Video Asylum

Posted by David Aiken (A) on April 15, 2008 at 11:06:14

In Reply to: RE: Some Qs on the upcoming digital-conversion settop boxes. posted by clarkjohnsen on April 15, 2008 at 10:29:50

>Will the new channels retain the same (low) numbers?<

Don't know. That one will depend on your licencing authorities.

>Will a separate box be required for every DVD recorder and VCR?<

The box is a tuner and you can feed the signal to whatever you like. You can still feed the output of your TV to whatever you like. Standard definition recorders however won't capture a high definition signal so that leaves DVD recorders out of the picture for high definition tuners.

You will be able to buy DSTs with hard drive recorders built in, for a higher price of course. I would expect them to start popping up immediately or very soon since the various manufacturers already have models with hard drive recorders available here. There's even a box which contains a digital TV tuner, hard drive recorder, and DVD player on sale here as the one box solution.


>Even more to the point, will the channel selector in each of those still work?<

Of course, while there are still analog channels for the analog tuners in older devices to work. Newer devices which incorporate digital tuners won't have any problems. It's just that analog tuners won't work with digital signals and vice versa.

>Will rabbit ears still work? (Prolly not...) So what will?<

Depends entirely on signal strength. I've seen an indoor antenna work in one location, though not brilliantly, and not work in another. I suspect there will be indoor antennas suitable for digital reception marketed but I've always used an external antenna with my digital set-top box.

Final comment: your question refers to "digital-conversion settop boxes". I assume you're talking about add-on digital tuners, not boxes for converting analog signals to digital signals. I haven't seen a box which did that anywhere.




David Aiken