[gamblingstats]

From what I understand the resolution of regular programming is 720x480. In the case of DVD video the vertical lines might be a bit less due to cropping. Still regular programming on my 37" LCD looks like crap with jaggies and pixelation, while the DVDs playing through my Xbox looks very decent (the Xbox is connected through PC XVGA).

Why is that? Is the bitrate of regular DVDs higher than that of whats streamed by the channels?

I have a Rogers subscription, and have plugged in through the HD component cables. They ran out of HDMI ready boxes, will that help?

[griddle]

Are you viewing SD stations? Those always look horrible on an HDTV, nothing you can do. Tune into an HD station, should be much better although due to compression by your cable company you may get graphical glitches.

[gamblingstats]

Are you viewing SD stations? Those always look horrible on an HDTV, nothing you can do. Tune into an HD station, should be much better although due to compression by your cable company you may get graphical glitches.

I don't really watch the SD stations as understandably the quality is worsened on an LCD. But even the HD stations have some pixelation, specially during action shots. This is probably due to compression on the channels part, but I was expecting that they must atleast be using a bitrate of a DVD movie.

[Kolovorotkes]

Once cable companies go completely Digital, I think we'll start seeing more consistant DVD quality SD programming.

That being said, TV channels and flat pannels don't mix well.

the only HDTV's that manage to have an ok looking one, is CRT's.

[griddle]

I don't really watch the SD stations as understandably the quality is worsened on an LCD. But even the HD stations have some pixelation, specially during action shots. This is probably due to compression on the channels part, but I was expecting that they must atleast be using a bitrate of a DVD movie.

I get the same thing on charter HD. Some HD channels are compressed more than others though and look horrible sometimes. Audio seems to cut out quite a bit on charter HD as well.

[Avaboormavoro]

Your 360 is upscaling the dvd's which is 10x better than most tv's upscaling capabilities.

[gamblingstats]

Your 360 is upscaling the dvd's which is 10x better than most tv's upscaling capabilities.

that makes a lot of sense. I didn't knew xbox had an upscaling feature

[EscaCsamas]

I don't know if it's any different in Canada, but here in the US digital cable is actually the worst picture quality that you can get. Most cable companies take their regular analog signal that they send out to basic cable subscribers and convert it to a digital signal while compressing it to unbelievably horrific levels. It's a total rip off. They try to advertise "digital quality" picture and sound, but the truth is that the analog broadcast actually looks considerably better.

[Essefsbyday]

its because digital tv SUCKS because they compress the sh!t out of it to save on bandwidth. On analog, it didn't cost less to send a sh!tty looking signal. On digital, they can say oh well... we can make it look like youtube and not have to use as much bandwidth, so what you get is TV that looks worse than TV in the 70s. Its horrendous, looks like 256 color sometimes because it ACTUALLY IS. Go complain and tell them you know what they are doing, its really really pathetic.