No. All analog signals will be dead next Feb. which means if you get your local channels via antenna, you'll have to get a new tv or a converter box( the government will give you $50 to buy one) If you have basic analog cable, that won't die until 2012. If you have digital cable without a HD package, nothing will change at all. If you have basic cable and a tv that has a QAM tuner, you can get all your local digital channels that way.
Switching to digital doesn't automatically make programming HD, but it's a noticeable difference in picture quality. I watch Raw live on the USA digital channel while recording it using the analog channel and the difference is huge.
About the torrent file size for HD shows, for a 48 minute HD show encoded in divx, the file size should be around 350MBs
Nah. It's gonna be WAY bigger than 350MBs if you're getting true HD.
I guess he's calling the xvid encoded crap HD, lol. An 1h show, 720p, encoded in x264 is about a GB, so RAW and SD! would be about 1.5GBs and ECW would be about a GB.