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SD vs HD

Fortunately, my problems with the video quality of the DCT-3412 cable box ended up not being so bad, for the simple reason that all of the channels I receive seem to be digital, so they can all be recorded via Firewire (as long as they are not protected with DRM). Also, connecting the MCE via S-Video instead of the RF tuner increased the video quality for shows I can't record with Firewire.

Once that was all working, I did some tests to see how noticeable the difference between SD and HD really is. Here are some pictures:

Standard Definition

High Definition

Obviously the HD screenshot has been shrunk to SD, so they look about the same here (except that the HD shot is in 16:9). Click the HD thumbnail to see it in its full resolution (HD 1080i).

Here are the two shots scaled to the same size, for an easier comparison:

Standard Definition

High Definition

The last shot clearly shows HD's better picture quality, but ironically the newscaster actually looks a bit better and younger in the SD shot, since the blurriness of SD masks wrinkles and imperfections, while HD hides nothing. (I'm definitely not the first to note this irony)