Cable box with flat screen TV -- why?; "Free" HD is not free

[ChrisW6ATV]

Originally Posted by radiotvnut

I've never tried to connect a HD cable box to a non-HD TV.

I have done this (but with a satellite-TV/HDTV tuner rather than a cable-TV tuner). It would be the same thing I described to Jeff, and the results would be the same as you already have with your DTA devices, because you would need to set the HD box into non-HD mode (using its channel-3 or -4 output) and connect it the same way.