PQ analog vs SD digital

[Ken C]

I currently have analog cable feeding into Sage and then to a HD100, set to 1080p, and finally, into a Sammy 40" LCD. All recording is set to the highest MPEG2 quality. The picture quality is very good.

What I'm wondering is, if I get a HDHR, will the standard definition digital channels have better PQ than the analogs ? I know the HD's will but will there be any noticeable difference between analog and SD digital on my setup ?

[jrog]

with my HDHR, I saw no point in mapping digital channels that weren't High Definition. I know there are a handful that are SD digital, but they aren't channels I was interested in. I don't have clear QAM for non locals.

However, seeing as how they are still digital, there is no need to re-encode them, so the quality is as good as it's going to be, and free of ghosting or other issues that can plague an analog signal.

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by jrog

with my HDHR, I saw no point in mapping digital channels that weren't High Definition. I know there are a handful that are SD digital, but they aren't channels I was interested in. I don't have clear QAM for non locals.

However, seeing as how they are still digital, there is no need to re-encode them, so the quality is as good as it's going to be, and free of ghosting or other issues that can plague an analog signal.

When I was using clear qam, I didn't have the SD changes in digital. When I swtiched to OTA, any channel that has both an HD and an SD, I only record off the HD. I figure there is no reason to worry about the SD signals. I do have a dual tuner setup for OTA analog, but that is solely incase my HDHomerun already has both tuners in use and I need to record something.

[pjpjpjpj]

Ken,

To answer your question simply, I think it would depend on the PQ sent by your analog cable company, sent by the channel itself, and also by the quality of the tuner.

As a user of an HDHR with OTA, I have several SD digital channels that I watch - plus all of my local newscasts except one are still in SD. There is a noticeable difference between them, even from SD digital to SD digital (in this case, it often directly correlates to the bandwidth that the channel allocates to its main channel). I watch quite a few PBS shows on the SD subchannels, and some of the shows (and some of the channels themselves, across-the-board) look fantastic, while some look fairly poor. For example, when a show is filmed in HD, then sent on a subchannel that is only SD (giving the dreaded "picturebox" framing), I can use the zoom on my TV to fill the screen and it often looks pretty respectable... whereas some shows that are filmed and broadcast in SD (and not even zoomed) look worse than the zoomed HD->SD shows.

Long story, uh, even longer , I don't think there is any one answer to your question. Digital is the best you can get, analog can have issues; but the PQ you get in SD depends on the source and the tuner.