I managed to convince myself to buy a HD TV last week so I snagged an Olevia 537H from newegg. My cable company (Adelphia) gave me a new HD box (SA 8300HD) for HD access. The problem is that the cable box seems to be sending the TV junk when I set it to output 480i for the SD channels. I get a set of interferance lines (looks like it is telecined) and the picture if offset about 50 pixels to the left. When I set the cable box to output 480p, it looks correct, but the picture is noticably pixelated (probably from the cable box upconverting the signal).

The HD channels on 1080i are awesome, but I can't stand the pixelization on the 480p anymore. I tested the TV to ensure that it was the cable box causing the problem but shutting off the progressive scan mode on my (non-HD) DVD (which should be 480i). The PQ from the DVD player using 480p and 480i is awesome, so I'm pretty sure this is the cable boxes fault.

Anyone ever heard of this problem before?

the only way to tell is to try another input type.... Switch to hdmi dvi or component... Whatever you are not useing now.. That will tell you if the box is the problem... In most of the cases I have delt with it is just a simple configuration issue and not the box...

Update:

Cable dude is coming over Monday afternoon. I'm hoping he brings another box with him so we can compare. The problem with just switching outputs is that the HD box treats HDMI differently than component or s-video.

One other thing I noticed was that some sports on HD are (slightly) pixelated and (slightly) grainy. It might be the ESPN feeds from those games since the "game of the week" games are usually amazingly clear.

I'm not bitching too much, but I would like my TV PQ to be no worse with my $1100 panel than with my old 32" tube.