Talk me out of Satellite & HDTV???

PBMAX · Dec 15, 2004

carrickfad, Good to know they have it down to just the 2 formats. I had heard the movie industry doesn't like the blue ray due to possible 30gig disc... also on tech tv they were saying the movie industrie is trying to keep the 30gig dvd recordable disk out of the pc market to prevent pirating and sony and others are balking at this... Who knows....

HD-DVD would be nice... But can you imagine the cost.... I mean they want $15-$22 on average now...

Here is a page with some links to the lates info. Latest on HD-DVD

Maxfli · Dec 15, 2004

SBC is talking about delivering On demand video over fiber / copper in a very rapid manner.

West of the city things are probably a lot different than they are where I am. I can't get dsl or even isdn from SBC. 

We don't have DSL here either, and I don't exactly know what to think, but SBC is rolling out this new program they call LightSpeed, $4 to 6B invested over then next few years. It is supposed to enable all kinds of Fiber that is already in the ground, and there is a ton of fiber. The program says that if you live within 3000 Feet of a Fiber line they can send you data or video at speeds like 25 Kbits over the copper wire coming into your house now. What does that mean, they put a receiver box on your TV, it has at least 1- 250 mb Harddrive, DSL connection, HDTV Satellite tuner (SBC has a deal with Dish Network) Built in Web server so you have you own website, you want to watch a movie, select it from the menu and at those data speeds it just uploads to the hard Drive in a few minutes and you watch it whenever. I guess the box also has a wireless Ethernet connection. I have seen a presentation on this, it looks awesome to me. We are way out in the sticks, but we do live with 3000' of a fiber line.

I am curious to see them pull it off.

AndyM · Dec 15, 2004

So, I think AndyM, and his recommendation early on in this thread is the temporary winner in the advice giving. He suggested not doing it! 

A couple of things...
First up, when you mentioned a couple months ago that you didn't have cable and you restricted and monitored your daughter's television viewing, I was really intriuged. It seems so rare nowdays that parents take interest in what their children are exposed to. However, I probably am the last person to know anything about how to raise children!

Second, I was toying with the idea of doing away with television altogether. We have several friends who have already done this. They have televisions, but only use them to watch rented movies. However, MrsAndyM asked if I was also going to sacrifice DSL too. That's not going to happen! /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

Last, is HDTV and DT the same thing? I'm grossly ignorant on this stuff! /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif Our local NBC station (WFMJ-TV) broadcasts on channel 21, but their digital signal (WFMJ-DT) is on channel 20. The owners of the station just launched a WB network affilliate, but it's only available to people who receive the digital signal or people who have cable. The NBC station is on channel 20A and the WB station is on channel 20B. Can someone explain this to me?
Here is the article about the two stations on the same channel...
Youngstown’s WFMJ-TV to Launch WB Affiliate Nov. 1

Barton · Dec 15, 2004

I just stumbled onto this info about VOOM:

Company spokesmen say that by March, VOOM will offer a new satellite receiver with a built-in high-definition digital video recorder. They also promise that by March they'll expand the lineup to 70 high-definition channels and start showing HD versions of 190 films from Miramax and Dimension.

http://slate.msn.com/id/2110065/

Bart

PBMAX · Dec 15, 2004

AndyM, Basically from what I've read to date all stations must broadcast a purely digital signal by 2006.

Originally HDTV was called HDD-TV Hi-def-digital-TV But due to cost to produce this the major networks asked to be able to send HDDTV for only special programmig, Games,movies and prime time and so forth. Thus regular vewing of Soaps and game shows and such would be in the lesser DTV(digital-tv) a better picture but still not HDTV. For now keeping the daily cost down. Eventually it will I'd imagine be HDtv but who knows.... ?

As to the local station sending their sinals as A and B. CBS calls their's Simal cast.
They send the stardard analog out for now along with the HDtv signal. It sounds to me as of your local is ready to switch over to pure digital already and are just waiting. Think about it they are doing all shows in duplicate till then. If you have digital receiver or cable you get the better signal.

if i missed something or mussed it up please feel free to point it out.... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Bob_Skurka · Dec 15, 2004

Last, is HDTV and DT the same thing? 

HDTV is HIGH DEFINITION

DT is DIGITAL television

By default, all HD is Digital, but all digital is NOT HD. So in 2006 all the broadcast stations will be broadcasting in DIGITAL and eliminating ANALOG transmissions (not sure if analog is going away all at once or being phased out).

Currently SOME of the PRIME TIME shows and many sporting events are broadcast in HD.

A digital TV is not HD. Last year we bought a new TV for the bedroom, it is digital, but it is not HD. I went with an enhanced definition TV. The picture is amazingly beautiful, especially with a DVD, but still it is not up to the quality of HD. Being digital it is compliant with the 2006 standards. An enhanced definition TV will play a DVD as good as a HD TV when using a progressive scan DVD player (largely because DVD only offers roughly about 1/2 the quality that a HD set is capable of producing (480 lines for DVD versus 720 or 1080 depending on the HD set)

OkeeDon · Dec 16, 2004

"The picture is amazingly beautiful, especially with a DVD, but still it is not up to the quality of HD" 

I'm really feeling left out. The most modern thing I've seen is a good, old fashioned color TV. The picture on that looks pretty amazing to me, so it's hard to imagine how it could be better. I think maybe I'll keep it that way, under the guise of, "if you don't know any better, what you have is great."

What I do remember is the advent of color TV. Betsy and I got married in 1965. When we were planning our honeymoon, one hotel promised color TV. We had never seen color TV, so we thought that would be a novelty. However, when we checked in, we discovered that only a few suites had color TV; the "normal" rooms were black & white. It didn't matter; we weren't watching much TV, anyway.

I have a 19" set in our home office; there is a 25" set in the family room. That's it. There is no TV in our bedroom -- we still haven't gotten around to watching TV in there.

We have digital cable because when bundled with the cable internet, it's actually cheaper than basic cable plus internet. I think we watch one of the "extra" channels beyond basic maybe once a month. The TV is on almost all the time, but it is on PBS, C-SPAN, TLC, Discover, History, Animal Planet, or one of the cable news programs probably 90% of the time. On broadcast channels, about the only thing we watch is Survivor, Apprentice and Amazing Race. The lovely Mrs. Don is a football fan; I am not. We watch maybe one movie per month on the TV; we have never rented a movie, and have only purchased videos or DVDs that are on sale. Most of those are animated children's flicks; they are supposedly for the grandchildren, but I've caught Mrs. Don watching them by herself. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

With that background, I could care less if they ever "improve" TV.

MikePA · Dec 16, 2004

One of the drawbacks to Voom is that they do not offer a PVR, it is supposed to be available soon. But what I thought was even more interesting was their "whole house solution" where you can get a PVR on one of your TVs and use it on your other TVs in your house. That seems like a great feature. 
You have to be 'careful' buying a PVR tied to a particular satellite/cable provider. Typically, the PVR manufacturer builds a specific model for this that gets improvements made to it on a different schedule than their 'regular' models. For example, the DirecTV satellite box with builtin TIVO is not the same as the standalone TIVO.

Having said that, I use ReplayTVs. One in the den and one in the living room. They are both plugged into my home network so I can watch shows recorded on either ReplayTV unit on either TV. I replaced the 40 gig hard drive on the ReplayTV unit in the den with a 200 gig hard drive and do most of my recording there.

Bob_Skurka · Dec 16, 2004

MikePA, that is an interesting point about the PVRs and I had not considered it. I think, however, Don made some good points about TV in the post before yours that are worth considering too. His being if you don't know then you don't miss it. My personal choice would be a PVR with DVD burner (to archive home movies on DVD) that is not tied to any monthly service at all. As it is now, we use a VCR to tape shows so that we can watch them when we have time to watch them . . . and often we don't get around to watching them at all. I think a PVR would replace the need for the tapes, and offer some added flexibility in viewing.

Who makes a PVR (also called DVR) that has a DVD burner, that is not tied to TIVO or REPLAY TV?

Bird · Dec 16, 2004

Don, we have much in common, with a few little differences. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

( Betsy and I got married in 1965 )

Margaret and I got married in 1965.

( the advent of color TV )

We got our first color TV in the Fall of 1968 (although she had been living with an aunt and uncle who had a color TV when we got married).

( 19" set in our home office; there is a 25" set in the family room )

A ten year old 20" in the bedroom and a 27" in the living room. The only reason we have one in the bedroom is because we had to put it somewhere when we decided to get the larger one about 4 years ago. And the only use we've had for it has been when the cable TV didn't work right in the living room, I checked the one in the bedroom to see if the problem was the TV, the converter box, or something else.

( We have digital cable because when bundled with the cable internet )

Us, too.

( The TV is on almost all the time, but it is on PBS, C-SPAN, TLC, Discover, History, Animal Planet, or one of the cable news programs probably 90% of the time )

Margaret turns it on when she gets up in the morning and turns it off when she goes back to bed at night; most of the time on Fox news, even though the "Mute" may be activated. And we do frequently watch something on the Discovery Channel, the History Channel, and Animal Planet.

( On broadcast channels, about the only thing we watch is Survivor, Apprentice and Amazing Race. )

Never watched any of those; just the local NBC news usually first thing in the morning. And neither of us are sports fans.

( watch maybe one movie per month on the TV; we have never rented a movie, )

We frequently watch a movie from 7 to 9 p.m., and we've rented a movie once, but it's been several years ago; Driving Miss Daisy when it first came out on video.

As for improvements, I'll buy a new TV when this one dies, but not likely before then. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif