Hdtv

Wireworm5

Audiophile
I bought a 30" Panasonic Hdtv on Tuesday. I asked the salesman at the time if I needed a special HD box to pick up HD channels. He said it already has a built in tuner so I wouldn't need one. But I'm confused because the sat. company that I subscribe too sells an HDTV Sat. receiver for $400. Do I need this or will I be able to get HD channels on my conventional Sat. receiver? And do I need to pay extra for HD channel service? Thanks
 
I'm about 99% sure you'll need a HDTV box for Satellite HDTV. I think the tuner is good for broadcast HDTV only. If that's available in your area. I had to buy a HDTV Cable box to receiver HDTV on cable.
 
I will add the other 1%.

The internal tuners on current TVs, unless otherwise stated, are for broadcast HDTV. Which, if you think about it, is kinda cool if you have it in your area. (It's cool because it's free!)

Sat, cable, and any other pay TV charges extra and you need to get equipment.
 
Why do you have to buy a box? My cable company, Adelphia, gives you the box, well for like $3 a month they charge you for the box.
 
Well, you are not buying the box outright, but with the "intstallation fee" and the monthly fee, you are kinda "buying" the box.

SOme of the earlier HDTV ready sets came with a regular NTSC receiver that upconverted the signal (what kind of conversion depended and still depends on the manufacturer), so you had to buy a seperate receiver to view even the OTA signals.

Some of the latest sets have built-in receivers for over-the-air (OTA) HD signals, but even with those you still have to use the cable/sat's converter box for pay TV. What is happening to those signalsfrom the moment they enter the box/receiver is a mystery to me, and I imagine it must change with each new iteration.
 
No installation fee with cable ;) And $3 dolloars a month for a digital HD cable box with digi coax AND toslink 5.1 out, come on you can't beat that with a stick :no:
 
THOR said:
No installation fee with cable ;) And $3 dolloars a month for a digital HD cable box with digi coax AND toslink 5.1 out, come on you can't beat that with a stick :no:

I'm not sure about cable in your area, but here, Comcast charges a fortune for digital cable, even without all the extras. Right now, my *analog* cable is about the same monthly, as Satellite's monthly fees. If I actually watched much TV, I would probably switch to Satellite. If comcast ups my fees again, I may switch.
Jack
 
$109 a month for digital cable and broadband internet, this includes all the movie channels and all the HDTV channels they carry.
 
Thats not too bad if that includes, broadband. Right now, I'm paying about $52 for analog cable with no HBO etc. That's about the going rate of satellite including more channels and HDTV, but not extra packages. I'll probably switch over when I get really pissed at Comcast. I'm happy with my DSL, so there's no need to bundle.
Jack
 
Yeah it's really my only option I prefer DSL but the cable company would charge me $70+ dollars just for the cable tv alone. Just like I NEED to have HBO but it's only like $10 more to have ALL the movie channels so what ya gonna do? They do their best to make the complete package the only option that makes sense, each thing is only a few dollars more than the next and before you know WHAM $109 cable bill. I don't feel too badly since I have friends paying $40 - $50 a month for satelite and $40 - $50 a month for DSL and they don't have as many movie channels and no HDTV ones, plus that whole no local channels need an antenna thing they have to go through and if mine don't work the cable company comes and fixes it for free.

I do miss the old no internet and no HDTV days and the $30 dollar a month cable bill tho ;)
 
Did I mention I used to loose my cable during electrical storms? Whenever it stormed, 1/2 the county went out. They eventually fixed that, but they upped the prics. too.
Jack
 
There was a period when the cable inet started sucking ass here, I don't know if they were upgrading or what but it was going out all the time. That's when I got DSL, DSL was great but eventually the higher combination bill of the cable TV and DSL was just too much and I went back to all cable. By then they musta fixed what was wrong and it's been fine since.
 
109 bucks for cable/dsl...

I can't talk because with my DSS and DSL bills I'm right in that same area.

I'll tell you what I really miss. Broadcast television. No DSL, no cable, no nuthin but PBS, ABC, CBS, NBC, and if you were in a big city, three or four independent channels like WPIX (11) and WWOR (9) and WNEW (5). And they were all FREE!

Sure, antennas were 200 bucks, but what cha gonna do?
 
I have Bellexpressvu which I pay approx. $80 after taxes and small charge for an extra receiver. With this I get a whole slew of channels. My high speed internet with another company costs another $50. I could bundle everything with the internet company and save $20 dollars at the most for similar level of program option. But I don't see the point of doing this since I would have to purchase/rent their equipment and I already invested in Sat. which I think gives me better programming options.
For an extra $15 I can rent their HD sat. box and get 24 HD channels for a few more extra bucks. As Thor said it all adds up and I feel that I'm paying to much for luxury items. If I can quit smoking I'll save on that expense and I won't feel so bad. :worried:
 
Hi guys,

Where I normally live (near August, Maine) I could only receive ONE free TV station with the help of Rabbit ears. I had to do this because I could not otherwise receive LOCAL news. I did have DIRECT TV which I very much enjoyed as it not only produces a MUCH better picture than CABLE but offer MUSIC CHOICE which gave me a lot of music channels. I believe I was paying $36.00 a month. Enter "DISH NETWORK!" I happened to visit my local RADIO SHACK and learned about DISH NETWORK. I am thinking I am going to SCRAP Direct TV in favor of DISH. For $39.00 a month (and FREE set up
of Satellite/TUNER etc.) DISH offers 120 channels INCLUDING...LOCAL and NETWORK channels! If that weren't good enough....I will also receive over SIXTY commerical free SIRIUS MUSIC CHANNELS! If I want...I can get a DIGITAL recorder thingy for an extra $5.00 a month. There is also a SPEICAL on a SECOND TUNER! I am liking this offer! More to come when I move into the new House (mid-December).

Regards,
SixCats!
 
Do a search for HT forums and you will find more info. 1080i or 720p that comes over the air is very good and your TV will pick that up. You will need a UHF antenna and I would go to http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/welcome.aspx to find out where to point your antenna and which one to buy. There does appear to be a debate regarding cable HD and Sat HD. Just like what Dave said It appears that SAT is the only one that can truly send HDTV in its true format (other than air). Cable for some reason has to compress its single in order to run it throw the lines and ESPN HD does the something no matter how you view it. It’s an analog single that is compressed into a digital( DTV). Anyway this stuff gets way out there and changes everyday! Heck cable maybe able to send true HD by now for all I know. But once you get it all set up the picture is great! The link also has a section that explains HDTV.

I now that Dish had a deal where they give you a HD SAT receiver for free with a 2 year contract.
 
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