Video Asylum

Posted by Jon L (A) on December 20, 2004 at 12:59:28

In Reply to: HD cure for TiVo addiction? posted by bobwood on December 2, 2004 at 12:45:00:

"Should we wait for the next generation of sets? Will they follow the new year?"

--This is a tough one as things are changing. For example, DISH is now enshrouded with rumors of newer HD receivers featuring MPEG4 format, which will make current HD receiver offerings like 811, 921 obsolete. Exact timeframe? Unknown. People who paid near $1000 retail for 921 are understandably upset.

DirecTV and cable probably will need to do similar things in order to offer more HD channels in the future b/c current HD technology eats up so much bandwidth for them. Details are uncertain.

If I had to buy into HD DVR right now, I would probably just get the rental one until dust settles in next couple of years.

"And also, I have been visiting stores and am amazed by the bad std def picture on almost any set I've seen. The salesfolks blame the picture on the distribution amps they use. Faces look waxen. I'm not sure I could stand that - does it look better in the home or do you have to live with it as tax for the HD?"

Don't worry about the store SD quality. I've seen some truly horrendous SD PQ in most stores, and one can't judge anything by it. It's the poor rooftop antennas (usually very old) with poor cabling and signal splitters that feed 20 TV's at once. If you get a decent OTA antenna at home and decent digital receiver at home, HD will look fantasmic and even SD will look VERY nice.

HOWEVER, non-OTA standard def signal you get from DISH/DirecTV/cable will be heavily compressed, and yes some of these channels will look just as bad as in stores. Nothing you can do about this no matter what TV/receiver you have.