Post #10,357
9/24/01 12:01:26 PM
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HDTV is sweeet!
I took advantage of Mitsubishi's no-interest no-payments until 2003 deal and picked up(er, had delivered - it's around 380 pounds) a 65" HDTV, model WS65908.
I ended up ditching DirecTV in favor of cable. DirecTV has 2 HD channels, a single HBO feed and a pay-per-view feed, and to receive it I need to purchase a new receiver and a new dish(around $800). In comparision, Time Warner currently has 8 HD channels, 4 locals(ABC, CBS, FOX & NBC), 2 HBO feeds and 2 Showtime feeds. The cable HD decoder is only an extra $4 a month(it plugs into the data jack of the digital cable box). Houston's PBS channel is supposed to be added this fall, though the flooding we had earlier this year might delay it as U of H, where PBS is located, got hit hard. PBS plans to use HDTV's multi-channel support(3-4 standard def channels) during the day, so it'll be interesting to see how Time Warner supports it.
The HDTV channels are phenomenal, the detail is so clear it's like looking through a window.
DVDs that are labeled "Anamorphic" or "Enhanced for Widescreen" also look great. They don't contain letter box bars, instead the DVD player throws out every 4th scan line and adds the letterbox bars for viewing on standard TVs(screen ratio 4:3), so watching on a widescreen yields more detail as nothing gets thrown out. (note: some movies are wider than HDTV's 16:9, so there can still be a letter box bar - just much smaller than on 4:3)
Laser Disk and older letter boxed DVDs are good. The TV stretches the image to remove the letter box lines.
Standard channels sent digital are ok, but standard channels sent analog aren't to good as scaling the picture up to 65" just reveals how crappy the analog channels are. It's sorta like scaling up a 320x200 photo and showing it at 1024x768.
Darrell Spice, Jr.
[link|http://home.houston.rr.com/spiceware/|SpiceWare] - We don't do Windows, it's too much of a chore
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Post #10,908
9/29/01 1:01:37 PM
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CBS and HBO lead the pack
Of the broadcast networks, [link|http://www.cbs.com/info/hdtv/|CBS] leads the pack with HDTV support. Virtually their entire evening lineup is Hi Def, with the exception of 48 Hours, 60 minutes and The Amazing Race. ABC follows close behind, though I've not found a HD broadcast list for them to figure out what is/is not Hi Def. NBC shows Leno in HD, and the occasional movie but nothing else. ER was broadcast in "widescreen", but it's not HD. On the digital channel they sent a letterboxed 4:3 image, so you end up with a picture with black bars on ALL FOUR SIDES - have to wonder what their smokin'. Haven't seen anything in HD on FOX. All the networks are broadcasting an upconverted image if they aren't sending HD. The upconverted image is better looking than the normal channel. ABC zooms the upconverted image(chopping off top/bottom) to fill the screen, the others add black bars or channel info bars to the sides.
Most HDTVs allow you to "zoom" and "stretch" the image to fill the screen, but only on non-HD sources so there's no way to zoom out the "channel info" bars. That's not good as the static image could burn in on the TV. One way to help prevent burn in problems is to lower the brightness and contrast, they are set too high so that they have a brighter picture in the well light display rooms at the store.
Of the movie channels, HBO leads the way. All movies on HBO are HD. Some shows, such as The Sopranos and Band of Brothers are HD, while others are not. Showtime is hit-or-miss, though I was happy to find that Stargate SG1 is broadcast HD even though the schedule below lists otherwise. I suspected it would be HD because the DVDs are 16:9.
Found a [link|http://www.hdtvgalaxy.com/broad.html|schedule] listing what HD content is broadcast on each day. Fox is listed with 480p on everything - not sure why they bother as 480p is not considered HD, it's a standard definition signal at 4:3.
I've also got 3 Playstation games that support 16:9 - SSX, Gran Turismo 3, and the old PS1 game Pacman World 20th Anniversary.
Darrell Spice, Jr.
[link|http://home.houston.rr.com/spiceware/|SpiceWare] - We don't do Windows, it's too much of a chore
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Post #10,959
9/30/01 12:50:42 AM
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I saw Digital TV in Au for the first time not long ago.
It was during a weekday afternoon. I didn't investigate very closely, but AFAIK all 5 free-to-air networks are transmitting in digital now, by federal edict. Channel Ten's news bulletins were in a funny half-way mode with a widescreen view of the newsdesks, but if the ENG material was 4:3 then they added a colour wash down the side. Material from Channel Nine like The Pretender (afternoon repeats) were not HD, of course, so you saw black down the side. The picture was universally crisp, but the largest TV was 66cm and the analogue was, too.
I should go back and grill the salesmen about the set-top boxes. APC had a review of them a few months back and couldn't see enough advantage; like the early digital cable boxes, they generally don't have all the right kind of outputs for the home-theatre afficionados. Which is a bit dumb considering that that's the early-take-up market...
Wade.
"All around me are nothing but fakes
Come with me on the biggest fake of all!"
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Post #10,968
9/30/01 1:52:12 AM
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Read an article that only 6000 settop noxes have been sold.
Like, not an awful lot really considering they've been on sale fo rwhat .. a year now?
I would guess most people wouldn't be at all interested until the HD versions are available. As for me, well, I'll have to buy a TV before I buy a set-top box :)
On and on and on and on,
and on and on and on goes John.
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Post #11,024
9/30/01 7:07:52 PM
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Not everybody who buys an HDTV buys a STB
I didn't buy a STB because the cable system provides an HD decoder. My neighbor bought an HDTV last year and he didn't buy a STB for the same reason. The cable HD decoder doesn't do off-the-air, but since the cable carries them all I'm not missing out. Well, then again, I've not seen "multi-cast" in action using cable while I have seen it at the store with a STB. The only thing being multicast though were the Houston Highway Cameras and Weather Radar, so at the moment it's more of a demo of what can be done than anything else.
If you watch a lot of DVD movies then an HDTV set will benefit you as you'll get significantly more detail out of Anamorphic/Enhanced-for-Widescreen DVDs than a tradition set. For every 3 scan lines on a traditional set, you'll get 4 scan lines on a HDTV set(so 33% more detail). Most HDTV sets have a line doubler that can recreate the original 24fps film frames out of the video signal(be it broadcast, laser disk, dvd, etc), which eliminates the interlaced jitters. Some doublers attempt to auto-dectect, while the doubler on my set has a manual film/video setting, I was amazed at the difference it made, a diagonal line in a right-left camera pan in Starship Troopers(off laser disk) looked like a staircase with the video setting while it was a perfect diagonal with the film setting.
HDTV is still in it's early stage, just like when CD players came out. What few CDs you could buy sounded great but the price for entry was high - I recall CD players going for $1000. HDTV sets have dropped quite a bit, the smaller screens start around $2,000 now compared to $6000-7000 when they first came out.
Darrell Spice, Jr.
[link|http://home.houston.rr.com/spiceware/|SpiceWare] - We don't do Windows, it's too much of a chore
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Post #11,027
9/30/01 7:21:42 PM
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Same as here
The feds mandated the broadcasting of digital, depending on what market the station is in. The top 10 markets had to be online the first year, followed the top 30 the second year. Not sure the exact rules though, only ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC are broadcasting digital here in Houston - UPN, WB, PBS and the local only channels are not.
The schedule calls for all digital broadcasting by 2006, with the analog lines being turned back in for reassignment. Anybody without a digital set by then would need a STB that can output to an older TV. I suspect that cable boxes will take care of that for most people.
Darrell Spice, Jr.
[link|http://home.houston.rr.com/spiceware/|SpiceWare] - We don't do Windows, it's too much of a chore
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Post #11,038
9/30/01 9:07:58 PM
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Cable take-up in Au is low.
Most people still get all their TV from a yagi on the roof and video hires.
I have a nice game when cable salesmen come to the door. I ask them if they can provide the same picture quality and connection options as a high-end DVD player. That means anamorphic program and component video. So far, no dice. But that's the market they have to compete in to really get anywhere - because that's where digital TV is heading...
Wade.
"All around me are nothing but fakes
Come with me on the biggest fake of all!"
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Post #11,076
10/1/01 9:54:54 AM
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How long has cable been available?
My family's had cable ever since I can remember(mid 70s). DirecTV was offering more than cable, so I went with that a couple years ago. The cable company wised up and started offering more than DirecTV.
For some reason widescreen sets (pre-HDTV) never took off in the US like in other parts of the world, so anamorphic didn't mean anything here until HDTV sets began to be sold. I imagine that's why the older DVDs where done using pan-and-scan or letterboxed instead of anamorphic.
Darrell Spice, Jr.
[link|http://home.houston.rr.com/spiceware/|SpiceWare] - We don't do Windows, it's too much of a chore
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Post #11,186
10/1/01 9:06:10 PM
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In Au? Maybe a decade.
It began life in Au as "Pay TV". One early operator used MDS but it turned out that cable was better in enough ways. We never had the same situation as created the early cable system in the US.
Instead, market forces were artificial and some extremely expensive mistakes were made. As a result, most of Australia's urban areas have two cable networks to choose from, Foxtel (run by Telstra) and OptusVision. The problem with this is that the owner of the infrastructure owns the programming system, too. Bad mistake, IMHO. I reckon if Optus really want to spike Telstra, they would sell their cable network in neighbourhood sized pieces and sell them content packages.
Wade.
"All around me are nothing but fakes
Come with me on the biggest fake of all!"
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Post #11,187
10/1/01 9:06:17 PM
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In Au? Maybe a decade.
It began life in Au as "Pay TV". One early operator used MDS but it turned out that cable was better in enough ways. We never had the same situation as created the early cable system in the US.
Instead, market forces were artificial and some extremely expensive mistakes were made. As a result, most of Australia's urban areas have two cable networks to choose from, Foxtel (run by Telstra) and OptusVision. The problem with this is that the owner of the infrastructure owns the programming system, too. Bad mistake, IMHO. I reckon if Optus really want to spike Telstra, they would sell their cable network in neighbourhood sized pieces and sell them content packages.
Wade.
"All around me are nothing but fakes
Come with me on the biggest fake of all!"
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Post #11,078
10/1/01 10:00:44 AM
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HDTV via computer
[link|http://www.hauppage.com|Hauppage] has WinTV-HD that will show HDTV on your computer monitor. Suggested List is $399. Would probably work will with something like Sony's [link|http://www.sonystyle.com/vaio/displays/gdm_fw900.htm|widescreen monitor].
Darrell Spice, Jr.
[link|http://home.houston.rr.com/spiceware/|SpiceWare] - We don't do Windows, it's too much of a chore
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Post #11,223
10/2/01 9:29:35 AM
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Make that 9 channels
Houston PBS was on the air last night in HD. Saw part of a documentary about New York City covering 1945-1975.
ABC did not broadcast Monday Night Football in HD, shame on them. So far the only football I've seen in HD was a college game.
Darrell Spice, Jr.
[link|http://home.houston.rr.com/spiceware/|SpiceWare] - We don't do Windows, it's too much of a chore
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Post #13,221
10/14/01 12:37:15 AM
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Digital signal == DMCA content controls
They may not be there now, but they will be. One of the impetuses (impeti?) behind HDTV is that by digitizing the broadcast stream, media companies are providing the technical foundations for implementing a DRM (digital rights management) system. This means that an arbitrarially fine "pay to play" system can be overlayed on your TV. Feel like videotaping a game? Forget it. The proposed [link|http://cryptome.org/sssca.htm|SSSCA] has a provision to allow for "time shifting", but if narrowly construed, this would simply mean you have to option to play back a broadcast at a later point in time. Once. You won't be able to relive that incredible touchdown again and again. The age of free broadcast will be over. Cassandra story? Read [link|http://www.eff.org/IP/DRM/HDTV/20000918_fcc_hdtv_rule.html|the FCC's own directives] on the subject: Section 629 of the Communications Act instructs the Commission to:adopt regulations to assure the commercial availability, to consumers . . . of . . . equipment used . . . to access, multichannel video programming and other services offered over multichannel video programming systems, from manufacturers, retailers, and other vendors not affiliated with any multichannel video programming distributor.3 The EFF has [link|http://www.eff.org/IP/DRM/HDTV/20000907_eff_comments_hdtv.html|written a response] on the topic to the FCC. They also provide some excellent [link|http://www.eff.org/IP/DRM/HDTV/|background material]. Or read the industry's own analysis. [link|http://www.ebu.ch/trev_269-waters.pdf|Television in the Digital Era] (PDF), section 9, "Conditional Access", consisting of "signal scrambling, encryption of...electronic keys[, and] a Subscriber Management System (SMS)". Also [link|http://www.ebu.ch/trev_266-ca.pdf|A functional model of a conditional access system for use with digital television broadcasts] (PDF), in particular section 4, system requirements (no mention is made of replay or fair use rights), and 5, particularly 5.2, in which the issue of household use (on multiple screens) and VCR access is left open. The problem with digitization is that the rights data are now incorporated into the content stream itself. You're already seeing this on DVDs, with their locked navigation segments (you have to view the FBI warning and ads). It's only going to get worse. Remember, DRM means "'doesn't record' media". --
Karsten M. Self [link|mailto:kmself@ix.netcom.com|kmself@ix.netcom.com]
What part of "gestalt" don't you understand?
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