I don't have and never have had digital (hd) cable, I still run the analog, coaxial cable out of the wall. I am looking at getting a DLP LED 50" 1080p HDTV. Will this TV look like crap with analog cable?

I am mostly using this to watch movies on my bluray player but I will watch some TV on it. I'm not real anal with picture quality but I don't want it to look like complete crap!

thanks!

Yea, I think you will be disappointed with analogue cable
Even with SD, you will probably disappointed, especially when comparing it to your bluray
Its up to you, if you don't watch much cable on it, you may be happy with the bluray

Displaying analog cable TV on such a screen, in my opinion would be as heinous a crime as listening to a Telarc recording via AM radio. I assure you, you will not like the results.

"Presentation may be everything, however crap is still crap no matter how you present it. ;)"

"Presentation may be everything, however crap is still crap no matter how you present it. "

My grandpappy used to say, "boy, no matter how hard you try, you can't polish a turd"
Hehe
The Mrs was extremely disappointed when we hooked our SD expressvu box up to our "new" dlp
When I told her they had a HD box hooked up at the store, she felt like she had been mislead
I think I was partly to blame, as I wanted a new HDTV, but didn't want to tell her we would then need a HD source....
You could get an antenna, for OTA HD, if you are against a monthly HD bill....

SD on a 50 inch screen will look fine as long as you are sitting 20 feet away.

I have a 42 inch DLP and watching SD analog cable on it is OK from about 12 feet away.

It's watchable; not horrid and not fantastic...mediocre at best.

I gotta 50 inch dlp and the quality looks terrible on my hd digital cable. I dont understand why? even some of the HD channels like the score....the only thing thats HD is the stupid bar at the bottom that keeps the scores.

Please see the following thread on the topic of SD PQ.

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=18580

Also, please see: http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=57741

Please put your location and service provider into your UserCP Profile (location). This often helps us help you. For example some service providers have packages for digital cable (like Rogers Digital VIP), which can provide additional (digital) channels at little/no additional cost, depending on what channels you have now.

digital98, please read the links above and also realize that a lot of programming on the HD channels is not HD. See link below:

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=17702

The Score has lousy PQ a large percentage of the time because it's upconverted SD and even when it's HD it needs to be "squished" to make room for the (large) ticker. Try watching Discovery HD or PBS-HD or HD-Net.

Your thread on the Score has been deleted since we already have a thread which discusses those issues:

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=38886

yep, thats teh score for you. Atleast the ticker looks good!
They do show a few bball games in HD.

Your answer is simple - It will look crappy.

Go HD and forgot this whole SD generation.

Go HD and forgot this whole SD generation.

Exactly. No innocent human being deserves to watch SD cable.

I have a 56inch Samsung DLP and am only on analogue cable and find it acceptable. Not great but not terrible either.

Will this TV look like crap with analog cable?
Actually, analog cable will look like crap on this TV. :D

A lot depends on the quality of connection, cable system and head end signals. Some analog cable connections will look Ok and some will look terrible. I would look for a good deal on a cable company HD package. There are usually some this time of year. Check the digital deals and cable forums.

Or, if this is a viable option, you can install an antenna and tower and receive HD over the air for free. Above the initial cost of the tower and antenna of course.

Depending on how much cable you watch, the OTA analog signals will most likely give you better PQ then the cable provider.

I run an OTA antenna for analog as we are not fortunate enough here in Saskatoon to receive any OTA digital signals. YET, I hope.

I haven't paid for cable/sat in 15 years (nor do we run a FTA)

I am using a 56 DLP for display and find it acceptable.

I have a 50 inch Samsung DLP and I can compare and contrast the difference and once I started to watch HD, I just don't bother watching SD channels, let alone analog. I keep it connected in case something happens to the digital box and I want to check if the problem is the box or the cable feed.

I've mentioned this phenomenon to other friends--that is, only watching HD once you get an HDTV--and they've all replied that is what eventually happened to them.

If you're not going to watch HD, why get an HDTV?

If you live in an area where there are digital channels OTA, then I would buy a TV with an ATSC digital tuner and get some sort of antenna system. Keep the analog cable for channels not available OTA. That gives you the best of both worlds, and you are then ready for the analog OTA cutoff date which is just over a year away in the US.

If you're not going to watch HD, why get an HDTV?For HD media and gaming. There is not enough quality TV fare to me to justify the costs of getting a cable or satellite signal.

I'm not a sports fan either so my TV viewing is restricted to 2 or 3 shows. The rest is all spent watching DVDs.