Standard Def Reception on an HDTV set

The picture on a non digital set will be better with non HDTV signals. I just purchased a new house that had a built in cabinet for the tv and actually ended up getting one of Sony's last analog flatscreens and it was far better picture on Satellite non HDTV feeds than my 15k Seleco projector with DVDO line doubler, and my new Digital 53" HDTV Sony RPT. They both got smoked, frankly it's what I saw in the store, and the salesperson after I absolutely grilled him admitted that analog sets look best on analog and non HDTV pix. If you watch TV, then that's mostly what you're watching. I hardly ever use my Hidef receiver in HD mode. I guess it's a lot like audio, when you try to manipulate the signal digitally it entails making design/tradeoff choices and degrades the signal. What you really are doing is taking an analog signal, converting it to digital to send over satellite, then converting it from digital to analog at the receiver then your digital TV converting it to digital. Try that with an audio signal!

I'd stick with your xbr for a while longer. ditto on above threads.

In my experience, analog cable will look worse, and TRUE digital cable (non-HD) will look about the same or slightly better. But if you own a DVD player, you've gotta get a digital set -- 480P smokes 480i by a wide, wide margin.

(Oh, wait, I can't say "smokes" any more, can I? No, wait, that's a different thread . . . .)

If you do go with the digital set, power conditioning (both for the TV and the cable box) helps a lot.

I have DISH satellite and receiver (non-HD) and a 6 year old RP Sony 53"XBR and a 1 year old Panasonic 32" HD-ready with some kind of built-in line improvement--not really a doubler, but it seems to work well as the picture is much clearer and better defined on the Pannie. Can't say how much is do to size and how much to technology. That said, I still do most of my watching on the Sony. I guess size does matter.

I own a 36" Toshiba HFX-71. The 36HFX72 was selected by Perfect Vision as product of the year. It has an excellent built-in line doubler. The picture on digtal cable channels is excellent with few visible scanning lines. To really enjoy HDTV you will need an HDTV tuner to receive OTA or sattelite HDTV.