting one of the big boxes from comcast which will cost me an additional $11 per month, as we only watch TV in there as we get ready for bed.

So are there any other options for improving the picture quality?

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give!

Pantshandshake

You can try getting an antenna that'll pick up over the air HD transmissions. Or, you can get a device that receives its own data, whether a PC, a console, or a Roku box etc, and use and HDMI cable from that to your television.

kuhlmeye

As far as I know, the only way to get HDMI from the coaxial cable is to plug it into one of the big boxes. I could be wrong on that, and if I am hopefully someone will correct me.

The reason for this is that the Coax cable is an analog signal, while HDMI is all digital signal. It requires actually processing to convert one to the other, and you can't just use a nice $5 adapter like you can to go from VGA to DVI. You could look for something like this which takes your Coax cable, and does the Analog -> Digital conversion, and outputs it to a DVI signal, and then you can use an adapter to HDMI.

The thing is, even if you go through all these steps, you probably won't see a large bump in picture quality. The real problem is that basic cable doesn't broadcast a whole lot of stations in HD. The reason isn't that the cable is low quality, it's that the signal itself is low quality. Cable companies love to charge for upgrades to the HD channels, which also require the box, I believe. What you could look into is an antenna to pick up local channels over the air. A lot of local channels broadcast over the air in HD (I only have an antenna and get ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, PBS, CW, all in at least 720p).

Saammiel

You can't improve picture quality in the manner you are thinking. Coaxial cable is perfectly capable of pushing out the bandwidth necessary for HD television, it does it all the time. Your transmission medium is not the problem. The problem is you likely don't have the HD cable package and accompanying equipment to decrypt HD signals from your connection. You cannot just bypass that problem (if you could no one would pay for anything more than basic cable).

You can get over the air broadcasts via an antenna. Depending on your area, that should give you the big 4 networks and maybe a few others in 1080i. You don't need HDMI to do this.

wonderpug

You don't need a fancy antenna, either. This $9 one will work just fine. You wouldn't need to extend the rabbit ears, either; the loop is what would receive the over-the-air HD.

Heck, you could even roll up some aluminum foil and jam it into the coax slot and probably be able to get most of the OTA channels.

RUNN1NGMAN

Even without the fancy HDTV box from the cable company, I'm pretty sure that they have to push out all the digital/HD channels that go out over the air in your area. You may have to plug the coax from the wall directly into the digital tuner in your TV, and then deal with some really screwy channel numbers, but it should be possible.

The other option is to use an antenna to pick up the over the air signals.

If you want the full compliment of HD channels offered by the cable company, you'll need to shell out for the HD box and accompanying fee.

Esh

I have Comcast and HD, and yeah, you've got to shell out for a package that gets you those channels in the 700 range and pay extra for the big box. A digital antennae will get you some local channels in HD, but that's it.

Dehumanized

Yeah, if you bypass the standard definition cable box that Comcast has issued you and directly plug the coax cable into your TV you'll be able to see local broadcast channels (like ABC, NBC, FOX) in HD. Comcast is required to broadcast those channels unencrypted due to FCC regulations. But you will need a HD cable box to get any of the cable channels (eg. FX, USA, Comedy Central) in HD. The existing cable box they've issued you is not capable of decrypting HD channels, nor is it capable of outputting a 1080i stream.

Thundyrkatz

Wow, thanks for all the good information everyone, i am much more well informed about how this process works. We have a TV in the living room that has the cable box and the HD package and everything, i am just not interested in paying for a second one for the bedroom.

I was hoping that there would be a way to make the basic cable channels look better on the TV, not necessarily pick up any of the HD channels. You guys have definitely cleared up what the issue really is though.

I don't want to pour a lot of money into it as we don't watch that TV very much, the inexpensive indoor antenna option may work. Thanks for the links Wonderpug.

Spiritfire

If you're going towards the antenna route, start with a basic antenna and see how it flies with your TV. I live in the suburbs and my family's main HDTV on the ground level used a basic indoor unit. It was absolutely terrible. The lower-numbered channels were very fickle and I'd often assume "FOX viewing positions!" and the like to be able to watch shows. My in-laws gave us a nicer looking "HD antenna" that my wife liked, purely for the aesthetics, but it wasn't an improvement either. A couple weeks ago my friend dropped off a new antenna to try out (it appears to be this one) and everything comes in great. It's just an absolute eyesore in the family room. The TV upstairs in the man cave has no problems keeping a steady signal with a cheap antenna, but it's also on the opposite side of the house as well as being up a level. I guess location must matter.

wonderpug

http://www.antennaweb.org/ has a great tool for determining what stations are in your area and where their antennas are located. It's a huge help in determining whether you need a directional antenna and where it should be pointed, or if a general omnidirectional one is better for you.

Jebus314

Just to be extra clear, you probably do not need an antenna. In most places comcast sends all the information you can get with an antenna over your regular cable line. If your TV has a tuner (and almost all new ones do), you can probably get all the local channels (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX), in HD, with nothing else. IMPORTANT: All of your local channels will have BOTH a shitty SD channel and a nice HD channel. Your tv will probably recognize both, and assign them to different channels. Make sure you know which channel is the HD version, and which is the SD version. It will be exactly the same content, just better picture quality.

I'm pretty sure this is true of most places. In some places comcast may indeed be dickish enough to encrypt your local HD channels, in which case you would need an antenna (and hopefully be located semi close to a broadcasting tower). If you call comcast, depending on how intelligent the person who picks up is, they should be able to tell you whether or not the local HD channels are encrypted.

Burtletoy

Jebus314 wrote: »

Jebus314 wrote: »

Just to be extra clear, you probably do not need an antenna. In most places comcast sends all the information you can get with an antenna over your regular cable line. If your TV has a tuner (and almost all new ones do), you can probably get all the local channels (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX), in HD, with nothing else. IMPORTANT: All of your local channels will have BOTH a shitty SD channel and a nice HD channel. Your tv will probably recognize both, and assign them to different channels. Make sure you know which channel is the HD version, and which is the SD version. It will be exactly the same content, just better picture quality.

I'm pretty sure this is true of most places. In some places comcast may indeed be dickish enough to encrypt your local HD channels, in which case you would need an antenna (and hopefully be located semi close to a broadcasting tower). If you call comcast, depending on how intelligent the person who picks up is, they should be able to tell you whether or not the local HD channels are encrypted.

Technically speaking, if the TV doesn't have a tuner in it, it is a monitor, not a TV. The tuner is what makes it a TV. I say this owning a 42" Westinghouse Monitor.

MichaelLC

If you already have HD service, it will be a lot cheaper to get an additional box than paying for the initial service. Like $10/month cheap I believe.

Of course that's still more than $0/month, but might give your provider a call and see what they offer if you want HDTV.

Jebus314

Burtletoy wrote: »

Jebus314 wrote: »

Jebus314 wrote: »

Just to be extra clear, you probably do not need an antenna. In most places comcast sends all the information you can get with an antenna over your regular cable line. If your TV has a tuner (and almost all new ones do), you can probably get all the local channels (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX), in HD, with nothing else. IMPORTANT: All of your local channels will have BOTH a shitty SD channel and a nice HD channel. Your tv will probably recognize both, and assign them to different channels. Make sure you know which channel is the HD version, and which is the SD version. It will be exactly the same content, just better picture quality.

I'm pretty sure this is true of most places. In some places comcast may indeed be dickish enough to encrypt your local HD channels, in which case you would need an antenna (and hopefully be located semi close to a broadcasting tower). If you call comcast, depending on how intelligent the person who picks up is, they should be able to tell you whether or not the local HD channels are encrypted.

Technically speaking, if the TV doesn't have a tuner in it, it is a monitor, not a TV. The tuner is what makes it a TV. I say this owning a 42" Westinghouse Monitor.

I was not aware of this. Everything makes so much sense now.

Burtletoy

MichaelLC wrote: »

MichaelLC wrote: »

If you already have HD service, it will be a lot cheaper to get an additional box than paying for the initial service. Like $10/month cheap I believe.

Of course that's still more than $0/month, but might give your provider a call and see what they offer if you want HDTV.

Thundyrkatz wrote: »

I am not interested in getting one of the big boxes from comcast which will cost me an additional $11 per month, as we only watch TV in there as we get ready for bed.

MichaelLC

Well, it's probably a small box, since they already have the big one, and it might be $10. :P

Ok, so I may have skimmed that part.