[mondo]

I just ordered a toshiba 42 inch widescreen hdtv. I curently use directv and a 31 inch mitsubishi tv. The picture is great (with a little pixilization)on sporting events. Until I get the hd dish and receiver, is my picture going to look worse than what i have now? Also when viewing a non hd channel with a hd receiver will the picture be better than just a non hd receiver and dish? Hope this made sence, thanks, Bob

 

[Benji]

I can only give you my personal observations. I have had my HDTV and tuner for about 10 months now. I have a Mits WS-65087 w/ both a Mits SR-HD5 tuner and an RCA DTC100 tuner. Despite observations by others of lower resolution image on non-HD stations, I find my Directv non-HD stations to be of exellent resolution when watching in the normal mode (gray sidebars) with a few exceptions. Directv compresses digitally its signal and some channels are more compressed than others. On the more compressed channels, the image suffers but this was the case on my 27" Sony also. The major channels like CNN, Foxnews, MSNBC and most of the movie stations look great. One problem using normal mode is the gray sidebars may possibly cause screen burn-in. I've been watching like this for 10 months and have had no problem. But I watch a lot of HD programming as opposed to SD (probably 50/50). I hope this helps.

 

[mondo]

Thanks for your response Benji, is there a reason you use 2 tuners? if i dont want to take a chance on "burn in" can i use one of the stretch modes? So you are saying, i will notice a big difference on non hd channels with a hd receiver opposed to a basic dish and receiver which i have now? Im just wondering if i should get everything at once or wait and get the tv set up (and hope i wont be disappointed with the picture) or get the hd dish now also. once again, thanks for your help