I want 720p from DirecTV without subsribing to HD broadcasting

[captmorgan72]

Ok, here is the situation. I am currently subscribed to DirecTV basic plus. I recently purchased a 32" Sharp HD tv that can do 720p. I have a HDMI cable connected from my xbox 360 to my tv so my games and movies are in 720p. My satellite box does not have a hdmi port and from what I understand in order to get one that does I have to upgrade to HD broadcast. I don't want to do this for the reason of being locked into a 2 year contract. I want a box that has a hdmi port so I can get true digital signal in 720p. Is there a third party box that I can buy to make this happen?

[captainspud]

Having an HDMI connection won't do you much good if the signal you're downloading isn't HD. That's probably why they limit the availability of the box... they're avoiding the angry calls of people who hook up a good box on a low-end plan and wonder why the quality isn't any better.

(This assumes that the standard DirecTV signal isn't HD. That's the case for my satellite, so I'm assuming yours is the same).

[JeyNyce]

If regular station like NBC, CBS, & ABC broadcast in HD you should be able to pick them up.  You don't need an HDMI connection to get HD.  You can get it from your component cables(red/blue/green) as well.

[captmorgan72]

Ok, that explains why some channels are more clear than others but before I got the HDMI cable my movies were all in 420p. As soon as I connected the cable from the xbox 360 to the tv the movies went up to 720p. I assumed that the picture quality would also improve doing this for watching tv. I emailed Sharp about this and they told me to get a HDMI cable for true digital signal. Right now my picture quality is a bit fuzzy. In fact the picture looked better on my old tv than it does with my new HD tv. Everyone I talked to about this told me to get a HDMI cable from the box to my tv and the picture will be crystal clear, not HD but crystal clear.

[captainspud]

Ehh, yes and no. HD screens and large LCD monitors tend to have a very large number of pixels, and it's difficult to send that much data over some cables (ie, blue monitor cable, S-Video cable, etc). The pipe's just not big enough. Using the correct cable will ensure that every pixel on the screen gets all the info it needs to display correctly.

That said, R/G/B component cables are just as clear as HDMI cables at 720 and under. If your picture looks worse on the new than on the old, it's probably just because you're blowing up a crappy 480i or p signal on a large crystal-clear monitor, which tends to really bring out the flaws. It's like blowing up a tiny JPG-- it looks fine on a small size, but that tiny amount of data looks like crap at full size.

Again: upgrading to a good cable does almost nothing if the signal you're receiving isn't HD. Check with your provider to find out if any of the channels on the normal package are broadcast in 720-- if they aren't, don't bother with this.

[captmorgan72]

If I do go with this, can I buy this receiver http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8503951&type=product&id=1186004963843 and still keep my old DirecTV package? If I decide to upgrade to HD/DVR service I will already have the box. I got a bunch of people still insisting that my picture will become crystal clear if I have a HDMI cable from the box to my tv. This receiver has a HDMI port.

[captainspud]

With a few exceptions, I don't think your box cares what package it receives. Your box receives every channel the satellite broadcasts, and the "package" just unlocks certain ones for decoding. One set of codes is as good as the next as far as the box is concerned.