HD Picture / Bandwidth

[tonester2221]

Not being a technophile, I was wondering whether the issue over picture quality had to do strictly with Cablevision or the broadcaster? In viewing stations such as TBS and HGTV, it's obvious they're not true HD pictures; however is this a problem associated with HGTV, TBS etc, Cablevision's technical deficiencies or a combination of both?
Would switching over to FIOS or Dish Network resolve picture quality issues on those stations or would I still be stuck with 'stretch-o-matic' broadcasts?

[dm145]

Not being a technophile, I was wondering whether the issue over picture quality had to do strictly with Cablevision or the broadcaster? In viewing stations such as TBS and HGTV, it's obvious they're not true HD pictures; however is this a problem associated with HGTV, TBS etc, Cablevision's technical deficiencies or a combination of both?
Would switching over to FIOS or Dish Network resolve picture quality issues on those stations or would I still be stuck with 'stretch-o-matic' broadcasts?

stretch-o-matic is a by product of lack of HD content not lack of bandwidth

[mws192]

While the signal may (or may not) be compressed additionally by CV, they do not alter the aspect ratio. Some stations stretch standard definition content, like TBS, TNT and HGTV for example, while other stations that zoom and crop standard def content, like the discovery channels, all in an attempt to "fill your screen" and make you think you're watching HD. Meanwhile others like ESPN, SciFi and the broadcasts networks simply show standard def content in the original 4:3 aspect ratio.

That isn't going to change by switching providers. CV is just passing on the aspect ratio as they recieve it.

[RexxV]

The stretching is done by the broadcasters. However, CV does additional compression on all the channels except broadcast stations(ABC, NBC,CBS,etc); RSNs(MSG, YES, SNY, etc) and ESPN 1&2.

[jpr281]

Also, several stations are broadcast by CV in 1080i when they should be in 720p, these include NatGeo HD, Speed HD, Fox News HD, and FX HD.