I'm a 21st century digital girl

[dethbuni]

With my xmas monies I got myself a 19" HDTV. Then I got a digital TV tuner. I never bothered watching TV much before but now I can watch nature shows in HDTV! Oh my beautiful penguins and volcanoes. I also got to see the very frightening show, Boobah, which is made by the Teletubby people if you've never heard of it. Initially I had tried to talk

Comments

[ywong]

The deal with getting your DVDs to look sharper is very tricky. It is possible to waste a lot of money trying to get this to work (upconverting players, digital cables, etc that don't end up working exactly right), so you'll want to be careful. I can try to describe what I did but I may not remember since it was a crazy mixed-up journey. It may also be somewhat dependent on your HDTV's inputs, since HDTV is a consumer technology implementation that's still in flux. Let me know if you want to know more, although I'm sure one of the many nerds back in Minnesota can also help out.

Better cables are unlikely to help, unless you are using composite cables or something really old like that. If you are already using some sort of digital (HDMI, DVI, VGA) or component cables, getting better ones probably won't make the least bit of difference. Certainly not enough to justify the cost.

[dethbuni]

I am using composite right now actually. I was thinking of getting component.

[ywong]

Oh, okay. Yeah, I don't think composite is even capable of transmitting a HD signal, in that case. You need to be component or one of the digital cables. Just buy the cheapest one you can find, since buying for the pricey ones is a scam.

[tarq]

Using component cables on my Enhanced Definition TV the difference was very noticeable. Especially while playing supported games, like Shadow of the Colossus.