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redmist
10-03-09, 10:33 PM
anyone know why SD tv on abc and fox looks so wierd now? it looks real stuttery latley. HD looks normal, but my garage tv is old school sd with the coax lead going right into the rf jack, and man it looks strange. i assume it has something to do with hd being down-converted but i don't know alot about the whole hd\sd idiosyncrasyies. any ideas?
G.
10-04-09, 11:17 AM
what's your source?

Cable, dish/directTV, antenna?

I'll look, but haven,t watched either in a few days. (mine is dishNetwork, with one TV over the air, just FOX)
dando
10-04-09, 11:21 AM
I suggest your provider has changed something. I see both in SD daily and there's been no change here. I've also watched them both in HD recently and didn't notice any changes in HD either.

-Kevin
TKGAngel
10-04-09, 11:39 AM
I've noticed that Fox HD is herky jerky at times during sports broadcasts, but is fine everywhere else (Glee, SYTYCD). Source is Time Warner Cable. I'm half tempted to fire up the rabbit ears and see if the herky jerky appears there as well.
dando
10-04-09, 01:13 PM
I'm half tempted to fire up the rabbit ears and see if the herky jerky appears there as well.

You gotta HD antenna and an HD tuner in yer TV or an HD converter box? There ain't no mo' SD OTA broadcasts anymore. Unless you can pick up signals from the great white north that is.

-Kevin
TKGAngel
10-04-09, 01:57 PM
You gotta HD antenna and an HD tuner in yer TV or an HD converter box? There ain't no mo' SD OTA broadcasts anymore. Unless you can pick up signals from the great white north that is.

-Kevin

Gots the HD rabbit ears. Had to buy them last fall when our CBS affiliate got into a pissing match with TWC and OTA was the only way to watch Bills games.
dando
10-04-09, 02:19 PM
Gots the HD rabbit ears. Had to buy them last fall when our CBS affiliate got into a pissing match with TWC and OTA was the only way to watch Bills games.

I remember that. :shakehead Since they were still broadcasting SD signals back then, I figgered TWC would have distributed SD antennas. HD antennas much have cost them a bunch. :saywhat:

-Kevin
WickerBill
10-04-09, 05:50 PM
There's no difference in antenna between SD and HD. It's all marketing. You can pick up a beautiful HD signal with a 20 year old set of rabbit ears.

Anyway, FOX and ABC broadcast HD in 720p, while most other providers broadcast in 1080i. I'd imagine if they're downconverting from their HD signal, you might be seeing an issue with the progressive scan to interlaced conversion.
dando
10-04-09, 06:01 PM
There's no difference in antenna between SD and HD. It's all marketing. You can pick up a beautiful HD signal with a 20 year old set of rabbit ears.

Not here. I tried when our local ABC affiliate was dark for HD (also due to a TWC dispute). :saywhat: Needed and amplified HD antenna to pull it in, but the old rabbit ears could easily get the SD signal. YMMV.

-Kevin
WickerBill
10-04-09, 08:55 PM
You might have needed an amplified antenna, but there's no magic in any "HD" antenna. It's true that you need more signal strength to achieve pickup of HD than you did with SD, but for most that isn't gonna be an issue. Regardless, a wire coat hanger will pick up HD.
dando
10-04-09, 08:58 PM
Regardless, a wire coat hanger will pick up HD.

But there's no coax output. ;)

-Kevin
G.
10-04-09, 11:30 PM
Regardless, a wire coat hanger will pick up HD.
But there's no coax output. ;)

-Kevin

You can fabricate one.

http://www.packetsmith.net/images/anvil350.jpg
Steve99
10-05-09, 02:17 PM
You might have needed an amplified antenna, but there's no magic in any "HD" antenna. It's true that you need more signal strength to achieve pickup of HD than you did with SD, but for most that isn't gonna be an issue. Regardless, a wire coat hanger will pick up HD.

It somewhat depends on what frequencies the HD signal is being broadcast on. Around here they kept moving around while making the transition from SD to HD. In weaker signal areas it helps to have an antenna that works well for the frequencies being used, although SD vs HD doesn't matter.
dando
10-05-09, 04:38 PM
It somewhat depends on what frequencies the HD signal is being broadcast on. Around here they kept moving around while making the transition from SD to HD. In weaker signal areas it helps to have an antenna that works well for the frequencies being used, although SD vs HD doesn't matter.

Further compounding the situation is that stations are moving from VHF to UHF to solve signal strength issues. Back when I was using OTA for HD, I couldn't pull in the signal for ABC, but I could for Fox, NBC, CBS and PBS. The ABC station is actually the Fox affiliate as well, and all of the big 4 networks were broadcasting from the same are of town. :saywhat: PBS is broadcast from a different are, which understandably required some antenna changes. The ABC/Fox affiliate was the only using UHF of the big 4. Extremely frustrating trying everything I could to get ABC in HD. :irked:

-Kevin