I now have HDTV hooked up to my 42 inch HP4260n......I see grey bars on the side on the High Def stations.......Are those supposed to be there all the time.........I dont' see a big quality difference either than regular cable. Does anyone have suggestions on a better plasma? Its sure hard to tell in the store which one is better.
You must understand that to get a true Hi-Def picture you have the have all 3 of the following:
1) Original content shot in Hi-def 2) Content broadcast in Hi-def 3) Your hi-def TV.
In probably 90% of what is available right now you only get 1 or 2 out of 3 at best. For example, ABC still does not shoot its NBA coverage in hi-def where as TNT does. So you end up with boxes around your image.
In other words the TV, which may still be configured incorreclty, is not your problem.
It sounds like you have it hooked up right and 1080i should be High Def... sounds like it might be a lack of Stof's requirement #1 or 2. Most high def channels are not in high def most of the time. Check with your cable provider for content broadcast in HD (discoveryHD, universalHD, inHD are all usually available and broadcast in HD 100% of the time). Your tv should also have a pic mode/pic size/aspect button that you can use to stretch/zoom the picture if you [i]just[/i] want to get rid of the bars.
I have the same DVR, and unless you subscribe to their HD package (discovery HD, TNT HD, HD Net, etc...) or thier HBO or Cinemax packages (each has 1 HD station) You will receive NO HD programing... You also have to go into the settings and tell the tivo what type of display you have (16:9 or 4:3) and how you want it to format the stations that arent 16:9 (original aspect ratio with bars, or stretch to fit). This is a great dvr and you should be able to definately tell a difference between the HD stations and the standard def stuff. You also may want to look into the different display modes of your tv. if the picture looked too tall and skinny you might have the tv in the wrong display mode.