HD cable box works on Standard Screen TV, will Apple TV?

[chelseasian]

Hi!

Long story short, I have a HD Cable box and I use it with my standard Def SONY TV. I have no problems viewing HD channels at all, I just get the 2 horizontal black bars on the top and bottom when it is a HD 16:9 broadcast or 2 vertical bars for 4:3.

I am wondering if the Apple TV will do the same thing? Or will my video image be distorted? I am really eyeing on one for a while.

 

[Donz0r]

How is the cable box hooked up?
the Apple TV only has HDMI and Component (red, green, blue) video outputs.

 

[chelseasian]

Oh my TV has component inputs. The cable box, DVD player, Wii uses the S-video input (Yellow, White and Red). I have always wondered what the red, green and blues are for as I hardly see anything that uses them till the Apple TV.

 

[zedsdead]

It will work as long as you use the component cables.

 

[Lexoticstylez02]

You'll just have the black bars, it works.

 

[mchalebk]

You can use the AppleTV with a 4x3 TV as long as it has HDMI or component inputs. However, the AppleTV does not have a 4:3 option, so your picture will be stretched unless your TV has a 16x9 mode.

By the way, doesn't your HD cable box have component outputs? If so, you'll get a better picture if you use those instead of the S-video output.

 

[chelseasian]

hi guys


Thanks for all the feedback. I took the plunge and bought the 160GB Apple TV. Funny enough, the Monster cables which I got at BestBuy came up to 1/3 the costs of the Apple TV itself. Did not see that coming.

Anyway, the component cables worked great with my Standard Def TV, which thankfully has a 16:9 mode which allows the Apple TV to work beautifully. I did not have the image stretched. So I am a happy camper.

So far i like most of what I see though I did have some problems with a few of the videos I ripped from my DVDs via Handbrake. It tends to freeze and restarts itself with those videos. Weird.

Thank you all.