hd tv
 

I have a 40" insignia flat screen tv. it is currently set to 480i. i have directv, and i dont have the hd package. is it worth it to get it? or if i set my tv to 1080p will i get the same result? i dont know a lot about tvs. thanks

If you watch a decent amount of TV I think it is worth paying for the HD feed. My friend has a similar sized TV as you and he doesn't have an HD feed to it and it looks horrible to me. If you had a smaller TV I would say it's not worth it but at 40" it'll make a pretty big difference.

what do you mean by horrible? the quality of the image??

You bought and paid for an HDTV. Why not use it? DirecTV HD is awesome. $10/month is worth it. Almost all their channels are HD.

To me, 480 looks like complete shit on a bigger HDTV.

We've managed to get hooked on resolution as a measure of image quality, which is kind of stupid -- resolution really only gives you part of the picture. A 720p image on a 19" screen is very different from the same image on a 50" screen. 1080p and 720p are all but indistinguishable at sizes smaller than 27" or so. Conversely, there's a notable difference in quality if we scale a 480i image up to the 40" range. It's all about DPI, see.

If you want an HD image you need an HD feed, so you'd have to pay the extra $X per month to get it. It's worth noting that (so far as I'm aware) most if not all broadcast television is currently 720p so it's still not your television's maximum resolution, but at 40" I suspect you'll notice a distinct difference in quality.

Is it worth it? As a guy who refuses to pay for so much as basic cable, I'm probably not the one to advise you. If you want to get the most out of your television, however, this would be the way to do it.