To buy or not to buy new FTA HD receiver?

[ogorek]

I watch few FTA channels on Galaxy 19 (97w). The channels are in standard definition. I am using an old Fortec Star Lifetime Classic NA receiver connected with composite A/V cable.
Would the picture quality improve somewhat if I would use HD receiver with HDMI connection? I know that picture resolution is not going to change but would picture clarity improve a bit, ie. color saturation?
Does it make sense to invest in new HD satellite receiver to watch SD channels. If so, which receiver should I get?
Would getting higher quality LNB improve picture clarity? I am using 39" dish. Picture quality is between 60 -70 %.

 

[Magic Static]

Receivers that use the ALI chipset have excellent SD upscale to HD. The GSP microHD is a very good example.

 

[Mikey11]

Would the picture quality improve somewhat if I would use HD receiver with HDMI connection? I know that picture resolution is not going to change but would picture clarity improve a bit

if 97w is the only satellite you are getting then a new receiver in my opinion will do nothing, there are not many (if any) HD channels on that satellite, i dont think it will help your picture quality at all

 

[Titanium]

Really depends on your TVs SD upconversion processing. Most flatscreen LED TVs look pretty bad when displaying standard definition via the RCA inputs. I agree with Magic Static that when the upconversion from 480i to 720p/1080i/1080p occurs in a STB with a quality conversion processing, the picture quality is almost always noticeably better.

The ALI chipsets excel in the upconversion process. I would avoid receivers using the Novatek chipsets as the upconversion deinterlace processing is not very good and hard edges/contrasts will display jaggies.

 

[Keith Brannen]

With a new receiver you would also get RTVE and REVN (which are MPEG4).

 

[Titanium]

Noticed that we missed your question on if a new LNBF would improve picture quality? The simple answer is no.

As long as the channel is displaying without the video breaking up into blocks or chirps and skips in the audio, a new or better performance LNBF isn't going to display more color or sharper images. A digital signal will either be received or not. There is a term used in digital broadcasting referred to as a "digital cliff". The service is decoded and displayed in the same quality up to a certain point, when not enough good signal is received to be corrected. At this point, the service can no longer be displayed and it "falls off a cliff". Not like the analog days when a tv picture would get progressively worse with static and snow.

 

[ogorek]

Thanks for the input. This is exactly the problem. The picture quality was not bad on CRT TV, but on LCD it is not ideal. I would like to get it to the level of 480i or SD on OTA antenna. I will look into getting micro HD.

 

[ogorek]

I rechecked the quality and maybe I exaggerated a bit about the poor picture quality. Picture could be a bit more sharper, but mostly the written text on the screen is a bit fuzzy. I think any receiver with HDMI output will make a huge improvement over the current composite cable hookup.
For few channels and limited improvement I don't want to throw too much $ in to this project.
On for sale ads I saw an old Viewsat 9000 HD. If I could pick one up for cheap, should I go with this or does it make more sense to get a new Gepsatpro Micro HD?

 

[. Raine]

Here's a old thread on that Viewsat receiver. From reading the thread, it sounds to me like it was discontinued because it was buggy, but maybe there was fixes released after that thread was made.

http://www.satelliteguys.us/xen/threads/viewsat-9000-hd-and-maxhd.150760/

What's the price on the Viewsat you're looking at?

The GeosatPro MicroHD is a nice, basic reliable receiver with a real nice picture, I have one here that I use daily. I bought it used a few years ago, think I paid $75 for it, IIRC.

The only bug with the MicroHD is that if you delete satellites out of the satellite list in the menu, you must delete all of the channels from that sat first, or the receiver can enter an endless boot-loop, which this can be fixed if that happens.

Reading your last post, it looks as if you may be confusing the MicroHD with the HDVR3500, because you said "new Geosat Pro MicroHD". The GeosatPro MicroHD was released a few years ago and is a very good receiver. GeosatPro's new and current receiver is the GeosatPro HDVR3500, it's buggy and still being worked on. The PQ on the 3500 is not as nice as on the MicroHD. [I also own a HDVR3500]

 

[Magic Static]

unfortunately, lack of competition has enabled SatAV to substantially raise the price of the microHD.

 

[Jim S.]

A receiver with digital output may or may not make standard-definition channels look better than a receiver with analog output. Part of it will depend on how good your TV handles analog inputs, the other part will depend on how good the channels are actually being broadcast -- some of them on 97W are, to be blunt, terrible (I'm looking at you, UTR), but an old CRT TV may mask some of it due to phosphor persistence and the inherent low chroma resolution of the NTSC standard.