Connecting SA8300HD

I have had both the SA8000HD and SA8300HD thru Adelphia. There are 2 reasons that are causing the SD channels to looks worse:


1) The new box is recording. The DVR has to compress the analog video signal into a digital video file to get the DVR benefits. This isn't usually that noticeable.


2) You either just got an HDTV and are seeing the SD signal in more detail than before (happened to me) or you already had an HDTV and are using the "Zoom" feature on the cable box to stretch the image to fit the HDTV. Generally, the video scaling/conversion features of the box don't look as good as the ones built into the HDTV.


I personally use component cables for both HD and SD and like the picture quality, YMMV.

Hope that helps.

Updated to a 8300HD from a fuzzy-HD-image 8000HD last week. I'll probably stick with S-video for all-digital SDs, a NYC TWC option, and use YPbPr only for H/DTV, as I've been doing for years with other converters.


I've set my 8300HD for 480p and 1080i, but my CRT RPTV won't converge quite right for both formats into the HD YPbPr input. Switching TV modes for S-video is routine now, and while YPbPr offers greater color bandwidth compared to S-video, my RPTV deinterlaces/stretches much better than the 8300HD's zoom/stretch modes. Like many things, it's a trade-off. -- John