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Nowtv HD box questions

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  1. #1

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    Nowtv HD box questions

    I was at Times Square earlier today checking out Fortress, Broadway a few other stores comparing the Analog and DTT signal quality on some LCD tv's and although the DTT signal (on tv's with built in digital tuners) were significantly better, they still seemed quite ''raw'' to me. Not so sharp and kind of grainy. I know that local DTT channels are not HD, except for that one chinese channel but i expected the others to be better than what I saw today.

    Anyway, I have this Nowtv HD box and I was wondering if the images for local DTT channels would be any better through it rather than directly into the back of an HDTV equipped with a digital tuner. I came across a thread on this site that seemed to indicate that but i got confused reading all the technical terms.

    Also, how do the regular SD cable channels look on an HDtv, I know from my research that they are broadcast in 4:3 and I will have to watch them with the sides blacked out but I did read somewhere that the Nowtv box converts the signal from 480 to 720 which makes it a bit better for viewing on an HD set. Can anyone confirm this, am I making any sense at all?


  2. #2

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    Quote Originally Posted by muerte852:
    Also, how do the regular SD cable channels look on an HDtv, I know from my research that they are broadcast in 4:3 and I will have to watch them with the sides blacked out but I did read somewhere that the Nowtv box converts the signal from 480 to 720 which makes it a bit better for viewing on an HD set. Can anyone confirm this, am I making any sense at all?
    You are making sense, and you are correct - regular channels are 4:3 and the now TV box can output them in 16:9 formats (720p or 1080i), but the result is quite poor as it introduces distortion and artifacts since the original signal is in a different aspect ratio and already of poor quality to begin with.
    As such I prefer watching normal channels in 4:3 with black bars. However you may also try if your new TV can convert the picture to fill the screen, most modern TVs will have different modes for that, just try them out and see what looks best to you.

    Some typical modes:
    Zoom - zooms in but results in the top and bottom being cut-off
    Stretch - stretches the picture so people become fat
    Smart - stretches the edges more than the center, so everything in the middle looks normal but on the side of the screen is stretched (which makes for funny effects when e.g. a car drives through or watching those scrolling text on CNN etc.)
    Last edited by Raccon; 11-01-2011 at 01:52 PM.
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  3. #3

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    You are making sense, and you are correct - regular channels are 4:3 and the now TV box can output them in 16:9 formats (720p or 1080i), but the result is quite poor as it introduces distortion and artifacts since the original signal is in a different aspect ratio and already of poor quality to begin with.
    Thanks. Where did you find out about the box being able to output 720 and 1080? I've also read on other threads here about that but I called the HD number on the box this morning and the guy told me the current resolution was 768 x 576 which would increase to 1024 x and some other number I have since forgotten, if i ask for the two free HD channels.


    As such I prefer watching normal channels in 4:3 with black bars. However you may also try if your new TV can convert the picture to fill the screen, most modern TVs will have different modes for that, just try them out and see what looks best to you.
    So how do you find the nowtv channel images? Any better than the local DTT channels?

  4. #4

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    Quote Originally Posted by muerte852:
    Thanks. Where did you find out about the box being able to output 720 and 1080? I've also read on other threads here about that but I called the HD number on the box this morning and the guy told me the current resolution was 768 x 576 which would increase to 1024 x and some other number I have since forgotten, if i ask for the two free HD channels.
    It's in the menu under System Settings / Video Output Format. Just noticed it has 1080p25, too. All the HD resolutions apply to component (YUV) or HDMI connection only. The HDMI output is afaik disabled if you don't subscribe to the HDTV service.
    Actually I am not supposed to have a HDTV-capable box, or at least according to now TV I don't have. I never subscribed to their HDTV service but the box they installed does look like the HD one on their website and has the respective menu options. Am I making sense? Possibly more than now TV.

    So how do you find the nowtv channel images? Any better than the local DTT channels?
    Don't have/watch DTT but the now TV SD quality is very poor, reminds me of the good old VCD.
    Last edited by Raccon; 12-01-2011 at 12:25 AM.

  5. #5

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    Thanks. I went to a PCCW store today to check out their demo tv that shows all their channels. I can't believe how bad their regular broadcast looks on a HDTV, even after 30 minutes of messing with the settings on the cable box. The eight HD channels looked ok but whenever I tried asking the guy anything about the settings or resolution, he would scratch his head and try to sell me some other cable tv package. There was even one with all eight HD channels that cost more than the individual cost of each channel combined. I don't think sense figures in to anything they do at all.