Your analog TV may be higher definition than you think

June 18, 4:09 PMGadgets ExaminerDan Appleman

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A full featured Atsc digital tuner offers high resolution
output that your analog TV may be able to display

With the switch to digital broadcast television, high definition TVs with digital tuners can receive high definition signals as good as any offered by cable or satellite without costing a dime (see Save money with free digital TV).

And thanks to heavy publicity, most people know that an analog converter box allows you to also receive digital TV on analog sets. The result video quality is not high definition, but if you use the video input as described in “Get the best possible signal from your DTV converter box”, you’ll still get better than broadcast quality TV.

But what many people don’t realize is that many analog sets are capable of displaying much better signals than possible with a cheap analog converter. And they are capable of doing so without the monthly fees of cable or satellite.

To understand why, it’s important to understand the difference between the TV set resolution and the maximum input signal resolution. Both describe the number of possible dots (or pixels) that can be displayed on a set.

Every set has a maximum screen resolution (see Buying a TV? Be sure you know what 720p, 1080p, 1080i and native resolution mean for more information). Old analog sets or those with standard composite video signals can display as little as 320x240 to perhaps 640x480 pixels (480 lines interlaced). Less if you use the antenna or cable input. S-VHS will give you better color resolution, but the video resolution will be the same. If you have that type of set, one of the $40 analog converter boxes will give you the best possible picture.

But if you’ve purchased a TV within the past decade or so (especially a flat screen LCD or plasma), you may be able to do much better. The set may still be an “analog” set in that it has an analog TV tuner, but it may have other inputs including component video (with separate red, green and blue inputs), VGA, DVI or even HDMI. Many of these sets have a resolution of 800x480, which is the native resolution for DVD players, and is considerably better than what the analog tuner is capable of receiving or a composite video signal capable of providing.

If you use a regular analog converter box with this TV, you’ll still be limited to the lower quality video signal. But, if instead of an analog converter box, you get a true digital tuner, you’ll be able to pick up the free digital broadcast signal and display it in the best possible resolution for your TV set. It may not be true HD quality, but it will be at least DVD quality, and possibly better.

An ATSC tuner doesn’t cost much more than an analog converter box. Several are available for under $75 including the Coby DTV-140 with component video output, the Kworld Digital Atsc TV Box with DVI output at 1048i (many sets will accept this signal and downconvert to the native resolution of the set), and the Kworld Atsc TV Box with VGA output which can not only work with many TV sets, it can work with most computer monitors as well.

A high definition DVR such as the Tivo unit described in “Adding features to broadcast TV” will also let you take best advantage of the full resolution of your TV, as it has both component and HDMI outputs.

So, before you rush out to buy a new digital TV, or settle on a standard digital to analog converter, take a look at the manual for you TV set to see what is the true native resolution and what kinds of input signals it can accept. You might find that you actually have an HD or near HD quality TV set already – and all you need is a tuner to enjoy free high definition (or almost high definition) broadcast TV..