HDTV on regular cable?

[mikeyg83]

I'm new to the world of HDTV. I am looking into getting the Samsung LNS3251D here's the link
However, I am going to be using it at college for my senior year and they said that they do not offer HDTV or Digital Cable, just regular analog cable. I am thinking longterm, so will this particular (or any) HDTV look worse on analog cable than a standard tube tv? if it will look awful then I will probably wait til after college to purchase.
Thanks

 

[marksas]

It's funny you ask, i asked this same question to a salesman at BestBuy yesterday. He said all HDTV's would look worse on standard Def than regular tube tv's, even the HD tube tv's. He said it will look really grainy. He seemed pretty knowledgeable about all things HD. I did find this a little hard to believe since so many manufacturers say their technology can improve an analog picture. Anyways, unless you plan on using this TV to watch alot of DVD's or play games, you'd be better off waiting. Prices only continue to drop.

 

[lungjian]

Sounds like you got the one knowledgeable BB salesman! He is correct.

The technology that can improve the SD picture on an HDTV is generally referred to as a scaler. It is sometimes a single video processing chip, or sometimes multiple chips. Some TVs have good built-in processing, some don't.

Most of the major name brands will have decent processing. You'll almost always see an improvement by using a dedicated external scaler, but they can sometimes cost more than the TV.

www.dvdo.com has some good tutorials on HD and on video processing. You might be able to find their iScan HD or HD+ units at reasonable prices as both are discontinued.