StarvingForHDTV
10-17-2002, 10:43 AM
Hmm... Where do I start? Well it came from:
http://www.electronicexpress.com/product?prod_id=4070
$699.00 + $15.00 Fedex shipping It came double boxed, no damage apparent. The box and everything in it looked brand new. No evidence of it being returned or previously used.
Easy setup. I hooked it up via component and RGB/VGA. The only other connection I used is an optical digital audio cable. This is nice in my opinion. I know when I used the TWC digital set top box, I had to make analog audio connections as well. This box converts any analog audio to digital and spits it out via the optical cable.
I also hooked up my Radio Shack double bow tie with rabbit ears attached. I did the channel scan and it picked out our local CBS,PBS, and Fox digital stations. The picture and sound had frequent dropouts and pixelation. I decided that perhaps the signal would be better with just the double bow tie. I hooked it up that way, and it was true. No more dropouts or pixelation. I could make it dropout by walking between the antenna and where it was pointing, but sitting and watching TV the signal held fine.
I watched some HDNET via the CBS digital feed. Some sort of Gymnastics event. It looked pretty good. Later on a different HDNET show came on which was focusing on an art gallery etc. This was stunning!!! I realized that I was not receiving NBC digital, but remembered from this board that they don't broadcast before 5PM. I did a quick channel scan and NBC appeared.
All four digital stations came in good. No drop outs with the double bow tie alone. The double bow tie sits on top of my TV pointed towards the South. I may try and move the double bow tie outdoors or into my attic to avoid the "walking in front of it" dropout possibility.
Picture quality. I watched NBC "ED" and the definition was nice, but the picture was a bit grainy. I think this had to do with it being shot on film or something. After that I watched FOX (Faux) "Fastlane" in "Widescreen Enhanced". I must say that the picture was definitely softer than a 1080i signal, but a vast improvement to analog. I would much rather have 1080i from Fox, but their "widescreen enhanced" is acceptable and watchable in my opinion. After that I watched CBS "Presidio Med" this was very very nice. I don't know why it was less grainy than "ED" on NBC, but it was. I thought maybe NBC had a worse feed or something. Later on I watched NBC "The Tonight Show w/Jay Leno" at that point I realized NBC's feed is just as good as CBS's when they spit out non-grainy content. A very nice picture.
Sound quality was very good. A large improvement to analog sound quality. I still would rather have Dolby Digital 5.1, but the regular Dolby Digital decodes as Pro Logic, and sounds adequate. Much better than analog sound.
Aspect ratios. I set the Sony to spit out 1080i all of the time for the most part. On non-16:9 material I had it do the "Panorama" mode. This is some sort of progressive stretch or something. Very nice I thought. You would use this to watch channel 18 or 24 analog etc. On the digital stations, when they weren't broadcasting HD signals, the 1080i worked fine for Fox and PBS. Those two stations stretch the image to 16:9 for me. When watching NBC or CBS non-HD digital signals, they send out the signal as 4:3 with built in sidebars. This is easy to deal with also. I just push the format button on the Sony's remote and tell it to spit out the signal as 480p instead of 1080i. At that point the picture is cropped and fills the screen perfectly. Very nice. I just wonder why two stations send out the 4:3 with sidebars and the other two do a stretch. Makes no sense.
RGB vs. Component video hookup. Both looked great on HD material. When I use the RGB though, I lose the ability to adjust Color, Tint, or Sharpness. I can however adjust Black or White levels. In addition I can change Color Temperature, but I don't know which one to use really. Warmest,Warmer,Normal,Cooler,Coolest are my options. I might have to play around a bit. Since there is no noticeable difference in picture quality (to me) between RGB or Component, I use Component for now so I have the Color,Tint,Sharpness controls available to me. Sharpness does not seem to do anything, the picture stays sharp on HD material no matter what the setting, and is less sharp on SD material, no matter what the setting.
This Sharpness was bugging me during Jay Leno. When there were shots far away from the center of the screen, with a sharp contrast line (like white shirt sleeve or collar) on a dark background, I would get these weird 3D like things coming off of the sharp edge. Except of course I didn't have 3D glasses LOL. I thought maybe it was ringing so I turned down the Sharpness. This did not help. Then I remembered something in my TV's owner's manual. It's called Convergence.
There is a single point (Center) convergence, and then a multi-point convergence (other areas of the screen). I have to admit I had never done this before to my TV. I guess this had never bothered me while watching analog TV signals in the past. There was never enough definition to create the issue I suppose. I never noticed it with progressive DVD either, that is strange.
Well anyway the Center convergence was pretty good. On the multi-point, this TV was WAY out of whack. It took me literally over an hour to fix the problems all over the screen. Part of that is a learning curve, but really it's a pretty involved operation. By the time I was finished Leno was off the air, so I didn't get to see the problem fixed for his show. It did really help out my viewing though. If anyone has that adjustment on their TV and hasn't used it, I recommend doing so.
What else is there? Oh yeah, regular stations like 18 or 24 or any TWC stations are hard to watch now. After watching HD material, it's extremely difficult to go back. I hope we get more HD channels very soon. Either over the air, or DirecTV or both. I'm sure I forgot stuff, but this post is long enough. If anyone has any questions about the box, I am more than happy to answer them.
Oh yeah, my one disappointment. I was looking forward to using the "Advanced Program Guide" which would show me the schedule for all the OTA shows, but you have to subscribe to DirecTV to get the guide. Bummer. Hitting the Display button (not Guide button) just shows whether the show is in HD, or whether the audio is Dolby Digital or PCM. It also lists the rating for the show, but not the title or description.
Bottom line, I love this box, and it was worth waiting for. I haven't found any bugs or shortfalls yet.
Starving
http://www.electronicexpress.com/product?prod_id=4070
$699.00 + $15.00 Fedex shipping It came double boxed, no damage apparent. The box and everything in it looked brand new. No evidence of it being returned or previously used.
Easy setup. I hooked it up via component and RGB/VGA. The only other connection I used is an optical digital audio cable. This is nice in my opinion. I know when I used the TWC digital set top box, I had to make analog audio connections as well. This box converts any analog audio to digital and spits it out via the optical cable.
I also hooked up my Radio Shack double bow tie with rabbit ears attached. I did the channel scan and it picked out our local CBS,PBS, and Fox digital stations. The picture and sound had frequent dropouts and pixelation. I decided that perhaps the signal would be better with just the double bow tie. I hooked it up that way, and it was true. No more dropouts or pixelation. I could make it dropout by walking between the antenna and where it was pointing, but sitting and watching TV the signal held fine.
I watched some HDNET via the CBS digital feed. Some sort of Gymnastics event. It looked pretty good. Later on a different HDNET show came on which was focusing on an art gallery etc. This was stunning!!! I realized that I was not receiving NBC digital, but remembered from this board that they don't broadcast before 5PM. I did a quick channel scan and NBC appeared.
All four digital stations came in good. No drop outs with the double bow tie alone. The double bow tie sits on top of my TV pointed towards the South. I may try and move the double bow tie outdoors or into my attic to avoid the "walking in front of it" dropout possibility.
Picture quality. I watched NBC "ED" and the definition was nice, but the picture was a bit grainy. I think this had to do with it being shot on film or something. After that I watched FOX (Faux) "Fastlane" in "Widescreen Enhanced". I must say that the picture was definitely softer than a 1080i signal, but a vast improvement to analog. I would much rather have 1080i from Fox, but their "widescreen enhanced" is acceptable and watchable in my opinion. After that I watched CBS "Presidio Med" this was very very nice. I don't know why it was less grainy than "ED" on NBC, but it was. I thought maybe NBC had a worse feed or something. Later on I watched NBC "The Tonight Show w/Jay Leno" at that point I realized NBC's feed is just as good as CBS's when they spit out non-grainy content. A very nice picture.
Sound quality was very good. A large improvement to analog sound quality. I still would rather have Dolby Digital 5.1, but the regular Dolby Digital decodes as Pro Logic, and sounds adequate. Much better than analog sound.
Aspect ratios. I set the Sony to spit out 1080i all of the time for the most part. On non-16:9 material I had it do the "Panorama" mode. This is some sort of progressive stretch or something. Very nice I thought. You would use this to watch channel 18 or 24 analog etc. On the digital stations, when they weren't broadcasting HD signals, the 1080i worked fine for Fox and PBS. Those two stations stretch the image to 16:9 for me. When watching NBC or CBS non-HD digital signals, they send out the signal as 4:3 with built in sidebars. This is easy to deal with also. I just push the format button on the Sony's remote and tell it to spit out the signal as 480p instead of 1080i. At that point the picture is cropped and fills the screen perfectly. Very nice. I just wonder why two stations send out the 4:3 with sidebars and the other two do a stretch. Makes no sense.
RGB vs. Component video hookup. Both looked great on HD material. When I use the RGB though, I lose the ability to adjust Color, Tint, or Sharpness. I can however adjust Black or White levels. In addition I can change Color Temperature, but I don't know which one to use really. Warmest,Warmer,Normal,Cooler,Coolest are my options. I might have to play around a bit. Since there is no noticeable difference in picture quality (to me) between RGB or Component, I use Component for now so I have the Color,Tint,Sharpness controls available to me. Sharpness does not seem to do anything, the picture stays sharp on HD material no matter what the setting, and is less sharp on SD material, no matter what the setting.
This Sharpness was bugging me during Jay Leno. When there were shots far away from the center of the screen, with a sharp contrast line (like white shirt sleeve or collar) on a dark background, I would get these weird 3D like things coming off of the sharp edge. Except of course I didn't have 3D glasses LOL. I thought maybe it was ringing so I turned down the Sharpness. This did not help. Then I remembered something in my TV's owner's manual. It's called Convergence.
There is a single point (Center) convergence, and then a multi-point convergence (other areas of the screen). I have to admit I had never done this before to my TV. I guess this had never bothered me while watching analog TV signals in the past. There was never enough definition to create the issue I suppose. I never noticed it with progressive DVD either, that is strange.
Well anyway the Center convergence was pretty good. On the multi-point, this TV was WAY out of whack. It took me literally over an hour to fix the problems all over the screen. Part of that is a learning curve, but really it's a pretty involved operation. By the time I was finished Leno was off the air, so I didn't get to see the problem fixed for his show. It did really help out my viewing though. If anyone has that adjustment on their TV and hasn't used it, I recommend doing so.
What else is there? Oh yeah, regular stations like 18 or 24 or any TWC stations are hard to watch now. After watching HD material, it's extremely difficult to go back. I hope we get more HD channels very soon. Either over the air, or DirecTV or both. I'm sure I forgot stuff, but this post is long enough. If anyone has any questions about the box, I am more than happy to answer them.
Oh yeah, my one disappointment. I was looking forward to using the "Advanced Program Guide" which would show me the schedule for all the OTA shows, but you have to subscribe to DirecTV to get the guide. Bummer. Hitting the Display button (not Guide button) just shows whether the show is in HD, or whether the audio is Dolby Digital or PCM. It also lists the rating for the show, but not the title or description.
Bottom line, I love this box, and it was worth waiting for. I haven't found any bugs or shortfalls yet.
Starving