Digital to analog TV converters - *UPDATE*

[Brad Johnson]

I received my coupons for the digital to analog converters last week.  I went out to get them yesterday and everyone was sold out.  After asking around, it looks like everyone who registered for the coupons received them last week regardless of when they registered.  As a result the retailers had a hard spike on coverter sales last week.

By the way, Wally World has a Magnavox unit on for $53.  Looks like most everyone else is $59-$65.

Brad

[41magsnub]

Weird, I got my $40 debit cards over a month ago for the units.

[Manedwolf]

I received my coupons for the digital to analog converters last week.  I went out to get them yesterday and everyone was sold out.  After asking around, it looks like everyone who registered for the coupons received them last week regardless of when they registered.  As a result the retailers had a hard spike on coverter sales last week.

By the way, Wally World has a Magnavox unit on for $53.  Looks like most everyone else is $59-$65.

Brad

It's not rated very well. The RCA is the best-rated one out there. GE is the worst.

[Gewehr98]

$49.00 at the local WallyWorld, and they have a big stack of them.  I have two coupons for $40.00 each.

I may pick one up, just to try out the rabbit ears - the 7 local television stations and their transmission towers are just a few miles from me. After watching those same local stations get pixelated to death last night via the Charter HD feed, I'm thinking I'll just watch local channels through either a pair of skillfully hidden rabbit ears, or put up a small mast on the roof. 

[Manedwolf]

Local stations broadcast in true 1080i HD besides just the digital 480. On mine, the PBS-HD makes the Comcast version look like a dirty window.

Also keep in mind that there's other, older OTA HD tuners out there, too. An activated Voom box will work, as will one for something called "US" or the like that went under, but the digital tuner is excellent. The advantage to those is that unlike the $49 boxes, their output is in HDMI!

[Brad Johnson]

It's not rated very well. The RCA is the best-rated one out there. GE is the worst.

WalMart carries the RCA, too.  And it's $3 cheaper.

Brad

[Manedwolf]

The question I have is...where are the pocket digital TVs?

A recent interview, 90% of people had no idea that the little TVs they take to games will show only snow when the transition happens.

There are no pocket digitals I've seen, not in the US market. Japan, yes. H.264 HD pocket OTA, but it's PAL only.

[Brad Johnson]

A recent interview, 90% of people had no idea that the little TVs they take to games will show only snow when the transition happens.

My guess is the the stadiums will have low-power analog rebroadcasting capabilities to fill the gap.

Brad

[Manedwolf]

A recent interview, 90% of people had no idea that the little TVs they take to games will show only snow when the transition happens.

My guess is the the stadiums will have low-power analog rebroadcasting capabilities to fill the gap.

Brad

They can't. Those frequencies are now owned for something else. I doubt the FCC would allow it. They already auctioned them off.

[mtnbkr]

Not necessarily.  They could allow secondary use as long as that use does not interfere with the primary users of a given frequency.  Happens all the time.

Chris

[wmenorr67]

Am I mistaken in thinking that if you have cable you don't need the conversion boxes?

[Manedwolf]

Am I mistaken in thinking that if you have cable you don't need the conversion boxes?

No, you don't. It's only for OTA signals.

[MicroBalrog]

Why do you need to take a pocket TV to a game of anything? Aren't you going to be watching, like, THE GAME?

[wmenorr67]

Instant replays and sometimes a better view depending on your seats.

Plus you can also watch other games that maybe on at the time.

[MicroBalrog]

Instant replays and sometimes a better view depending on your seats.

Plus you can also watch other games that maybe on at the time.

...wait, you will pay money for seats and then watch the game on TV or even watch something completely different?

*mind shuts down*

[wmenorr67]

Hey it is America.

[taurusowner]

Will one of these make regular old basic cable look not like *expletive deleted*it when viewed on an HD TV?  I just got an HD TV and whilst games and movies look amazing, regular cable looks like absolute garbage.  And no, I can't afford to upgrade to HD cable or anything else.

[Manedwolf]

Will one of these make regular old basic cable look not like *expletive deleted*it when viewed on an HD TV?  I just got an HD TV and whilst games and movies look amazing, regular cable looks like absolute garbage.  And no, I can't afford to upgrade to HD cable or anything else.

Nope. These have antenna in and analog RCA-jack out.

Your only options for digital that looks good are digital cable, or digital HD OTA. If you got an HDTV, it'll have an OTA tuner. Hook it up to an antenna, and you should get good digital HD from your area. Antennaweb.org will show your local stations.

[taurusowner]

Not necessarily.  They could allow secondary use as long as that use does not interfere with the primary users of a given frequency.  Happens all the time.

Chris

Except that bandwidth is going to be used for things like super enhanced wifi and the like.  When that becomes the norm, it's going to be at stadiums too.  When forced to choose between the new applications that all that bandwidth opened up, and broadcasting sports to a handful of people at stadiums, everyone is going to opt for the new applications.

WiFi is very soon going to become an "everywhere" thing.  Instead of WiFi hotspots broadcasting in terms of feet, it will be miles.  Whole cities, states and even the country could have WiFi nearly everywhere.  If you're gonna want to watch video at sports games, it's probably going to be over Wifi, not broadcast analog tv.

Broadcast analog TV is just over.  It's like the telegraph.  That's it.  And idea and technology of the past.

[taurusowner]

Your only options for digital that looks good are digital cable, or digital HD OTA. If you got an HDTV, it'll have an OTA tuner. Hook it up to an antenna, and you should get good digital HD from your area. Antennaweb.org will show your local stations.

How does OTA HD even look?  I've never seen an antenna TV picture in my life that didn't look like scrambled snowy garbage.  Even with the old skool massive towers and arrays on roofs and in yards, it has always look like nonsense to me.

[AJ Dual]

Your only options for digital that looks good are digital cable, or digital HD OTA. If you got an HDTV, it'll have an OTA tuner. Hook it up to an antenna, and you should get good digital HD from your area. Antennaweb.org will show your local stations.

How does OTA HD even look?  I've never seen an antenna TV picture in my life that didn't look like scrambled snowy garbage.  Even with the old skool massive towers and arrays on roofs and in yards, it has always look like nonsense to me.

If the signal strength is good enough that you don't get freezing or bricking/blocks etc. it should look quite good. Being a digital signal the analogy will be your (presumably) digital cell phone, where either the sound quality is good, or it just starts skipping or drops out. There's really very little middle ground, and nothing like ghosts or snow...

[Boomhauer]

How does OTA HD even look?  I've never seen an antenna TV picture in my life that didn't look like scrambled snowy garbage.  Even with the old skool massive towers and arrays on roofs and in yards, it has always look like nonsense to me.

My analog TV picture usually looks very good. We don't have cable or satellite.

[Hawkmoon]

Instant replays and sometimes a better view depending on your seats.

Plus you can also watch other games that maybe on at the time.

...wait, you will pay money for seats and then watch the game on TV or even watch something completely different?

*mind shuts down*

What's your problem, Mate? That makes more sense (to me) than paying $100 for a seat that's so poor you can see the game better on a dinky little pocket telly. If I wanted to watch the game on the telly, why not stay home and watch it on a wide screen with surround sound?

I used to think I was an American, but I think I'm really a Martian. I don't understand Americans at all.

[Gewehr98]

OTA HDTV is better than some cable HDTV channels, as Manedwolf alluded to earlier in this thread.

OTA broadcasts (at least, right now) don't suffer from the bandwidth squeezing that Cox and Charter are doing to cram more digital HDTV content into their frequency spread.  Google "HDTV Lite" for an explanation. I can tell the difference in my local ABC/NBC/CBS/Fox OTA reception vs. the same local feeds through the 700-series channels piped through my Charter Digital HDTV box.  The former are nice and sharp, while the latter are blocky, pixelated, and at times even lock up.  I noticed it especially during the NBA playoffs last weekend, and again the other night watching the annual Academy of Country Music Awards.  I switched over to the rabbit ears hidden behind the entertainment center, and went with the higher-quality OTA broadcast.  That's pretty sad.  

[MicroBalrog]

Instant replays and sometimes a better view depending on your seats.

Plus you can also watch other games that maybe on at the time.

...wait, you will pay money for seats and then watch the game on TV or even watch something completely different?

*mind shuts down*

What's your problem, Mate? That makes more sense (to me) than paying $100 for a seat that's so poor you can see the game better on a dinky little pocket telly. If I wanted to watch the game on the telly, why not stay home and watch it on a wide screen with surround sound?

I used to think I was an American, but I think I'm really a Martian. I don't understand Americans at all.

HOW MUCH MONEY FOR A SEAT?!

You are joking.

There cannot exist $100 seats at sporting events, unless you're talking about some hugely important event of world-shattering importance, and/or the seat is right in front.

I roll a saving throw against illusion. I think I need to get a +5 bonus on it.