My complex went from analog cable to these DTV converters last year & now to real digital cable boxes. Each house got 1 free box. The cable guy hooked me up with a digital HDTV box with HDMI out free of charge. I also get all the standard HD channels & free HBO & on demand. And this costs me zero. Included in the maintenance.
Pretty cool. I never been an HDTV person. I don't watch much TV & still don't, but baseball games look pretty darn good.

I do have a question....Why are some HDTV programs still in 4:3? I thought the HDTV standard set everything to 16:9. I have seen several movies & shows that have side black bars because there not 16:9 on a HDTV channel.

 

For TV shows it is usually because it was originally shot in 4:3. I have seen some stations (I think TBS) convert Seinfeld to 16:9 but then you are missing a good portion of the original frame. Not sending movies in 16:9 is annoying. I put on Matrix the other day and it was in 4:3

 

Sports have been the biggest benefit with HDTV, watching a Hockey game in HD is awesome.

 

Anything 4:3 is not true HD. The signal is "upconverted" to HD but it's not the same quality as something shot in HD although it's better than analog.

 

HD cable channels broadcast at a set resolution. Some are 720p, others 1080i. Both are 16:9 resolutions. Now shows and movies are filmed at various different aspect ratios, not all are filmed in 16:9. In order to make them fill the screen horizontally or vertically they have to upconvert non 16:9 material. Its up to them whether they stretch or crop off part of the picture or preserve the aspect ratio when they do so. I think its TBS-HD that does by far the most annoying the thing I've ever seen when broadcasting older 4:3 material. They actually put giant TBS-HD logos in the sides to fill the black bar areas instead of just leaving them black.