using old gear on new TVs

[schlittk]

Hello,

I have a fairly decent 720p HDTV, but I still use equipment that has A/V (red, white, yellow) input. Unfortunately, it looks like crap on the new TV.

I have some old crappy TVs that weight about 5000 pounds that I could hook say, an old Nintendo 64, or Sony Playstation up to, but that is no good. I'm trying to downsize the amount of stuff I have. :)

I found this on ebay which claims to be exactly what I need but I know a lot of these specifications on equipment can be very misleading.

Is this:

http://cgi.ebay.ca/Converter-Box-Composite-AV-And-S-video-HDMI-NEW-/200485547476?cmd=ViewItem&pt=AU_Television_Accessories&hash=item2eaddeadd4

what I need?

If not, any recommendations?

Cheers,

Kyle

[luvtolisten]

Probably not. Not much info, but looks like your only converting the signal to digital not up-scaling or up-converting it.
Sorry to say, if you want the best signal, you have to improve the source. You know the old saying:, "junk in, junk out".

Looks like you would be able to use it, but don't expect better results than the composite connections you have now.

Look for box that up-converts. You won't get a good a picture as true 720p, but you would get a better picture than with composite connections.

[Mr Peabody]

You might want to check your owner manual of the TV as well. All HDTV's convert an incoming signal to the TV's native resolution. So if your source is composite video which is 480i your HDTV should convert it to 720p. There may be something you have to do in the set up menu to help this process. The upconversion will not be true 720p but it should look better than original. I have an old Sony tube HDTV and I've never seen my VHS look as good as it does through that set. This process will vary amongst brands though.

Any way don't waste your time just converting the composite video to HDMI, that really won't change anything for you unless as mentioned you get a video scaler, upconverter that does a better job than your current TV. Those are usually expensive and at that point want to weigh the expense against upgrading sources. Just a thought, several HT receivers offer the video upconversion as a built in feature, so you may be able to kill two or so birds with one stone.