HD connection question

[avemaria92]

(short version- can you use only a coax cable from HD box to TV for HD programming? I can't get it to work.)

Hello,

I have a Panasonic Viera TC-L24C3 in the spare bedroom.  I have a P2 HD box hooked up to it and have been running HD programming through an HDMI cord the past few weeks without problems.  All of my cable box settings are set to 1080 or HD etc...  today I tried to hook up a new Samsung Blu-Ray player via the HDMI port.  (I had to remove the HDMI from the cable box and instead i'm running a 3 foot coax cable (flex 6 awg 18) cable given me by Verizon with the new HD box.  So the Blu Ray player is using the only HDMI port and working fine..  however.. the cable is only running in SD 480 using just the coax cable.   There are no settings on the TV for this obviously.. it's all on the cable box that feeds the signal..  For the life of me I cannot figure out how to get HD picture through the standard coax cable.. or is the obvious solution that I can't?  can we not get HD with just the coax cable or do I have to use the colored component cables instead?  I haven't tried this coax connection on my other Tv's so I don't know.. I switched back to HDMI (cable box to tv directly) and immediately I get better sound (level 10 being normal instead of level 30 with the coax) and HD picture that fills the screen.. so I rule out the cable box settings being wrong and go back to coax from box to tv..  change my input away from HDMI to the TV label and i'm back to SD box looking picture..   does this sound familiar or can anyone suggest a place to start with this seemingly simple problem?  the Tv can obviously run HD picture and is a fairly new 16:9 TV from 2012.  But again regardless it runs HD perfectly through the HDMI.. I only have the one HDMI port that the new BD player requires..

Any suggestions would be appreciated

Scott

also, SD override on the box is set to 'off' and i'm only using HD channels, not SD.

the more I think about it though I'm wondering if I need component cables.. I just figured the signal was entering the HD box in HD and could exit it just the same through the same type of cable....  we just recently got HD boxes for the first time so i've always been just used to hooking the coax cable right to the back of the tv..

[Keyboards]

The simple answer is no.  The coax output from the STB is SD only.  If you are out of HDMI ports then you need tp get an HDMI switch (for inexpensive but quality parts try monoprice.com).  The othe otpion is if your TV has a component vide input (3 RCA connector input for video Red-Green-Blue and a separate 2 RCA connector audio input since component does not carry audio).