To HDTV or Not to HDTV? 478
fishrokka asks: "I'm considering buying an HDTV, but before I jump in I wanted to get Slashdot's opinion. The demos I've seen at
stores look great, but is it worth the extra money? I would love to
hear some real-life experiences..." I have yet to actually go
out and see a demo of HDTV, but from what I hear, it's markedly better
than the current analog technology. Although there are HDTV
broadcasts to be found today, the FCC deadline for adoption of the format is not until sometime in 2006. Are the current HDTV implementations worth the pricetags, especially when one can limp along
with their existing TVs for another 4 years?
Game Consoles And HDTV (Score:2, Informative)
Mini Dish receivers now have HDTV support as well. Most new stations and some old ones have HDTV support as well.
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
my first impressions... (Score:5, Informative)
The HDTV picture I saw was on a large screen (8 foot by 4 foot?), and was film-quality perfect. Lots of detail, no scan lines. Kindof what you'd expect for a $30k TV. But the coolest part was a much smaller normal-definition projection TV that was in the foreground... it was perhaps 3 feet wide, and despite the much smaller picture, it looked worse than the blown-up HDTV picture. It was amazing.
Of course, take this with a grain of salt... I don't own a TV.
Directv (Score:2, Informative)
HDTV is Very Good and Getting Better (Score:1, Informative)
The major issue is can you receive the HDTV broadcasts? Some cable companies are beginning to retransmit HDTV channels and there are a few on DirecTV but your best bet is over the air. This link http://www.antennaweb.org/antennaweb/ will tell you what kind of antenna you will need depending on how far you are from the transmitters.
Good luck. If you can get the major networks over the air, you will not regret it.
Rushed? (Score:3, Informative)
Anyway, it's not rushed but I'm not buying the damn thing until cable/satellite providers adopt it.
It depends. (Score:5, Informative)
First off widescreen rocks. It's great for movies, and go ahead and get a good progressive DVD player to make them look even better (on most sets).
As for HD, it depends. I'm in Raleigh, NC and have Time Warner digital cable. They offer HD cable boxes here, if you can get to the right person. Luckily, I did. The local network stations all have HD digital feeds on the cable. So, first off I get better quality signal than the normal analog cable streams (When they advertise digital cable, they never mention that the broadcast channels are still analog...sigh). I also get the HD stream when shows are done in HD. This includes CBS, ABC, FOX, NBC, HBO, and PBS (Nature shows are excellent in HD).
Now..as for which shows are in HD... NBC just does Leno. CBS does a LOT of their primetime stuff. FOX does some widescreen, but almost none or no actual HD. ABC does a few shows. HBO does many movies in HD, but unfortunately a lot of their original shows (Oz, Dennis Miller, etc) are not. Band of Brothers is though.
I'm also very lucky to have WRAL, the local CBS affiliate. They are the leading station in the country for HD. They broadcast all of their local news in AMAZING high definition. Kudos to them for all their hard work in driving this.
If your cable company doesn't do HD you can go over the air (OTA) using an antenna. That varies by area and distance. My friend did that for like 2 years until he recently got his cable box. It worked well, just wasn't as convenient. He got all the same network affiliates I do now, but no HBO or PBS. If you have DSS you can get a HD DSS receiver and they do HBO, HDNET (HD demos and movies), and I think one PPV.
I'm very happy with my setup. Once you start watching HD shows you'll really become a snob.
Not true. (Score:4, Informative)
Also, you can use a progressive scan DVD player on DVDs. This basically doubles the lines on the screen to get rid of interlacing that causes scan lines and flickering.
HDTV is really hitting it's stride nowadays (Score:5, Informative)
Now, there's a wealth of HDTV material available:
- Most of HBO, including Sopranos and Band of Brothers (wow).
- Some of Showtime (increasing)
- HDNet on DirectTV (Marc Cuban of broadcast.com and Dallas Mavericks fame - sports/etc HD channel that will carry much of the winter Olympics in HD).
- PBS (several Nova/Nature/etc shows a month, plus many stations show repeats of HD material)
- Almost all of CBS including CSI, District, Alias, etc, also US Open tennis, football playoffs, etc
- Much of ABC including movies of the week, The Practice, etc
- NBC is starting to get on the bandwagon after being first with Leno; they now have Crossing Jordan and more are coming. - Fox isn't interested in HD, but they do some in 480p widescreen like Ally, X-Files, etc.
CBS lets viewers not in range of a station or in the area of ones they own (most big cities) view the HD feeds from either NYC or LA via Dish Network.
Dish Network has 24-hr PPV in HD; DirectTV has partial-day. Dish has a 24-hr HD promo channel.
Comcast and Time-Warner are starting to roll out carrying HD HBO/Showtime and local HD channels (most of Philly has it now).
HD is here to stay and has come WAY down in price. It looks even better than in the showrooms - they turn the brightness up too high; they often try to sell it using DVD's (which look great but not near as good as real HD material); they don't bother to converge the sets, etc.
Prices are way down - I've seen $13xx in Best Buy for a small 4x3; and $1800 for an open-box 38" RCA CRT HDTV, 16x9, with HD DirectTV built-in.
Don't forget to get an HD receiver; $400-600 currently, but if you're a new DIsh Network subscriber it can be cheaper.
In short: Buy one. Subscribe to HDTVmagazine.com ($35 lifetime; daily email newsletter with the day's HDTV lineup, upcoming news, reviews, etc). You will enjoy it for a long time to come, and you'll have lots of excuses to have people over for parties (starting this winter with playoffs and the Olympics).
Re:Questions about HDTV (Score:3, Informative)
Formats (Score:2, Informative)
When you see that your local TV stations are broadcasting in digital TV, they are more than likely broadcasting in 480p, or 480p converted to 1080i.
This gives NO image quality improvement over a perfect NTSC image, like what you would get from a dish, becasue those signals started out as NTSC on BetaCam, or film.
But that doesn't really matter, because the FCC is gonna make all those stations broadcast in HD anyways, right? Wrong. Most large-market stations are already broadcasting in the FCC mandated 480p. No 16:9, no HD, very little improvement.
Then there's the black sheep of the DTV world, alone crying for public approval. 720p is quite possibly the best image quality on HD. Even ABC uses it for their rare HD broadcasts.
The bad news, only one TV will show it to you without a res change. Have you ever seen a notebook trying to display a screen res other than the native? 720p on almost all HDTVs looks like that.
If this confuses you and me, Joe Slashdot, think about what it does to the poor Joe Technophobe, or TV exec. We should all wait until the industry figures out what to do, and I can see ALL images the way they were supposed to be seen.
DVD's look much better on an HD capable set (Score:2, Informative)
I think the enhanced DVD picture is worth the HD price tag, but shop around to get the best deal. I was able to save $500 because I waited for a sale. Also, make sure you get in house delivery because they're heavy. Mine weighed in at 250lbs and there was no way I was going to be able to lift that from "curb-side". Some of the resellers on the Web only offer curb-side...
Hope this helps.
Sven
Re:Not worth it Yet. (Score:5, Informative)
Quality will improve, but not dramatically - the limits are size and (for RPTV's) gun size.
Prices have already come down lots - I paid $5k, but that was 2 years ago for a top-of-the-line Pioneer Elite. Now effectively the same TV (minus lacquer) is $2500.
Re:GameCube supports HDTV, hah, (Score:2, Informative)
Yes and No (Score:5, Informative)
I bought myself the Toshiba 34" wide-screen direct-view (tube) monitor and the matching HDTV/DirectTV receiver for Christmas. Total cost around $3000 from Best Buy (you can save at least $500 if you buy off the web, but do you really want to mail back 200 lbs of glass if it doesn't work?)
If you only watch TV and your existing set works fine and you either get satellite or good cable, it's probably not worth the money now. If you just have bad cable, get DirectTV or Dish. If your TV set needs to be replaced but you are happy with your existing TV, get one of the new true flat screen sets (flat as in flat picture tube, not plasma); for $500 you can get a really good picture. On the other hand, if you watch a lot of DVDs, an HDTV set coupled with a progressive-scan DVD player must be seen to be believed. From a normal viewing distance it's hard to tell it's not film. Absolutely gorgeous.
As for actual HDTV content, DirectTV currently carries both HBO and HDNet in 1080i, Dish (I believe) carries HBO and Showtime. HDNet is a startup HD-only channel that carries a mix of movies and "non-mainstream" sports (this week it seems to be mountain biking) and will be carrying several hours/day of tape-delayed Olympic events. The image quality varies from great to amazing, all 3 providers claim to not broadcast any up-converted materials.
As for over the air broadcasts, most major markets seem to have digital broadcasts from PBS, ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX. However, this doesn't mean that they are broadcasting HDTV, most of the shows are simply up-converted from NTSC. Many of CBS's night-time lineup are in 1080i, some of ABC's is in 720p (NYPD Blue and Alias). NBC claims Jay Leno is in 1080i, but that doesn't seem to be true in Boston. Fox is all 480p
Bottom line, if you watch a lot of movies on DVD (or just want a cutting edge toy), you can't beat an HDTV monitor. If you just watch TV, there isn't enough on yet to make it worthwhile.
Warning sarcasm alert (Score:3, Informative)
[sarcasm]
Yep thats why I want to get a HD reciever...So I can watch the local news in glorious high definition
[/sarcasm]
/*End sarcasm (särkzm)*/
Yeah I know that wasn't the point of the comment..NetJunkie gave a balanced overview of the situation..it boils down to what the stations AND cable company in your area are doing..
Personally I'm holding off until the local affiliates decide what they are going to do...If they opt to split the stream most of the time what signal if any is left that is HD and if they do split the streams how does that affect cable companies and must carry rules.
Back when the cable companies were first pushing their product I seem to remember that one of the selling points of cable was a picture superior to over the air broadcasts...But now when you try to use that same logic to get national feeds from a satellite service like dtv or dish the responce is that the over the air signal is of high enough quality to prevent you from being able to legally obtain a network feed off of the satellite...
Re:DVD's look much better on an HD capable set (Score:2, Informative)
DVDs, especially since my recent progressive scan purchase, are simply awesome. No (or very minor on super-wide ratios) letterboxing, beautiful picture......unbelievable.
Then there is DVD-Audio..... I can't say enough about how cool that is.
Re:GameCube supports HDTV, hah, (Score:2, Informative)
There are three HD cards out right now. The Hauppauge, the Access DTV and the Telemann. All three have recording ability. The Access DTV is probably the slickest, but the recordings are serialized to the individual board. The Hauppauge's software lags behind the other two. The Telemann is the one I'm going to pick up. It has good software, the recordings are trasferrable between boards, and the Users of AVS Forum [avsforum.com] have developed DV Transfer, a program to archive HD on Digital8 or DV tapes.
The price of all three is around $399. Cheap compared to any stand-alone HD tuner, and it functions as a recorder.
Don't always need a receiver... (Score:3, Informative)
Check with your cable company, you may be surprised.
Re:GameCube supports HDTV, hah, (Score:2, Informative)
DV may be, but the DVI outputs on video cards are not. The original poster got it wrong as well, though. The DVI output is intended primarily for use with LCD monitors that accept digital input (as opposed to LCD monitors that take a normal analog VGA input and convert to digital for displaying). It has nothing to do with firewire nor HDTV, and is a complete waste of money unless you have a supported LCD monitor or plan on buying one in the next year and a half to two years(standard lifetime for a video card, if you like to keep up with technology).
That said, the Radeon 8500 is not the only card that has DVI outs. Many GeForce 3 cards have it (not all, as many OEMs save money by not adding those components since very few people need it), as well as older GeForce 2 cards, older Radeons, and even older GeForce 256 cards.
How's the weather? (Score:3, Informative)
Depending on where you live...meaning what city AND what kind of building (house, apartment complex, downtown area, etc.) off-air broadcasts of HDTV vary greatly. They can be able to tune a picture fine in one area and fail 50 feet away. It's a whole bunch of bandwidth bouncing off everything solid around the antenna, so depending where you buy it from, you may be able to have someone check signal strength first.
DirecTV-HD is real nice but it does require two dishes (one for the regular satellite, one for the HD feed). It's possible in some areas you won't be able to locate both and then that option is out. Not as likely as bad off-air signals, but still something to consider.
And weather plays a huge factor. Low clouds, rain, and pretty much any other funky atmospheres can not only affect the signal you're receiving, but the one the headend is broadcasting as well. So local channel feeds of HD can look pretty bad because its raining several states away where the DirecTV is receiving them from.
Right now, HDTV is a novelty item. The FCC battle seems to have a lot more punch in it and broadcasters have a lot more profitable ways to fill their signal space than a pretty picture (you can't charge 4x the commercial price just cause is high-def). We'll get there but for now, we're just getting there.
Widescreen TV without HD? (Score:5, Informative)
HDTVs are well over-priced when compared with wide low-res TVs. What a swindle! No DVD's do better than 480p, and if I can't get much to watch out of 70 cable channels, I'm not giving them more money for the priviledge of receiving some of the same stuff as HD.
But, if you've got lots of money that you just need to waste^H^H^H^H^Hspend, that's your business
Dissenting View from AV Snob (Score:5, Informative)
I saw lots of comments here adovocating HDTV if you have the money. I would like to offer a dissenting view.
Some background
As I assembled my system, I never upgraded the original 21" monitor (not a really a TV as it doesn't have speakers or a tuner). Why? Because, over 21", you can see the crappy resolution of an NTSC signal even at a distance. So, for me, large TVs are expensive and only serve to remind me how crappy a signal is being transmitted.
(A side note: most people with large TVs wire up their systems in brain dead ways --- cable to vcr to tv, all with coax, such that the TV signal is decoded three times and re-encoded twice. This makes TV viewing that much more painful.)
Now that I am gainfully employed and have a wife who doesn't appreciate the dorm wiring look, I was in the market for an entertainment center. However, I had a dilemma
Most entertainment centers are designed around a 4:3 aspect ratio big screen TV. However, the FCC has been threatening to go to 16:9 HDTV
Here is the compromise I came up with for my wife and the reasons for it. We bought a smallish entertainment center which did not require upgrading my screen (after some fun with a drill and jigsaw). Why?
HDTV is not just around the corner.
- Consumer motivation is not there. See above
- Cable operators are not required by the FCC to send HDTV signals --- only free space broadcasts. Don't forget, cable has roughly a 70% market penetration. (However, I'm sure the cable company would be happy to rent you converter boxes at a monthly rate if required.)
- Many cable operators are encouraging Digital Cable. (This absolutely sucks
- Their is still bickering about standards (modulation formats
- The stuff is expensive for what you get.
I personally am waiting until the standards settle, the prices drop, the equipment becomes more widely adopted and there is an obvious quality improvement.
I'm not going to pay several thousand dollars to see MPEG artifacts from an over compressed signal blown up life size in my living room. (Watch any shot of the rippling surface of the ocean on Digital Cable to see what I mean.)
Kevin
Re:Problems with HDTV (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Widescreen TV without HD? (Score:2, Informative)
If you take a look at the Sony UK site for example, there is a grand total of two 4:3 TV's [212.250.57.233], whilst their Digital Widescreen [212.250.57.233] page lists about 10 models, there's also about 8 Analogue Widescreen [212.250.57.233] sets for all those people who already have an external DVB set-top-box.
Our DTV proliferation [bbc.co.uk] in the UK is around 45%, which is the highest in the world, DVD proliferation is around 10% at the moment, but the rate of growth is off the scale [bbc.co.uk]. However HDTV is nowhere to be found, and probably wont be for sometime, over the last 10 years they did try and introduce various systems like the anologue hi-def MAC satellites, PAL+ and Eureka 95.
HD for DVD or TV? (Score:5, Informative)
Given that I'm from the computer world, the interlaced v.s. non-interlaced debate is very religious with me. I refuse to watch anything interlaced, no matter what the resolution. Sadly 480p is all that is left for me.
Rather coincidently, this is the DVD resolution. Add one to the DVD-only usage of HDTV.
There's an interesting point to be made about wide-screen. Half my family is hard of hearing, so I've become very accustomed to utilizing closed-captioning. Now I know that a majority of people out there are distracted by the feature, but even the strongest opponents have "missed subtle dialog that has so sheepishly requested that I backup and enable CC". Having a wide-screen TV means that there is no lower black-bar to hide the captioning off to. I know that there are different dimensions that can cause black bars even on 16:9, but in general CC is going to take up a greater percentage of the visible area. Since I've learned to ignore the black bars, I've found that you can get a larger TV in 4:3 than 16:9 for you dollars. Not to mention you won't have those annoying black-side bars while watching Frasier.
Either way, the BIG difference that is going to make your life happy is a line-doubled TV set... err.. progressive-scan (non-interlaced). I say line doubled because that's what most of them are going to wind up doing.. If you get a 960 line (or 1080 line) set, then it's going to have to perform image duplication, no matter what. Some sets have the ability to perform interpolation, but as I hear, that has horrid quality. No matter how bad the line-doubler is, the loss of shimmer is a God-send.
A little more on DVD pro-scan. I've done a lot of research into the pro-scanning of DVDs and it's not a pretty picture (pun). Apparently 60fps is the minimum that you'll want to see to avoid visial distinguishing of the strobe-effect.. NTSC uses 60fps at half the resolution (240 for traditional DVD-capable 4:3 sets). A pro-scan DVD outputs 30fps at a full 480p, and the pro-scan TV prints the full picture twice (to minimize the strobing). Thus, all you really need is a TV that's capable of accepting the pro-scan input and ideally rendering 480 distinct lines. Being 4:3 or 16:9 is merely a matter of preference.. You're not going to get that much extra detail (though there is horizontal compression for "anamorphic wide-screen 1.666" downsampled to 4:3 (1.33)). Lastly, if you're very unlucky, then the 16:9 -> 4:3 conversion is going to consume some of your 480 lines for use with the black-bars, thereby also having vertical compression. If your 4:3 pro-scan TV can accept a wide-screen input and has excess vertical resolution, then it can generate its own black-bars, thereby fully reproducing the vertical component. Note that many TV's have excess vertical resolution (i.e. for Picture in Picture). Unfortunately, no matter what you do here, there are many DVD's that aren't properly designed with pro-scan in mind, and inappropriately set the pro-scan flags. The player has to compensate (or won't properly render the picture), and the more money you spend, the better the results (usually).
Still, unless you're in that upper income bracket, I'd say that anything below $2,000 that's pro scan, coupled with a half decent DVD player (such as the Toshiba 4700 for $225). Tweeter carries $1,100 pro-scan TVs in 4:3.
Lastly, for those that have a size complex, there is no differnce between having a TV that's twice as large verses sitting twice as close to the TV.. It's all about field of view.. In fact, a larger set is probably going to have poorer quality (due to convergence issues on said large projection sets). I personally would rather a picture tube and a properly engineered living room over said projection sets.
-Michael
Re:my first impressions... (Score:4, Informative)
It's important to note that full-bandwidth 1080i is over a billion and a quarter bits per second of data[1], while over-the-air terrestrial broadcast is encoded with MPEG-2 at just over 19 million bits per second. HDTV over satellite is even lower than that, sometimes as low as 6 million bits per second.
The Sony HDCAM deck uses DCT compression at a ratio of around 10:1, and you have to be pretty sharp to see the difference between that format and uncompressed 1080i. But even uneducated eyes, like mine, can see the difference between uncompressed 1080i or HDCAM and over-the-air 19 Mbit, and 6 Mbit direct-broadcast satellite isn't even in the same ballpark.
Of course, your point was that the monitor makes a difference. This is absolutely true. The difference between a consumer set (about $4000) from Sony and a broadcast monitor (about $40,000) from Sony can also be perceived by mere mortals.
Funny story about that. I was told by a Sony rep at NAB two years ago that they manufacture all of their picture tubes on the same assembly line, then they test them. Depending on the quality of the finished tube, they'll put it in their broadcast monitors (if it can resolve 1000 lines), or their high-end consumer TVs (if it can resolve 600 lines) or their low-end consumer TVs (if it lights up when you run current through it). Is it true? Don't know. But it's amusing anyway.
[1] Screw this "giga," "gibi," "goober," "bippi" crap.
Re:I think it's a bad idea... (Score:2, Informative)
There is HD Showtime on DISH and HD HBO on DirecTV and DISH. DirecTV also carries Mark Cuban's (owner of the Dallas Maverick's) HD-NET a 24-hour HD only channel. Both sat services also offer PPV HD movies.
Portions of the Olympics will be aired in HD. At least one NCAA football game every week was aired in HD. The SuperBowl has been aired in HD. Quite a few big name sporting events have been aired in HD.
Stating that "programming will be available" and that it "will be sold as a luxury service" shows just how uninformed the public is about HDTV. There is so much programming available now that many people feel that we have reached critical mass (i.e. 50% or more of the prime time lineup is in HD). Most of this programming is available free over the air, or included with your subscription price to your standard service or premium channel.
Comcast and Time Warner are also starting to provide terrestrial cable feeds of HD in several of their markets. From what I hear, this service is only $10-15 more per month to have right now, and that increase is just your standard increase to have "Digital Cable"...the HD is included in that package.
I say go for getting an HDTV. I bought my 61" widescreen HDTV about 6 months ago, and have never looked back. Probably one of the best "geek" purchases I have ever made.
Worth It (Score:5, Informative)
Couple points, though, that will save you $$$:
While there is a dearth of HDTV programming, there is plenty of DTV programming, even terrestrial. All satellite programming, for example, is digital. The immediate bonus is that all terrestrial digital channels look great, and a great reason to drop cable in favour of an antenna -- if you get enough local digital channels.
16:9 sets add about $1000 to the price, and most broadcast material you will watch is still 4:3. Get a big enough screen and live with letterboxing for the next several years. Sony makes a 36" version of the set I bought, and I would say that 32" is the bare minimum you should consider. Of course, there are bigger and cheaper projection sets, but I never liked them and the convergence problems they have. Your call.
Similarly, you can save money if you buy an HDTV-ready set instead of an HDTV set (the former lacks an HD tuner/decoder). This provides some flexibility in the choice of outboard tuner/decoder and combining such a set with a HD terrestrial/satellite reciver is a nobrainer. The total cost amounts to about the same, but the flexibility is important. RCA makes a 38" set with a built-in HD Satellite receiver, but they have had problems with early versions of that model, and I've heard people complain about the noisy fan (yes), in them. I have no opinion of my own about the RCS sets, but have generally been pleased with the Sony's I've owned.
Important feature #0: Make sure it displays 720p, and possibly 1080i. There are some cheap DTV sets (480i, 480p) that accept HD signals (720p, 1080i) and downsample them. Beware.
Important feature #1: progressive scan component video inputs -- at least two sets (one for sat receiver, one for DVD player). I don't know of any HD sets that don't have this, but it is important.
Important feature #2: a line doubler. This takes interlaced material (like from an analog broadcast, or source) and makes it progressive (i.e. 480i becomes 480p). The result is a sharper-looking picture. Line doublers vary in quality and poor ones can have difficulty with motion. A bonus is that if you have a DVD player with interlaced component output, instead of progressive, the set can "sharpen" (figuratively) the picture.
Important feature #3: On 4:3 sets, make sure that the set actually displays 720 or 1080 lines of resolution on letterboxed material, instead of downsampling to the area between the black bands. This feature goes by various names, and works by cutting the amplitude of the vertical drive to get the letterbox aspect ratio instead of downsampling. Of course, the shadow mask will be the limiting factor in actual resolution.
DirectTV has only 3 HD channels on one of their non-main satellites, so unless you subscribe to HBO, a sports package (I think), or like to watch the demo loop, you won't find much HD material (yet). But, because it is on another satellite, you will need two LNBs and, in most of the U.S., an 18" x 24" elliptical dish with four coax cables (two from each dual-LNB), or wo dishes. Spanish programming (Para Todos) is on a third satellite and requires an additional single-LNB (for a total of three on the dish). The point of all this is that if you get an HDTV or HDTV-ready set and DirectTV (Dish competes with them in the U.S.A., and there are comparable services elsewhere in the world), spring for the twin dual-LNB 18"x24" dish instead of the standard 18" round one -- you won't want to have to redo installation later that way (while the extra LNB and elliptical dish add about $100 to the cost, initial installation is usually free, while a retrofit will probably cost that $100).
All totaled (set, sat rx, dish) I must have spent about $2800. So far (three months later) I am pleased.
Oh, if you do get a satellite system as well, you will have to learn all about multiswitches (satisfied customer plug: Hometech has 5x8 Trunkline multiswitches for about $160).
Re:I think it's a bad idea... (Score:3, Informative)
The FCC has told TV stations to transition to digital TV. The 12/31/2006 date is a goal, but there are extension built into the rules that WILL be invoked, so expect analog to stay on the air through 2008 at least. Many DTV stations are already on the air, though not all shows are produced with HDTV quality. After the deadline, analog TV transmitters will go dark and the broadcasters will be back to one channel, DTV, between channels 2 and 51 (52+ are being recycled).
The DTV standard uses a single TV channel with digital modulation to create a >20Mbps bitstream. That stream can be used for a single HDTV show or multiple lower-rate streams. MPEG-2 compression, used on satellites for high-quality feeds, is generally 6 Mbps; HDTV has various formats that compress to under 20 Mbps.
Re:Worth it, but there are many caveats (Score:2, Informative)
If you're saying that Dolby Digital is some sort of synthetic/matrix decoding, you're incorrect. And if you're saying that AC-3 and Pro Logic are the same thing, you couldn't be more wrong.
Dolby Pro Logic takes two channels, Lt and Rt, and creates four: Left, Right, Center and Surround. So yes, it's synthesized, so to speak, particularly the center channel which can be thought of as the mono component (or the sum), and the single surround channel (played back by one or more speakers), which is the difference between the L and R channels.
Without getting needlessly complex, Pro Logic's passive "difference amplifier" method is a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT process than Dolby Digital.
The latter is sometimes referred to as AC-3, and it's a flexible scheme. I CAN agree with you if you're trying to say that Dolby Digital in this context (as used in HDTV) COULD be a watered-down version in SOME cases, because the bitrate and number of channels *can* be tailored to the application. It can be anything from mono to full-scale 6 channel sound (aka 5.1).
But just like the person who complained that one ATSC (HD) channel can be split up into many low-quality channels, that is NOT a technology issue, it's content/provider specific. It's like saying that my cablemodem is a piece of junk simply because a certain website is slow today.
In fact, the digital signal (which is NOT "stereo", as you put it, it's a single low-rate bitstream from 32 to 640kbps) contains information on the original production format: mono, stereo, matrixed or discrete surround. It also enables you to know the program's dynamic range. Furthermore, the LFE channel is created by the mixing engineer, not by the decoder. Last but not least, the surround channels are discrete, and cover the entire audio range.
None of this applies to Pro Logic, much less dbx/MTS.
HDTV Future: Don't worry, be happy (Score:2, Informative)
I don't think the future of Digital Television (DTC) is entirely clear yet, but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy better TV watching today.
My understanding is that the FCC's 2006 deadline is a "soft deadline", and that the present TV broadcast spectrum will be returned to the FCC by that date or whenever 85% of the population is equipped to receive DTV (Digital Television) broadcasts, so the transition to DTV may actually take a good deal longer.
Also unresolved is the matter of copy protection for high value programming like first-run movies: The movie studios want it, but will the public buy into any scheme which renders a lot of existing video gear obsolete? One such copy protection standard known as DTCP (Digital Television Copy Protection)has been devised. Relying on encrypted IEEE1394 data links between audio and video components, it has the potential to simplify system hookup, but it also gives content providers the means to control your access to their program materials, and it renders current gear obsolete. To the best of my knowledge, only 1 Sony XBR2 set is currently equipped with IEEE1394. Meanwhile, the competing HDCP (High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection) system utilizes a different connection between components. You can find a HDCP overview here: http://www.dvhs.co.uk/100046.htm . I think inclusion of either in the hardware that we buy amounts to a tax benefiting the movie studios. Neither system affects off-the-air broadcasts but rather, D-VHS tapes, premium programming over cable and satellite.
But success of these or other copy-protection schemes depends on our willingness to buy into them (remember DiVX DVDs?)and I'm perfectly happy to vote for "None of the above" with my dollars. Meanwhile, today's regular broadcasts, video games and DVD movies look dramatically better on a line-doubled premium quality CRT, and at $853.97 (Best Buy), I think a set such as the 27" Samsung Dynaflat is well worth a closer look. When mine wears out, I'll check back to see whether the future has sorted itself out yet ;-)