High Def ramblings and questions

[hershon]

How are you getting your signal from Cable TV or Dish or Au Natural? I take it your PVR is HD. Does you Dish or Cable company supply it? While I'm happy with my Time Wanter DVR I'm still waiting for these people to give me their updated version whoch should allow me to get 5.1 sound & my video copies. These morons, could have programmed the current HD DVR I have Scientific Atlanta HD 8000 but noooooooooooooooooo. All I've been getting from them is the usual Casey Stengle "Who's Your daddy" doubletalk.

Hey, Toenail..
I recently received a basic Toshiba 51" HDTV, RPTV, I got the HD box, PVR, the whole 9 yards, and I'm loving it...after years of being so focused on audio, I can't believe I ignored the video...now everything looks as big and as nice as it sounds. Not as many channels as I'd like, but that's okay. If you're into XBOX at all, it's a must.
Whether you like it or not, your next tv will probably be HD anyway...it's early on in the game, and there's only upside to the potential (unless the advertisers and cable companies anti-piracy HD into the grave, but that's another issue).

Each technology has it's advantages over the others, tastes and esthetics play a huge role in determining which set "looks" better more than the actual picture quality...no different than anything else we buy.

It doesn't have to cost a lot of money either...I say go for it...(I'm great at spending other people's money)

[eisforelectronic]

How are you getting your signal from Cable TV or Dish or Au Natural? I take it your PVR is HD. Does you Dish or Cable company supply it? While I'm happy with my Time Wanter DVR I'm still waiting for these people to give me their updated version whoch should allow me to get 5.1 sound & my video copies. These morons, could have programmed the current HD DVR I have Scientific Atlanta HD 8000 but noooooooooooooooooo. All I've been getting from them is the usual Casey Stengle "Who's Your daddy" doubletalk.

Your Time Warner division should have SA HD/DVR 8300's by now. However, only the component out is activated as of now. I think it still lacks the "copy to vcr" feature. Are you sure you can't get DD 5.1 from your 8000? There should be a digital audio setting under "general settings".

[hershon]

Your Time Warner division should have SA HD/DVR 8300's by now. However, only the component out is activated as of now. I think it still lacks the "copy to vcr" feature. Are you sure you can't get DD 5.1 from your 8000? There should be a digital audio setting under "general settings".

I'll call these morons again today. No one knows whether they're coming or going at Time Warner in LA but funny enough the service is overall very good and relatively inexpensive. Apparently for the HD 8000 DVR you still can't get 5.1 sound - try using the digital connection it won't work. These retards insisted the HD8300 will get both 5.1 sound and allow for VCR recording (which the 8000 would do if they bothered to program it). My repeated phone calls to these knuckleheads wielded after insisting the peons put their supervisors on the phone, repeated "the 8300 is not in yet and there's a waiting list" for which I said well can you verify that I'm on the waiting list for which they said, "we can't see the names on the waiting list but we'll enter your name again", ad nauseum. If it wasn't for you in the first place I wouldn't have even known Time Warner had HD DVR's available in the first place. You'd think these clowns would realize that if they informed their customers regularly on technological improvements they'd make more money, but nooooo. It reminds me of Tower Records, a classic business model for the brain impaired if I ever saw one, having huge stores with a large inventory and having one cashier available at the register for the entire store!

[JeffKnob]

I'll call these morons again today. No one knows whether they're coming or going at Time Warner in LA but funny enough the service is overall very good and relatively inexpensive. Apparently for the HD 8000 DVR you still can't get 5.1 sound - try using the digital connection it won't work. These retards insisted the HD8300 will get both 5.1 sound and allow for VCR recording (which the 8000 would do if they bothered to program it). My repeated phone calls to these knuckleheads wielded after insisting the peons put their supervisors on the phone, repeated "the 8300 is not in yet and there's a waiting list" for which I said well can you verify that I'm on the waiting list for which they said, "we can't see the names on the waiting list but we'll enter your name again", ad nauseum. If it wasn't for you in the first place I wouldn't have even known Time Warner had HD DVR's available in the first place. You'd think these clowns would realize that if they informed their customers regularly on technological improvements they'd make more money, but nooooo. It reminds me of Tower Records, a classic business model for the brain impaired if I ever saw one, having huge stores with a large inventory and having one cashier available at the register for the entire store!

I am not sure what is going on in LA but where I live in WI the 8000 nonHD and the 8300HD that I have had both got 5.1 from Time Warner Cable. Only select things have true 5.1 but that's ok. As for the recording to VCR, I still haven't tried it. I think my parents have done it with their 8000 but I will have to check to make sure. I know this doesn't help your situation except maybe you could yell at them and say that a little town in Wisconsin has these features and LA doesn't!?! That just seems silly.

[kexodusc]

How are you getting your signal from Cable TV or Dish or Au Natural? I take it your PVR is HD. Does you Dish or Cable company supply it? While I'm happy with my Time Wanter DVR I'm still waiting for these people to give me their updated version whoch should allow me to get 5.1 sound & my video copies. These morons, could have programmed the current HD DVR I have Scientific Atlanta HD 8000 but noooooooooooooooooo. All I've been getting from them is the usual Casey Stengle "Who's Your daddy" doubletalk.

Toenail buddy, (ya know I almost always start to call you "Hangnail" for some reason...no offense).
I abandonned the Dish for Digital Cable and haven't looked back. Straight Digital TV is hit and miss IMO, the Dish was way better early on, but not any more...in a region with "turbulent" weather, it was becoming too problematic. And some of the stations receive so much compression that analogue looks better, but I blame the Dish provider for that, not the technology...
Sometimes the format isn't to blame, a lot of stations send out crappy digital signals still and Digital Cable doesn't make this any better.
Best I can tell you is to see if you can hunt down a few people who subscribe to either, and compare for yourself...you might have to do this in a store, but you won't hear about service quality and signal interruptions. From what I hear it varies from region to region as to weather Digital Cable or a Dish is better.
My PVR is HD....the only beef with HD I have is that it's still early on and the technology is ahead of network programming. Here in Canada we get all the Toronto Blue Jays baseball home games in a stunning HD format (Rogers, the HD cable provider owns the team and Skydome - now called Rogers Centre- great MLB package rates), the away games are mostly just digital 480p (I believe) upsampled to 1080i (which is still an improvement over the non HD channel when I flip for comparison), and if the host city has the technology a few away games are HD as well...same goes for the MLB package I subscribe too, so far maybe 1/2 of them have been HD...it's awesome, but hard to go back once you're spoiled.

Almost everything is Dolby Digital 5.1, but be warned, some local programming, live news/sports shows especially, haven't figured it out yet and sometimes dialogue isn't concentrated in the front center, but rather through all 5 channels like a 5 channel dsp or somethign...I think this is a mixing/engineering snafu though, and I'm sure they'll catch on eventually.

It's not for eveyone, but after years of only watching sports, the Simpsons, and the odd other program, I've fallen in love with TV again...PVR is a dream, way easier and more convenient than programming a VCR!!!

[toenail]

Toenail buddy, (ya know I almost always start to call you "Hangnail" for some reason...no offense).
I abandonned the Dish for Digital Cable and haven't looked back. Straight Digital TV is hit and miss IMO, the Dish was way better early on, but not any more...in a region with "turbulent" weather, it was becoming too problematic. And some of the stations receive so much compression that analogue looks better, but I blame the Dish provider for that, not the technology...
Sometimes the format isn't to blame, a lot of stations send out crappy digital signals still and Digital Cable doesn't make this any better.
Best I can tell you is to see if you can hunt down a few people who subscribe to either, and compare for yourself...you might have to do this in a store, but you won't hear about service quality and signal interruptions. From what I hear it varies from region to region as to weather Digital Cable or a Dish is better.
My PVR is HD....the only beef with HD I have is that it's still early on and the technology is ahead of network programming. Here in Canada we get all the Toronto Blue Jays baseball home games in a stunning HD format (Rogers, the HD cable provider owns the team and Skydome - now called Rogers Centre- great MLB package rates), the away games are mostly just digital 480p (I believe) upsampled to 1080i (which is still an improvement over the non HD channel when I flip for comparison), and if the host city has the technology a few away games are HD as well...same goes for the MLB package I subscribe too, so far maybe 1/2 of them have been HD...it's awesome, but hard to go back once you're spoiled.

Almost everything is Dolby Digital 5.1, but be warned, some local programming, live news/sports shows especially, haven't figured it out yet and sometimes dialogue isn't concentrated in the front center, but rather through all 5 channels like a 5 channel dsp or somethign...I think this is a mixing/engineering snafu though, and I'm sure they'll catch on eventually.

It's not for eveyone, but after years of only watching sports, the Simpsons, and the odd other program, I've fallen in love with TV again...PVR is a dream, way easier and more convenient than programming a VCR!!!

The cable box is only a few $/month above what I'm paying now, the HD channels are included in the package I'm already paying for. I may get a set with built in tuner and also the cable box upgrade to have some flexibility. I understand antennas are cheap and I've got a 3rd floor attic with access at both ends for mounting options.