If you don’t have a nice, new, expensive widescreen HDTV to view a high def broadcast can you still benefit from watching an HD channel? Most certainly! Let’s take a look at Windows Media Center as an example.
In order to receive an HD broadcast on Media Center you’ll need an analog TV tuner (which most already have), an ATSC digital tuner, and an antenna that can pick up digital broadcast. Add the new tuner to the computer and the only other thing you need to do, aside from installing the drivers for the new card, is to run the setup for the TV signal. Once that is done you’ll have a new option under TV Settings called “Digital TV Antenna Signal Strength” and new channels in the program guide. Watching the NFL playoffs in HD on an analog set blows away what I get from my cable companie’s analog feed.
Granted, HD shows look best on a large, widescreen display but short of that you can still enjoy the improved picture and 5.1 audio. So don’t throw away that analog TV just yet as it will benefit greatly from this new technology.
