hd options

Yes I was the guy who couldn't see HD, but in showing my sister a comparison photo of HD vs SD and telling her I couldn't see it until looking very close to it, she says " I have to get an HDTV".   I've always been interested in HDTVs and I'm looking up info for her.  
 
 We have digital cable, but NOT HD.  What does this mean for us? Will some cable channels in HD or none? I know network channels have HD, but I'm not sure if you need an HD CABLE box to get HD or not, or if you have to pay extra for HD ( which would suck).
  
I'm thinking of just convincing her to not get a TV, because we wouldn't have any HD things to use it with. It could suffice as just a better, big screen non HD tv, but still.

You do need an HD cable box and you also need to have that box connected through HD cables (Component or HDMI). It depends on your company whether or not its extra.

You have to pay a bit extra for HD, I don't know how much though. Not a huge amount, I know that. If you have the money for it, I would highly recommend it. And if you are getting anything beyond the core channels (basically above like 114), I think you should have an HD box, although I'm not sure. HD boxes are big, like VCR sized usually, so if you have one of those I think you should be able to recieve an HD signal. You will of course need an HD television with the proper cables (HDMI is the best option there).
 
If you can't see the difference between 1920x1080 and 640x480, your eyesight must be pretty bad, I'm sorry you can't see the beauty of true HD. 
 
That said, getting an HD TV is a good plan for future proofing, and if you don't have a widescreen television, that's another bonus. Plus, LCD TV's will give you a better picture even with SD input, so until you get HD gear, it'll still have advantages. Plus, they take up less space and are a lot lighter. My 42" is actually sitting directly on top of my Comcast Box. No way in hell a tube TV would do anything but crush it.

I can see the difference, but either  
A).  I have to get really close, then it's really obvious
B) It'd have be really big 
     
Anyway, we do NOT have an HD box ( no hd inputs on the back),  so we'd have to plug it in through coax. Our box is big and we have digital cable, on demand, etc but just no hd. Fucking comcast ( i know why broadcasting hd is expensive, but still).

TVs are usually described as HD Ready, this means that the screen is capable of showing an HD image. As Heartagram and  MordeaniisChaos have said it is down to your source, you need an HD input to get an HD output. Just like a stereo amp will give you stereo output where the music has been recorded in stereo, it won't turn mono into stereo, at best it will play it over two speakers. You might also want to consider options like a Blue Ray player or PS3 to let you watch HD content on the TV then you won't have to pay higher HD subscription charges, and you can rent Blue Ray DVDs from Blockbuster.

There are still people using SD?

Obviously yes. 

" Obviously yes.  "

Not because they explained. I already knew all the information about HD,  I was obsessed with HDTVs and gaming awhile back and I fell off the wagon. I knew the difference technically/mathematically, but I never saw the difference.. But I saw this picture and it was clear, but only when I moved up really close. I haven't seen a difference anywhere else but that picture, mainly because of my shit vision. I still believe and HDTV would be a waste of money for me. 
 
Don't see what that has to do with me saying the obviously many people sitll do use SD now, even though HD is more prominent now ( 59 percent I think ). 
 
 Don't even mind this, I'm just really bored and want to respond to posts. 

Hey one question I want to ask, what hd source do you have? Do you have a xbox 360, ps3? Or true hd 1080p source like blu ray or pc games? Or were you basing your other thread on using a hdtv with a wii and standard television cable channels?

My experience with HD has mostly been HD videos on youtube where I can hear a difference in sound but see no difference in video passed 480p and a few times where I've played Xbox 350 on my brother's old 20 inch HDTV. Yes it was hooked up via component. The only difference I saw was that it was widescreen, and the colors looked different on an LCD, and the resolution was different, but I didn't see much detail. Also, HD TV shows that I have downloaded to my computer.  I admit that I do not have that much experience with HD and I wasn't really using all of the experience I could think of for the basis of that thread. I should have seen HD on the recommended size TV, etc, my vision will still suck but the difference will be more clear.  

I said that the wii looked great with the HDTV because I was wrongly implying that it's not the actual resolution of the TV, it's the technology in the TV, and that anything would look good on an HDTV with good technology. The LCD technology does make it look better than most tube TVs out there, but  even though I physically have not been able to see it to this point, most people with 20/20 vision say that the extra pixels make a huge difference.  I know that the wii is not an hd console, the idea was that  maybe it's not the resolution that makes it look good, but the TV, because the wii looked so much better on that TV than anything I'd seen on a tube TV. I was wrong because hd resolutions make things look better.

" My experience with HD has mostly been HD videos on youtube where I can hear a difference in sound but see no difference in video passed 480p and a few times where I've played Xbox 350 on my brother's old 20 inch HDTV. Yes it was hooked up via component. The only difference I saw was that it was widescreen, and the colors looked different on an LCD, and the resolution was different, but I didn't see much detail. Also, HD TV shows that I have downloaded to my computer.  I admit that I do not have that much experience with HD and I wasn't really using all of the experience I could think of for the basis of that thread. I should have seen HD on the recommended size TV, etc, my vision will still suck but the difference will be more clear.  I said that the wii looked great with the HDTV because I was wrongly implying that it's not the actual resolution of the TV, it's the technology in the TV, and that anything would look good on an HDTV with good technology. The LCD technology does make it look better than most tube TVs out there, but  even though I physically have not been able to see it to this point, most people with 20/20 vision say that the extra pixels make a huge difference.  I know that the wii is not an hd console, the idea was that  maybe it's not the resolution that makes it look good, but the TV, because the wii looked so much better on that TV than anything I'd seen on a tube TV. I was wrong because hd resolutions make things look better. "

 I was talking about hd in general.
 
I  also said I'd played 360 on an HDTV and saw no difference.  I have admitted that it was just my own personal vision and that I was wrong for implying that everyone couldn't see it.  Video games and youtube are different, but  if I had 2020 I could have  probably seen a difference in said videos. If  HD meant nothing on youtube they wouldn't have implemented the feature. 

" There are still people using SD? "

Well for colors, component is sort of muddy looking compared to hdmi which is lossless. Youtube videos aren't the greatest source of hd content. While the video might be like 720p, youtube might not process or render it as well.
 
You said you wear glasses for your other thread, which I am not so sure of. Or maybe if you didn't you should start wearing glasses. Or simply you need a new perscription for your glasses. I say get the hdtv, get hdmi cable, look at a blu ray movie or something one day which requires a ps3 or blu ray player. Then see it objectively. It's not about techology, the component cable isn't good technology and xbox 360 is only a 720p source which doesn't match the native resolution because it needs to be upscaled. You probally never seen anything that's fully 1080p with an hdmi cable with a good hdtv. Avatar is probally the sharpest blu ray movie, maybe that's a movie you should see one day in 1080p.

Not using a cable box here, just a straight line in from the cable wall outlet and I get four channels in HD at no extra cost: the local versions of NBC, FOX, ABC, and CBS. And apparently there were more before the whole February 2010 government mandated digital crossover thing,  before they "scrambled" them for those who do not subscribe to digital cable. I believe they also offer the HD versions of all channels that they have the HD feed for free to those who get the basic digital package. This is with CableONE, though. Your cable provider might do things differently.
 
Regardless, you should be able to trade in your non HD cable box for one that has an HDMI output if you can't get any HD channels with the direct line.
 
When you have the SD and HD versions of the same channel to compare back to back, the difference will be impossible to ignore.

 Well in fairness to the OP, a standard definition signal on a standard definition set isn't terrible. I was quite happy with SD for a long time myself. I never really understood the quality jump until seeing 480p on a 40" HDTV and how it just looks like crap. But honestly, just make the jump to HD man. If you don't want to pay for cable just get a HD antenna from Radio Shack and you'll have all the basic channels in HD for free (this is what I do). With all the shows on the internet you should be able to hook a PC/laptop up to your new HDTV and watch HD Hulu on there as well.