Digital Television

[JDoors]

I get my TV from an antenna (many years ago I had poor cable reception which the cable company couldn't permanently fix, so I decided I wasn't going to PAY for poor service), so I have to buy a digital tuner (money's a serious issue for me right now).

I used Consumer Reports' DTV information and ratings pages to choose a box (their top selection simply isn't available, ANYWHERE, so I went with their second choice). Did a web search for the model number and after several back-and-forths decided on a site to buy it from (Solid Signal, this product: Tivax STB-9 - the next higher model has analog pass-through, which I could use right now for recording and such, but that'll be less useful after February when the analog signal ends).

Forty seven bucks, minus the forty dollar "coupon" you all paid for via your taxes. Thanks, btw. They offered expedited delivery, but since I have until FEBRUARY, I thought paying extra for that might be a bit extravagant. Oddly enough it got here the day BEFORE the promised expedited delivery date. Glad I didn't pay the extra cost!

Hookup was relatively easy (I go through the stereo, a VCR, there's a DVD player, FM, umm, some other weird but necessary routing, but I know this stuff fairly well so it was just plug-and-play for me). I was EXTREMELY worried I wouldn't get a good enough signal for DTV. My analog picture, well, most people would probably call it unwatchable (I'm forty miles from the nearest transmitter). A poor analog signal just degrades the picture (like mine), if I can't get a good digital signal I might not be able to tune in anything AT ALL (or it'd do that blocky, stuttery thing you cable and satellite people are used to seeing at times).

I was a bit nervous as it automatically tuned in available stations, it took a LONG time to find a SECOND station (it quickly displayed that it found one, then almost seemed to be locked up). Nothin' to worry about, it eventually found like thirty stations (however, about five are in Spanish with another five devoted to religious shows, so after deleting stations I'd never watch it's more like twenty stations). It has a signal strength meter and the channels I'll be watching the most have the maximum available signal (Yippee! Why was I worried again?). Some stations are about halfway on the meter and I can see artifacts in their broadcast (not any stations I regularly watch though). The signal strength reading appears to be in real time, I can see it slowly moving up and down the scale. Should be interesting the next time we have bad weather.

Speaking of weather, a couple of stations broadcast, or "multicast," additional channels and two of those stations have weather channels. I get weather channels FREE, off the air! Ha! Take that crappy cable service!

The picture is good, I could make it better by hooking it up differently, but then I couldn't use my current equipment to record shows (or use the stereo the way I'm used to). I've also never had to deal with letterbox, zoom, wide, blah, blah, blah before, now I do. The sound's supposed to be Dolby Digital 5.1, but either I don't have it hooked up to get the best sound or, more likely for the moment, nothing that's been on has a discernible DD sound track (it's daytime TV so far).

This model has a bare minimum channel guide, others supposedly give you far more information, but I didn't have ANY channel guide before so I can't complain much about that. Another thing I'm not used to is a delay when selecting -- just about everything. Channels take a moment to appear, menus too. Seems like every step forward in technology is followed by two steps back. Oh, and the thing runs WARM. Great, where's the EPA's Energy Star people when you need them?

[Bubba Bob]

Nice write up J.

30 channels huh? Sounds crazy. How many do you pick up w/ analog? Ive never scene more than... 2 ... with rabbit ears.

[irregularjoe]

I have DirecTV which is already digital. As far as the number of channels, I think I get about 200. Out of the 200, I watch ....maybe....7.

I also used to get an abridged version of XM Radio included with the package. Out of the approx. 20 stations they offered, I was only interested in five of them. (I don't do rap, rock, religious, Disney, or anything relating to the 70's.) A few weeks ago they revamped the audio channels available due to the XM - Serius merger. Now there is only one channel that interests me.

I'm seriously considering pulling the plug. Not sure if internet TV is the answer yet, but it looks promising. I really like the idea of ala carte pricing of shows instead of the high priced packages, most of which don't interest me.

[JDoors]

Nice write up J.

30 channels huh? Sounds crazy. How many do you pick up w/ analog? Ive never scene more than... 2 ... with rabbit ears.

Thanks. With the roof antenna I got around ten, so after deleting the digital stations I'll never watch I've doubled the available channels.

I have DirecTV which is already digital. As far as the number of channels, I think I get about 200. Out of the 200, I watch ....maybe....7. ...

Which is another reason I didn't miss having cable or satellite. Out of the ten or so stations I used to get via the antenna, I watched maybe five regularly. Why the heck was I paying hundreds of dollars a year, to occasionally watch a cable/satellite show? (Many of which I can see for free on the Internet.)

I may be crazy, but I'm not stupid. Friends and family that have cable/satellite wind up scanning almost endlessly through all those channels, only to settle on a channel I got for free anyway. I don't get it.

Now, my old picture was horrible. I envied the quality of their picture , but with digital, that's no longer an issue.

[isteve]

I don't think internet tv is ready for the normal tv viewer right now. I have a apple tv that does a great job if you don't mind paying per show or finding or converting video. It also great for Video Podcast most now are HD.

I hacked my Apple TV and installed Boxee. It is unbelievable thousands of tv shows new and old and movies all free (so far still a alpha) I'm watching Dilbert right now and watched Barney Miller earlier.

This week Joost came to the iphone/ipod touch. Put it on my ipod and am blown away on how it works. Not sure how practical but still blown away.