toshiba dvr - pic quality w/high def?

erinishuman

Hi Experts,

Just about to enter the HD fray. I have a Toshiba DVR/DVD Burner which has served me very well for both purposes. When I get my HDTV, I am worried that anything I record on the DVR will look shoddy when I play it back. I can adjust the record bit rate up to 9 MB/s, and can record at 16:9 aspect ratio, but the DVR doesn't have an HD tuner.

Can I get an HD tuned signal into the DVR from a comcast (motorola) box via the "antenna out" or is that just going to get me an untuned, SD signal in the DVR? (My DVR does not have component nor hdmi/dvi "in").

Assuming no, and I feed s-video from the box into my dvr, am I just going to get an SD feed? And will this look crummy on the playback? ("grainy" "out of focus").

I *know* I can get a DVR from the cable company, but this means an upgrade of $50/month (we have only basic $15/month cable and they won't give us a DVR unless we upgrade to digital, cheapest package is $60/month + $10 for the dvr) which I am not going to swallow.

Any experience with the Toshiba? I don't watch any TV "live" and don't want to be disappointed.

- Erin

looking at a vizio 37"
either antenna or $5/month comcast add-on
Toshiba DVR + DVD Burner RD-XS32
no tivo no dish basic cable only

trhendr

I have the same DVR/DVD and would love to know as well. I am pretty sure that the cable box only outputs SD signals to anything other than the component out, and hdmi out. Since the Toshiba doesn't have component in, nor hdmi in, I believe it will be (if the cable box still sends a signal to other outputs when it is already outputting via component and/or hdmi) standard def.

I haven't had a chance to hook up the Toshiba to try it out.

-Tom-