Another HDTV question

Damn now that\'s a difference

Originally posted by Bozco
I won\'t be owning an HDTV for years so I ask myself why I even come to this thread.

a cry for attn or post whoring would be my guess\'...

as for staying on subject. Thanx THX..but two more questions. How much more do these boxes cost..on average, and how much is the monthly fee?

Also do you need a satellite dish to receive Direct tv HD with the RCA-DTC100?

[videoholic]

Monthly fee is standard Direct TV fee.  or Dish Network whichever you choose. Although they will probably both be one within a year or two anyway.

Yes you need an eliptical dish with at least two horns.  You actually need a third horn mounted on the oliptical dish to get future HD programming that may be coming soon to direct tv.


TO get OTA programming there is no fee.  It\'s just antenna.  ANd there is a heck of a lot out there.

They post screen shots all the time on avsforum.  I just saw that one this morning so though you might like.

welp I\'m happy w/ my 36\'\' WEGA, wouldn\'t you be?

If I were you Seraphim , I wouldn\'t worry about getting a television that doesn\'t support 720p.  As Vid already stated, ABC is really the only one broadcasting in 720p right now.  Depending on where you live and how big your UHF antenna is, there\'s no guarantee you can even receive ABC HD or any other OTA broadcast.  I live dead center in the middle of Los Angeles, and the only OTA broadcasts I can receive reliably are Fox and NBC.  The satellite channels like HDNet and HBO HD are 1080i.

Also my television doesn\'t support 720p, so any broadcast in that format is automatically upconverted to 1080i by my satellite receiver.  I\'ve never received ABC though, so I don\'t know what it looks like.  I can tell you that upconverting from 480 or 720 to 1080 may make the image a little fuzzier.  That depends entirely on the quality of the upconversion routine in the satellite receiver.  You need to read reviews of the available models before buying one.  I have the Toshiba DST-3000.

[videoholic]

Where I live in Tampa I can get all the networks and they all look very similar except for FOX.  You can certainly tell the difference.  But at least it\'s in widescreen.  It\'s amazing how much they crop in shows dropping the material down to 4x3.  Most shows on prime time now days are either in HD or widescreen.

Alright my final question after seemingly realizing a HDTV isn\'t worth a sh!t without some sort of converter/reciever other than progressive scan.  So out of the box in 420p mode will I at least be able to watch all the Fox prime times shows in 16x9 and 420p HD or would Fox\'s sorry excuse for HD actualy need a converter as well cuz I don\'t feel like blowing all that money on a coverter right now.

I just looked up the Samsung model you\'re considering, and it does NOT have a built-in satellite or OTA digital receiver.  Therefore if you want to receive any kind of digital broadcast, whether it\'s 480P OTA (like Fox) or 1080i High Def (like HBO HD) then you must have an additional digital receiver set top box.  You can\'t get local OTA broadcasts like FOX using only a UHF antenna.  You must have a set top box (STB) to decode the signal.

[videoholic]

To reiterate cored..

It only comes with an analog receiver.  Meaning you could receiver standard cable and or regular OTA signals.  You ahve to have a Set Top Box (STB) to get all digital signals.