HDTV receiver = any improvement in non-HDTV channels?

almos2L8

Newbie alert. Okay. I've owned a Sony 32" HDTV for about 2 years now; most of that time, we haven't been in an area that offers much in the way of HDTV programming, but we wanted to have an HDTV set in case "the ship came in" someday. The ship didn't ever show up, but we moved to an area where 9 HDTV channels are offered by the cable provider (through whom we have high speed Internet, after ten-plus years of having dial up...woo hoo!). We don't subscribe to premium channels, so that knocks our available HDTV channels down to 4.

I'm trying to come up with a way to justify the expense ($5 more a month to our cable bill) for having an HDTV cable box.

So I have questions born of ignorance: will having an HDTV cable receiver improve the quality of the non-HDTV channels at all? (I'm thinking it won't, but I don't know enough about the technology.) And, I'd read that all broadcasts were supposed to be digital by 2006...is this talking about HDTV, and is that still on track?

Thanks for your guidance in advance...

borromini

Generally, the HDTV receiver won't provide any dramatic improvements for SD-channels. Some receivers are capable of up-converting the 480i signal from SD channels to 720p or 1080i and those results vary depending on the combined performance of the receiver and your HDTV. If your currently satisfied with the picture quality your Sony displays for SD channels, then that's probably the best you're going to see. Of course that satisfaction could very well change once you see an HD image on your Sony.
The 2006 deadline was for converting the broadcast signals from analog to digital...that doesn't mean HDTV. So far it appears that the FCC will likely extend that deadline.

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