[mythtv-users] Is the Digital Future bleak?

Michael T. Dean mtdean at thirdcontact.com
Fri Jun 1 21:48:26 UTC 2007


On 06/01/2007 03:43 PM, ryan patterson wrote:
> You can always get OTA channels OTA.  Several times I have had to
> explain to people that I pay nothing for my HD signals.

Yeah.  My neighbors thought I was doing something illegal to get my TV
without paying for it.  I had to explain the concept of OTA broadcast TV
about 4 times.  :)

> Weather or not an HD upgrade is worth it or not depends on you and
> what you watch.  If you watch a not of network primetime TV and DVD
> movies then a HD TV is a good investment.  If you watch mostly
> extended cable channels such as: USA, A&E, C-span, gameshow network,
> military channel, SPEEDvision, etc. then a HDTV isn't very useful.

I agree that it's more useful for those of us who watch primarily (or in
my case, exclusively) local broadcasts, but I wouldn't go so far as to
say it's "a good investment."

IMHO, if you've got a good TV (i.e. an HDTV) and you can prevent your
signal from ever becoming NTSC (i.e. capture it digitally, watch DVD's,
etc.), the improvement in quality is significant.  If you then take the
next step and upgrade to HDTV signals, there's not so much improvement.

The cost to go to pure digital (ignoring the cost of the TV--since you
need it for both) is relatively small (if you can actually get a
480i/480p digital TV signal).  Going to HDTV is still relatively
expensive.  You'll need a good processor and--most importantly--/lots/
of storage.  (I'm starting to think my Athlon X2 4800+ needs upgrading
so I can do HDTV at 1.5x timestretch--although I'd really like 1.75x
since that's where I watched almost all of my SDTV.  So, how much do you
think those Phenom's/FASN8's will be?  Or does anyone know if an X2
6000+ will do it?)

I had 330GiB and recorded SDTV at 1.15GiB/hr so I could get almost 300
hours of TV on my system.  When I went all HDTV, I ended up upgrading to
3TB, which gives me room for between 700hours (at 4GiB/hr--i.e. for
Fox/ABC) and 328hours (at 8.5GiB--i.e. for CW/PBS/NBC) (CBS has been
around 5-6GiB/hr).  I've been averaging just over 6GiB/hr with the mix
of shows I record, which would give about 450 hours.

Also, I'd say (after buying my 1080p TV) that the difference between a
720p and 1080p set is negligible with today's screen sizes--even up to
the 103" screens--at proper viewing distances.  Yes, you can see a
difference when you stand right next to the screen, but watching TV like
that would give you whiplash (at proper viewing distances, you can take
in the whole scene without having to turn your head).

Anyway, the point is you can make a huge difference with the right TV if
you keep NTSC and RF modulated/Compsite/S-Video out of the picture  and
capture your signals digitally.

Mike


More information about the mythtv-users mailing list