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Post by Kenneth on Aug 10, 2009 23:56:00 GMT -5
I Finau-ly entered the land of HDTV tonight: www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9298477&st=46xv645u&lp=1&type=product&cp=1&id=1218081119875It is a totally awesome TV, and I love it so far. I only have one problem: the cable TV looks like shit. Everything is fine on the Wii, everything is fine if I put in a DVD, and everything is fine if I plug in the HDMI out from my laptop into the TV. For some reason on the cable TV the reds and greens are dulled out to the point that they are literally brown. I'm using composite video cables right now, because my cable box doesn't have an HDMI out, but I don't see why that should make it look as bad as it currently is. I have checked to make sure I have the right color cables going in the right color plugs three times, and they're definitely right. I'm hoping that swapping out my box for one that has HDMI out will fix the problem, but I really don't see why it's happening in the first place. The colors were always fine with the box using the CRT I have. Any suggestions? |
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Post by matt on Aug 11, 2009 7:18:25 GMT -5
I know I am not one of the tech guys on here, but it does sound like it has to be a problem with either one of the component cables, one of the component cable connections on either the tv or the box, or a problem with the cable box itself for some reason.
My cable company will five out the HD component cables like candy (of course, they don't even sell HDMI cables...once I got one, though, I am not sure I can tell the difference)...so maybe you can just try a different set of cables first if you happen to have some reason (like DVR recordings) to want to keep your box.....or, regardless, I would swap out the cables at the same time you trade the box in, just to see what the problem was.
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Post by Kenneth on Aug 11, 2009 9:28:48 GMT -5
I think I have it figured out. The component cables are fine. I tested them with my DVD player, so the cable is fine, and the connectors are fine on the TV. I think the problem is that my other TV (that works fine with the cables) is a CRT which doesn't have a component video input. My cable box coincidentally has no single video output (i.e. the old-fashioned RCA output that my CRT needs). It only has component. As a result, I was taking my video output to my CRT from one of the three component video outputs on the cable box. I would think that to do that, you have to put in some kind of setting on the cable box to tell it to send all the colors out in just the one output. I would also think that that could cause some problems with colors if you were to try to use all three outputs without changing anything.
I actually do have some things on my cable box that I'd like to keep; I recorded the Tire Bowl and never got around to watching it a second time. I would like to do that, but I'm not going to watch an entire football game when all the greens and reds are a dull brown. I think getting a new box with HDMI output will work.
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Post by matt on Aug 11, 2009 9:38:47 GMT -5
Yeah, sounds fun.
My question is, is your current box an HD box anyway? I know that most of the time if you dont have an HD tv, you dont get the HD box..... it just seems like if it is an HD box, it would have the HDMI output....
Oh well, replacing the shit seems easy enough.
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Post by Kenneth on Aug 11, 2009 9:45:20 GMT -5
Nope, it's an HD box, I've had HD programming for a few years without having an HDTV. If you want a dual-channel DVR with Comcast, you have to also get the HD programming. So I've always had that. The box just doesn't have HDMI out for some reason.
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Post by IMG Public Relations on Aug 11, 2009 9:54:14 GMT -5
Solved your own problem....you needed the full set of component cables rather than the one video, two sound RCA cables. If I was a videophile I could probably bitch about component vs. HDMI, but truthfully I can't tell much difference between my satellite box (HDMI) and my XBox 360 (component) anyway.
If it's not already you should get yourself a recordable DVD player and archive your old DVR box. Then you can get the latest/greatest box and enjoy HDMI.
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Post by Kenneth on Aug 11, 2009 10:18:04 GMT -5
Solved your own problem....you needed the full set of component cables rather than the one video, two sound RCA cables. If I was a videophile I could probably bitch about component vs. HDMI, but truthfully I can't tell much difference between my satellite box (HDMI) and my XBox 360 (component) anyway. If it's not already you should get yourself a recordable DVD player and archive your old DVR box. Then you can get the latest/greatest box and enjoy HDMI. Well, not exactly. The problem is that when I use all the component video cables on the cable box, it doesn't look right. I still can't get it to look like anything other than shit. I would like to backup what's on my DVR, but it's not a big enough deal to buy something new to do that at this point. |
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Post by marylandeer on Aug 11, 2009 20:44:44 GMT -5
I kind of have the same problem with my HD TV and cable box. I have an HDTV cable box and have a regular cable cord coming into the box, but a HDMI from the box to the TV. The HD channels are great (ESPN, local Cable Channels, HBO, etc.), but the rest of the regular channels suck. I assumed that it was just because the cable channels aren't as good and look worse on a large HD TV.
Any ideas
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Post by Kenneth on Aug 11, 2009 21:18:11 GMT -5
I think that is a pretty common issue.
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Post by IMG Public Relations on Aug 12, 2009 8:30:37 GMT -5
I kind of have the same problem with my HD TV and cable box. I have an HDTV cable box and have a regular cable cord coming into the box, but a HDMI from the box to the TV. The HD channels are great (ESPN, local Cable Channels, HBO, etc.), but the rest of the regular channels suck. I assumed that it was just because the cable channels aren't as good and look worse on a large HD TV. Any ideas Typically, your HD channels should show in complete widescreen goodness with a really sharp picture, while the remaining channels should look at least decent but with an obvious letdown in quality. The best way to view regular def channels in an otherwise HD setup is to have your TV display the regular channels in the standard 4:3 ratio and get the black bars on the left & right side. If the regular def goes fullscreen on an HDTV it'll look like total shit. My father in law snookered the hell out of a local shop and got a Sony Bravia 46" screen that is pure win on the XBox. Problem is, he's got it hooked to a standard def Dish Network box and won't go the high def route. We have to sit in the next room before the resolution clears up. |
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