Finally joined the HDTV generation

[Matt L]

We had a week off from work last week (must go back tomorrow.. must go back tomorrow..) and decided to look for a LCD set. First we went to the cable company to see what they offered, and how it hooked to the set. Then we went to Best Buy. Good thing we knew what we needed, because the salespeople at Best Buy were totally clueless.

However, because of their cluelessness, I decided that I could figure out what I needed and then went to Wal*Mart. I didn't expect them to know anything other than return policies and such, but got a decent deal on a Sony 32" LCD.

We still didn't have the HD converter box from Charter, so we connected it directly to the cable feed. I was not aware, but all of the local HD channels are available on the cable feed. The picture was downright amazing. We watched Law & Order in HD for the first time.

The next day we went back to Charter to get a box, and they had some deal where we had to agree to 12 months, but the price didn't go up. And that's keeping the old SDTV box as well. They wanted to sell us on some deal with free Showtime or HBO or something like that, but we declined. We don't need or want it. Oh, and they gave us a free 12' HDMI cable. Wal*Mart wants $50 for that cable. Best Buy is very proud of their cables. $50 will only buy a 3' cable.

This set is in with the computers in our "office," but we watch a lot of TV in here. I still need to get one for the living room, but it will have to be really nice to draw me away from this one.

[MTI]

One of the "phases" that new HD owner go thru . . . you get distracted by all the picture details so much that you find yourself pausing and going up to the screen to check it out.

- We used to notice on "Friends" that the beer and items on top of Joey and Chandler's fridge would constantly change in every episode.

- Reading the titles on shelved books in different offices on "Law & Order"

[Medmech]

Get a rabbit ear if you want the extra over the air HD channels.

[MTI]

Originally Posted by Howitzer

Get a rabbit ear if you want the extra over the air HD channels.

Extra?

Unless his local HD broadcast (OTA) channels aren't providing their HD signal to the cable provider, he's already getting them via cable without having to fuss with that ever so attractive bow tie aerial.

[iwrock]

We have the rabbit ears to grab some local HD channels that are not on Comcrap yet.




But Comcrap is getting good with HD. Comcrap has about 65 HD channels now in my area.....




Do you get Discovery HD? Thats a cool channel.

[Medmech]

Originally Posted by MTI

Extra?

Unless his local HD broadcast (OTA) channels aren't providing their HD signal to the cable provider, he's already getting them via cable without having to fuss with that ever so attractive bow tie aerial.

Yes, extra the cables companies are not required to carry the additional channels a local example for me is one broadcast channel has its regular feed and 3 additional feeds one of them is a movie channel, PBS has 4 different feeds. The Digital change over is designed to break up the satellite, cable monopoly.

[MTI]

Originally Posted by Howitzer

The Digital change over is designed to break up the satellite, cable monopoly.

I have to disagree with that notion. Digital broadcasting doesn't solve reception issues where analog reception is poor. It is still prone to terrestrial interference and other problems.

[Matt L]

I live 40 miles from the nearest television towers. The antenna required for air service is not a trivial matter.

I think we get all of the (few) local HD channels for free, but I know that we get a whole slew of HD channels from Charter. And at least for the next year, the HD programming doesn't cost any extra.

And yes, I am standing up to look at the details.

Late SDTV cameras and sets really are pretty good compared to what we had when I was growing up, but they are pushing the protocol to the limit. I don't know if it's just my imagination, but it seems that hockey and football games looked better on SDTV once they started using the HD cameras. As for how the cup playoffs look in HDTV, well, I'm not going back.

I just hooked up another piece of coax to connect the output of the HD receivers to the SD sets (through a switch). I did this because there is often a severe time difference between the regular digital cable channels and their HD equivalents. Sometimes the HD receiver is ahead of the SD receiver, and sometimes it's the opposite. Usually just a second or two, but sometimes up to about fifteen seconds. Walk from the office to the kitchen and you either lose time or hear the prior sentence repeated. It sounds strange, but I fully expected it because the analog channels are not in sync with the SDTV digital channels.

[Matt L]

Originally Posted by MTI

I have to disagree with that notion. Digital broadcasting doesn't solve reception issues where analog reception is poor. It is still prone to terrestrial interference and other problems.

It helps. Digital signals are much more immune to noise than analog signals.

I don't think it's to help competition with cable or satellite service. People without a service are probably less likely to go out and buy a HD set in the first place. You can get coupons from the feds for two boxes if you don't have a service. One box if you do.

The reason is that they want a chunk of bandwidth, SDTV is strained and the converter boxes aren't that expensive. Taking bandwidth away from something else would raise a bigger stink.

[Medmech]

Originally Posted by MTI

I have to disagree with that notion. Digital broadcasting doesn't solve reception issues where analog reception is poor. It is still prone to terrestrial interference and other problems.

It has nothing to do with reception, it is designed so QUALITY AND QUANTITY can be provided my OTA carriers.

research before posting again please.

[MTI]

Originally Posted by Matt L

It helps. Digital signals are much more immune to noise than analog signals.

I don't disagree with that concept, but here in Hawaii, all our network stations and PBS are broadcasting in digital . . . however they still suffer from the same geographic limitations as analog. We have a lot of valleys and mountains that has made cable and sat the tv mode of choice.

Having been following HD and digital broadcasting for the past nine years, I think I've done my homework and research on the issue. When HBO, CineMax, ESPN, Discovery, and the like decide to switch to OTA digital service . . . the idea that digital TV is going to compete with the content of cable or sat is still far fetched.

[MTI]

Originally Posted by Howitzer

It has nothing to do with reception, it is designed so QUALITY AND QUANTITY can be provided my OTA carriers.

research before posting again please.

Only if you promise the same . . .

Both the cable and sat industry are predicting an increase in their subscriber base later in the year and through the transition period from analog OTA to digital. The reason for the optimism is that the cost v. value equation done by consumers who aren't currently subscribers and relying on analog broadcasts are more likely to obtain their digital signal from cable or sat than buying the converter boxes, discounted or not.

HD and digital tv sales are expected to rise during hte 2008 holiday season. So, when those new sets are sold, the perfect upsale is to get the subscription to HD cable or sat.

[Medmech]

And I think that television -- we're at a period it's particularly acute, because I'll say quite bluntly television is in trouble, in my professional judgment. I think that many of the exercises we're talking about are preservation of television, not deregulation of television. Television increasingly faces the competitive threats of cable, of direct broadcast satellites, of Internet. Television only enjoys one revenue stream. It gets advertising. If you think about it, cable television gets advertising and subscription revenue, and more and more, Americans are moving in that direction, and I submit if we truly care about the values that have always been associated with free over-the-air television, we ought to start caring very seriously about the economic models and the regulatory framework to make sure that that medium is preserved in our society and not stand on our principles and watch it slip below the waves.

Michael Powell - FCC Chairman

Want more?

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/media/july-dec01/powell_8-9.html

There are also several OTA premium start-ups in the works USDTV which failed due to its early role out is in the process of being revamped.

[MTI]

Originally Posted by Howitzer

Want more?

How about "more recent" than August 2001. Powell hasn't been FCC Chairman since 2005.

Information Week 5-16-2008

Ten percent of over-the-air households are forecast to choose multichannel subscriptions. Cable is expected to gain most converting households, while satellite and telecommunications companies are expected to split the rest.

Still, cable providers will face increased competition from telecommunications and direct broadcast satellite services. Cable's market share will likely drop from 64% to 59% by 2012, while telecommunications companies increase their market share from 3% to 9%,

All the bugs aren't worked out of DTV yet either. Some VHF analog channels are being converted to digital UHF and users are experiencing problems with OTA reception. I wouldn't want to be a cable installer during the winter days of Feb 2009.

[Kuan]

Fudge, I'm gonna have to figure this out soon huh?