HDTV setup help

[Meve]

<p>Ok, I just bought an <a href="http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2191144&amp;CatId=386">Olevia 27&quot; HDTV </a>on sale and have no idea how i should setup for the best quality video. I don't know much about new TV Tech.&nbsp; I have basic cable with no cable box and due to the fact that the tv doesn't have a tuner i'm running the cable through an old VCR to the TV through composite cables. The quality is not all that great. How can I improve the quality of the video coming through?&nbsp;</p><p>I'm also using a macbook pro to play my dvds and the video is not filling the screen when i hook it up. It seems to be stretching the image horizontallywith 2&quot; of black filler on the&nbsp; top and bottom of the screen. </p><p>One last thing is that I have a wii and hooked it up with composite cables and wanted to know if component cable would really make a difference.&nbsp;</p><p>Any help would be much appreciated.</p>

[Hottub]

<p>1st, you need to get the HD box from the cable co. You cant run a signal through this thing you call a VCR. Just won't work!</p><p>There are settings on the set,&nbsp;to allow you to accept the HD signal and&nbsp;setting up for digital input.</p>

[HBox]

<p><span class="postbody">One last thing is that I have a wii and hooked it up with composite cables and wanted to know if component cable would really make a difference. </span></p><p>It will absolutely make a difference. Also remember that the Wii has a widescreen setting. Make sure you activate that in the settings menu. You can do that regardless of whether you use component cables or not. </p><p>The first thing you need to do is, as mentioned, get an HD box from your cable company. The cable box will probably use a component input as well, and they'll probably include all the cables you need. Since you seem to be in a bit over your head you might want to see if they can send someone out to set it up for you. A technician will make sure that the box outputs the optimum resolution for your TV. If they'll do it for free for you it'll be more than worth it. If not it's not all that complicated anyway.</p><p>But get that HD box first and stop torturing that TV with that god awful signal. </p>

[Meve]

I'm going to go for that HD cable box but will that only show a difference with HD channels or will all the basic cable channels look a lot better?

[zentraed]

Under no circumstances should you ever use that yellow composite video cable. Everything looks better even with s-video. If you're not using component cables (the 3-cabled video connection) or something digital (DVI or HDMI), you're not watching hi-definition, or even &quot;progressive-scan&quot; (480p). With a cable box, you'll get better color reproduction on your digital channels, but the analog channels should look about the same (the analog channels are carried on the RF-cable, which has the same video issues as composite).

[patsopinion]

upgrade to s video at least... little better

[HBox]

<strong>Meve</strong> wrote:<br />I'm going to go for that HD cable box but will that only show a difference with HD channels or will all the basic cable channels look a lot better?<p>It will make the regular channels look better too. Sharper with clearer, more defined colors.<br /> </p>

[WeakSauce]

<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">You SHOULD see an improvement of your basic channels. Chances are when they install the HD box they will also utilize an inline cable amplifier. This will boost the overall signal coming in from the pole. And depending on when the house / apt was originally wired for cable they might (should) replace the existing coax with a better quality to accommodate for HD.</font></p>

<span class=post_edited>This message was edited by WeakSauce on 2-25-07 @ 12:16 AM</span>

[Meve]

<p>Ok now I have an HD Box from cablevision and while my HD channels look amazing the regular channels are not that hot. But more importantly I have another question:</p><p>Why are my widescreen DVD's not filling the screen completely? I have horizontal bars on the top and bottle with some of my DVD's- example my Battle Star Galactica season 1 fills the screen but my Serenity dvd does not. They are both widescreen. Is there something I can set on the dvd to fix this. Once again I'm using my Mac Book Pro as my dvd player connected with HDMI to the tv.</p>

[ONYONN]

<p>can you change the aspect on the tv?</p>

[HBox]

<p><font color="Navy"><font size="2">There are two different widescreen standards, 16:9 and 2.35:1. 16:9 is the size of HDTVs and most HDTV programming. Many movies are also at that aspect ratio. But some movies such as Serenity are 2.35:1 which is too wide for even HDTVs which is why there are still black bars. And if these movies are played on channels such as HBOHD or something then it will also have those black bars.</font></font></p><p><font color="Navy"><font size="2">So, in other words, it is supposed to be that way.</font></font></p>

<span class=post_edited>This message was edited by HBox on 3-2-07 @ 11:00 PM</span>