I was reading somewhere that unless you have an HD signal, the picture looks like crap on an HDTV. I have satellite, but not HD satellite. I'm looking at LCD tvs right now. Anyone here have a flat panel HDTV and not have an HD signal? How does the picture look?

Our basement tv was HD and our cablebox wasn't. It was all blurry. It wasn't unwatchable, but not what it should be for the kind of tv it is. We eventually got the hd box, its much better now, the difference is noticable. if you're gonna spend the money on the HD you should get the HD box imo

So, that leads me to another question. I buy the TV, the receiver, and the programming. Dish has like, 20-some HD channels, none of which I'd actually watch, lol. So all the non HD channels will come in blurry?


I feel like an idiot.

I waited 3 months before actually buying the HDTV programming for my HDTV. I did not notice any difference over regular TV, the difference once I connected to HD though was incredible.

In my case the HDTV was just as good as a regular TV when hooked up to regular cable

So, that leads me to another question. I buy the TV, the receiver, and the programming. Dish has like, 20-some HD channels, none of which I'd actually watch, lol. So all the non HD channels will come in blurry?


I feel like an idiot.

I would talk to the salesperson and find out what the TV will look like with regular cable. CHeck a display model and change it to a regular non HD channel. I find it hard to believe that the quality is worse than a regular TV, obviously it would look even better on a HD channel but it should be fine.

So, that leads me to another question. I buy the TV, the receiver, and the programming. Dish has like, 20-some HD channels, none of which I'd actually watch, lol. So all the non HD channels will come in blurry?


I feel like an idiot.

I'm not sure how it works with satelite, but on ours like channels 2-11 they have special HD channels(Ch 502-511)..so you have the regular and then the hd, so you can compare the quality. the HD verisons of the channels are like a DVD. thats what i meant by blurry. if you didn't have the HD to compare it to you probably wouldn't even notice.

Oh, ok. So it's not much different than this analog tv I have now. That makes me feel a little better.

I watch DVDs more than regular TV it seems anyway, so it should look pretty good with those.

I suppose it also varies by brand and size. I'm looking at 27" and under because it'll be in my bedroom, so maybe any blurriness of sorts is less noticible with a smaller screen size.