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Termyn8or -> RE: HDTV transition questions (3/5/2008 10:23:41 AM)
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I remember the days of UHF converters, and FM converters for cars. Amazing I have not expired huh.
The major difference is that then the kids were the remote control, now the kids will be the ones to figure out how to program the remote for the converter box to operate the volume control on your TV. This is no joke, I've known people who despite being otherwise intelligent could not get the hang of progreamming a VCR timer. They would mark the shows they wanted on tape and had it to one of the kids.
As far as the UHF band goes, I am surprised that they did not do away with VHF a long time ago. It's too susceptable to noise pickup. We have a channel 3 here and every time it rains you get bars in the picture from leakage of high voltage power transmission lines. You also get interference from motors with brushes, blenders, vacuum cleaners and such, in fact you might even get hash on the screen from a car with bad spark plug wires driving down the street.
They are already broadcasting ATSC here, and in most places. If you have a decent rooftop antenna you should be able to pick it up. You'll find your local channels to have three channels, generally one HD that has the normal programs, one all news or weather and whatever else, some of it useless, but what did you expect. We get twenty some odd channels on ATSC at the shop on an amplified antenna. So you can get the box now if you wish, but you may want to wait for the prices to drop. And they will.
Why ? Because if people do not buy the boxes nobody can watch TV, it would kill the whole industry. If box sales are sluggish, I'm sure the TV networks will step in and subsidize them. It's that or broadcast to nobody.
If you have cable or a dish you can ignore the whole mess.
Even this is probably short lived. I have predicted, possibly a bit prematurely, but still valid, that the computer is going to be integrated into home theater, even regular TV. I have this little box of a different kind which converts my SVGA from the PC to the TV video input. When I play a video in full screen, on the TV there is no difference. The controls disappear and all you see is the video, that is until you move the mouse.
Now alot of TV stations also webcast, and there are services such as Netflix. If you have the proper interface you actually do not need the box at all. The VGA to TV converter was about $50. Then you just plug the PC audio into the TV or your sound system (or both) and voila, you are watching TV.
As an example, I do not even have a radio, or any sort of FM tuner hooked up, everything I listen to comes out of the PC. My actual TV watching consists of what I see at the shop, and I do go to the olman's and watch millionaire and jeopardy, but that's about it. I already get more of my news on the net (some from CM) than on TV, radio or in the newspaper.
There is one byproduct of these boxes though, if you have an old VCR or non HD DVDR it will run just fine from the output of the box. You won't need a DVR.
And it's good that you have no interest in blu-ray disks, they are already obsolete. In the next few years the holographic disks will most likely be on the market, and we are talking some serious storage here. In certain formats you might record a month of video on one disk. Yes, 43,200 minutes. They are not on the general market yet, just give it time.
Technology has reached a critical mass and is exploding. My cousin who is much more schooled in technology than I once commented "What I am learning in school is already obsolete". It is almost to the point where when you buy something it is already obsolete.
Got an iPod ? It is so outdated. Not long ago my buddy walks in with a Zoom player. Thirty gigs of storage and a video output. Stores videos and everthing, and we just hooked it up to the front video jacks on my TV and it proceeded to play high quality video and audio. It is to an iPod what a cellphone is to a pager. He doesn't bring it over much because he got most of his material from me. We have this floating harddrive and it's the fastest way to transfer information.
I already have too much to burn. The olman has a new PC with a huge harddrive so I backed up my stuff on there (we share the internet and therefor have a network), eventually I will burn it to DVDRs but burning it to CDRs is totally impractical. I have about 40 gigs of music and videos, split that up into 700MB pieces and you know what I mean. And some of the videos won't even fit on a CDR by themself. I wonder if even a blu-ray disk would hold it all, not sure, but the holographic disk will.
Yes, the PC is coming. You might notice alot of HDTVs have an input for DVI or HDMI. That signal can come from a PC. It is all coming together, but slowly.
For now, people have no money for the high end equipment, so the industry adapts, in fact they delayed the stoppage of regular TV three times because the people were not ready. Regular TV was supposed to be gone by 2007.
There is a gap between people. If you ever saw the demo of Linux MCE, which is on this board somewhere but I don't know if the link is still any good, was pretty impressive. You put in a DVD and it turns on your TV and sound system. Keep your bluetooth cellphone turned on and it'll track you into the kitchen should you decide to go get something to eat, and turn on the kitchen TV and switch it to the DVD you are watching.
I won't be getting one of those boxes, but that is not for everyone. I got the PC on the TV and that is enough. But I heard the barebone box will come down to around fifty bucks, and with the forty dollar coupon you should wind up ten bucks out of pocket. If it happens that way, great. But I am not holding my breath.
T
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