[NCLUG] MythTV Questions
DJ Eshelman
djsbignews at gmail.com
Tue Feb 19 08:47:38 MST 2008
You know, I have to say now that I've entered the whole HDTV thing when
I bought what oddly enough is the first new TV I've ever purchased, a
Samsung 65" DLP (the LED based model); and now that I have DirecTV HD
with a DVR and a PS3 for Blu-Ray (it doesn't do much else in my house).
First off- never since the day I moved to Fort Collins eight years ago,
have I gotten an over-the-air signal, SD or HD. I've just never been
motivated enough. Are you people seriously telling me that you are not
only able to get the whopping 3 English speaking channels we can
actually get here, and you're miffed that the gov'ment is taking that away?
Second, this move has been put off three times that I can bring to
memory. I remember reading about Digital over the air TV and the myriad
of benefits (better signal quality, longer signal range and of course
better picture and sound)... back in the late 80s as a theory, then
again as an adopted standard in the mid 90s, and in the late 90s the
promise that all TV would be digital by, if I recall correctly- 2003.
I'd have to check my source on that, but I believe what happened is that
people threw a fit because pretty much all they could buy at the time
were SD TVs without spending a ton, and even though there was even then
the offer of making set-top boxes available for free or cheap, they
still caved and said, I thought- 2007. Then it got pushed to 2009.
This is like Y2k all over again. People wait until the last minute and
panic. But frankly, I can't see the reasons.
Fourth- if you've bought an HDTV in the past year or so, you know the
price isn't much different, the technology is much more Earth-friendly
and frankly there is a noticeable difference in quality. Even DVDs seem
archaic on bigger screens. The reality is that the more progress is
hindered, the longer prices stay high. How can we be the nation that
developed the internet, yet be one of the last first world nations to
adopt DTV broadcasts?
Fifth- forgive me if I'm wrong, but I believe cable companies (and in
certain areas satellite providers as well) are required to carry
unencrypted DTV broadcasts of local channels. I haven't bothered to
try, but I believe that even when you just have cable internet,
supposedly you should be able to put an HDTV tuner on it and tune in
local DTV broadcasts. Is anyone able to confirm/deny this?
Now, there is a problem that I have currently, and it's a bigg'n- You
can't just take a true HD recording from a source like DirecTV HD or
Cable HD and put it on a Myth box. You also have no way to extract
(digitally) recordings from the Linux-based DVR's these companies
provide- trust me, they're encrypted drives with the decrypt hard-wired
into the box. It just can't be done by removing the hard drive and
hooking it up to your Media Server.
So, with that I can see some bummer about not being able to use Myth for
recording these broadcasts, and it would be very nice if these DVRs had
half of the brains of MythTV and the myriad of sub-products developed
around it. But for me anyway, watching SD content on that screen makes
me want to cry; it just looks crappy. I also understand that it's
getting really hard to find HDTV hardware that will allow you to record
over-the-air DTV in HD; can anyone confirm/deny that? Though I have to
agree with Brian- Desperate Housewives isn't funny at any resolution.
And aside from shows like Heroes and Lost... *meh* I say to broadcast
television in general.
That said, a recent update to the PS3 has made it possible to play
Divx/xviD movies in upscaled HD that look surprisingly good; so it could
be that there's still hope for going the MPEG4 route... but for me; I
bought my system mostly as a social thing- I make it a point to invite
people over to experience /300/ in 7.1 surround sound with a 65"
screen. Otherwise it just wouldn't have been worth it; because once you
go HD, trust me when I tell you that there is no going back. I tried
watching /Planet Earth/ in SD the other day and a single tear formed
because I knew it could be so much better...
But I digress.
-DJ
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