Bought an HD-TV: Waste of Money

[Marc]

We went through this same issue a few months ago.

Chose to just return the tv. A wise decision, because when out local phone/tv/internet provider finally did decide to offer HD channels, they also decided to charge $8 per tv per month for the upgrade.

Not happening in this house. Apparently they missed the news of a recession...?

And that's the TVs either come with a digital turner or you you can by a digitital set top box which will pick up the HD broadcasts from the Fox/NBC/CBS etc and you could probably pick on up for less than $100.

That way you can get HD content and not pay a monthly fee.

This really does seem to a problem of Pebcat - Problem Exists Between Chair and Tv.

 

[ThankQ]

Yeah, that's right, I totally like didn't think of that, dude.

He can go pick up a $30 antenna for network HD, right?

 

[milo bloom]

A regular TV antenna will pull in local over-the-air HD signals. We bought a new Samsung LCD HD tv last summer and it has a built-in digital tuner and the over the air channels look great.

Here's an article with a quick rundown of the issue, and the second paragraph has a link to a signal finder by zipcode
http://hd.engadget.com/2006/01/30/ota-hd-demystified/

http://antennaweb.org/aw/Address.aspx

Signal by zipcode
http://antennaweb.org/aw/Address.aspx


Also, on your new TV, go into the picture settings and crank the brightness way down. Seriously, lower. No, even lower than yet. Yes, so low that it's hard to make out the image. Now, play DVDs and watch tv like that for at least a solid week, *then and only then!* do you start increasing the brightness one small step at a time.
New TV's come from the factory with the brightness preset to what's called "torch mode." This is so that if a store pulls one of their models out to be a floor model, the image will look good under the store's bright florescent lighting. In a normal home setting, that makes any artifacts in the single just stand out until the brightness is lowered to a normal level.

Don't give up on it, it just needs a little work and it will be worth the trouble.

 

[RobertVA]

We went through this same issue a few months ago.

Chose to just return the tv. A wise decision, because when out local phone/tv/internet provider finally did decide to offer HD channels, they also decided to charge $8 per tv per month for the upgrade.

Not happening in this house. Apparently they missed the news of a recession...?

For converter/remote rental or in addition to the equipment rental?

My provider charges monthly rentals for each converter/remote set plus $5 for the second digital TV "outlet" (only equipment rentals for the third and subsequent outlets). Rental is the same for each analog, SD digital and non-DVR HD converter. In addition to higher rentals for DVR capable converters, there's a monthly fee for "DVR service" that I believe covers all the DVRs in the household.

Since I'm paying plenty for Internet and one set of premium channels and do the majority of viewing on one of my TVs I'm sticking to an older analog converter with my second outlet.

 

[Captain Ice]

Mr. Light,

Before you use your television as a $330 doorstop for the next four months, you should try calling your cable company. You said you have basic cable already.

Over here, we have an HD cable box and HD service for the one HD capable set in the house. This setup costs us about $10 a month extra. You don't have to commit to an installation fee either. You just have to go down to their office to pick up the box, which you then install yourself.

 

[Starbreaker]

Instead of having your TV sit in a box for months, go buy a $10 antenna to get broadcast channels in HD, if you're already not getting them through your cable. Check your guide, you might already be. I get them through mine for no extra charge, even though they're listed as 455-86 and other weird channel numbers. Do a search on your TV if you're not using a box.

And they have $40 DVD players that upconvert now.

 

[Mr Light]

I watch more cable than broadcast so I dunno if buying the antenna would be worth it; I take this antenna doesn't have to be outside right? So the HD-Cable box thing, does this just plug into the pre-existing cable? Because I'm moving soon and why bother the cost and bother of installing new crap.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

You need to keep this TV, once you hook up some High Def equipment like a console,cable box or BR player your in for a real treat.

I'm in the same boat, my HD TV really shows up just how bad my cable box picture is with all its artifacts and poor bit rates, but stick in a HD game, BR movie or even some downlaoded HD media and WOW!!!

 

[Pingfah]

^ He's on dial-up, so DLing HD media is not really an option. I dread to think how long it would take to DL a 4GB movie on dial-up

 

[Squiggy]

^ He's on dial-up, so DLing HD media is not really an option. I dread to think how long it would take to DL a 4GB movie on dial-up

At 56kpbs...

6 days, 14 hours, 43 minutes, 48 seconds.

 

[Marc]

^ He's on dial-up, so DLing HD media is not really an option. I dread to think how long it would take to DL a 4GB movie on dial-up

At 56kpbs...

6 days, 14 hours, 43 minutes, 48 seconds.

Assuming they don't browe and post on TrekBBS in the meantime

 

[Squiggy]

Yeah. That screws everything up and why we're stuck with 60k gifs for avatars.

 

[MANT!]

Well..lets see...

HDMI cable is really nearly a must for the Xbox with a HDTV..you should be able to upconvert your signal using that set-up to 720P for movies.. looks MUCH better..

But if your signal source is VHS...resolution of VHS tape is (about) 240i ; broadcast TV (about) 480i lines, laserdisc (about) 480p lines; and DVD (about) 480p lines. NOTE upconvertering allows you to get a "fake" signal of about 720p or 1080i off of a DVD using assorted enhancement hardware and software to up the picture quality..similar to those used to enhance military video sources...but the true resolution isn't available until you goto HD-DVD (a now deceased format) or Blue-ray...

It's all a matter of the Video source..something you never had to worry about until now as it was all the same...

http://www.hdtvinfoport.com/HDTV.html

 

[Pingfah]

^ He's on dial-up, so DLing HD media is not really an option. I dread to think how long it would take to DL a 4GB movie on dial-up

At 56kpbs...

6 days, 14 hours, 43 minutes, 48 seconds.

Assuming they don't browe and post on TrekBBS in the meantime

Quicker than I was thinking actually, I remember DLing 80MB episodes of Buffy and waiting all day for them back in the day.

I did a 4GB movie in just under an hour the other day. Hoorray for the internet!

 

[Haggis and tatties]

^ He's on dial-up, so DLing HD media is not really an option. I dread to think how long it would take to DL a 4GB movie on dial-up

Oh dear...

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Why would someone buy an HDTV while knowing absolutely nothing about what would be required to actually take advantage of it?

 

[judge alba]

Why would someone buy an HDTV while knowing absolutely nothing about what would be required to actually take advantage of it?

ermm have to admit I did that last year. Thought it was a good idea at the time.
Did give me an excuse to my other half that we needed a blu-ray player and the like

 

[Captain Ice]

I watch more cable than broadcast so I dunno if buying the antenna would be worth it; I take this antenna doesn't have to be outside right? So the HD-Cable box thing, does this just plug into the pre-existing cable? Because I'm moving soon and why bother the cost and bother of installing new crap.

The antenna could just sit right on top of your set.

To install the HD cable box, you just unscrew the coax cable from the back of the set and screw it into the box. Plug an HDMI cable into the back of both the box and the set and you are good to go. You should also be able to get an HD DVR box from your cable company should you desire to go that route.

 

[Saturn0660]

Many cable companies encrypt out of town digital channels to prevent reception by subscribers who don't pay for the applicable programming tiers. Reception of those channels may require rental of a digital converter from the cable company. Some companies will allow customers to pick up those converters at an "over the counter" customer service center for significantly less than the charges for a technician to visit the subscriber's residence to install the converter. There will probably be a modest monthly increase in the cable bill for the converter/remote rental.

For the near future some cable providers will be duplicating the content on some of their digital channels on analog cable frequencies. Any channels subject to those duplications may be an unscrambled format available to analog "cable ready" TVs without the use of a rented converter. Those duplicates might disappear in phases as the cable provider makes room for more digital channels (SD or HD)

True dat... Course you could live in my Town...

Our only cable company is on a FULL Digital QAM system.
The short of it means. Just having a new HDTV isn't enough. just having a digital turner isn't enough.

Your tv doesn't have a QAM tuner built in? You'll need a box.. Now, to be fair they do provide up to three of these DCB's at no charge. Course they are total junk..

Oh, you own an HD set without on? That box works fine. However, no HD for you. You need our HDTV box. Remember it's only $7 (per month per box).. Oh, you need a remote to control it too?? .50 extra(per month per box).

Oh but wait... you want ALL of your channels in HD? that will be an extra $7.50(per month). I almost forgot, you don't truly get EVERYTHING we have in HD... You want HDNet/HDnetmovies/MgmHD/NBCU-HD. That will be $5 extra(per month).

However, we also offer a DVR service. add $10(per box) if you want that too.. Add HBO/Starz/etc/etc... Sure we can do that... Only $15 each(plus of course $1 for every box you have that can do it).


God praise my ClearStream4 antenna.

 

[Brian]

I don't get why Mr Light's standard cable would look worse.

Are you telling me that if I upgrade to an HDTV that I can no longer watch basic cable, only channels that are HD?

Why wouldn't the basic cable look at least as good as it does on a standard TV?