is HD recording worth it for standard TV?

[xFROSTx]

I am starting to get into ripping some of my TV episodes to divx to store on my computer. Currently I have a 27inch flatscreen SDTV and I don't think I will be going HDTV anytime soon with the exception of a 20 inch lcd I plan on getting. Currently I have been encoding TV shows off of the original dvd's using autoGk and compressing an hour show down to 350MB. My questions are; is HD content worth it on a SDTV or even my LCD, and is compressing a 1 hour TV show (lets use an episode of 24 as an example) down to 350MB significantly reducing quality to the point where it would be pointless to use a HD TV?

 

[RobsTV]

It would be pointless to go with HDTV for your needs.

HDTV really is made for best use with large screens.
Since the TV image looks terrible when it is enlarged. HD solved that.

Even with a large HDTV, recording and converting is a waste. Here, HDTV from sat DVB-S or OTA is about 9 gig per hour of recordings. SDTV from sat DVB-S (good digital, not analog) is about 1 gig per hour. Converting HDTV down kills the quality, and the time and effort required for the end results were not worth it.