Hi Def, Finally!
I'll have much more to say about my new Optimum triple play service after I play with it some more. However, for now, I did want to share my initial experience with the high definition TV service. While Bill refers to them as garblevision, so far, the quality of the picture is quite good for the high def channels.
While even with a fat cable, that's still a lot of info to come into my house, and of course it's compressed. The regular definition channels are not really any better than my old analog TV feed, except that the few lines of interference are gone, and there are a lot more channels. Still, it's not any better in the end, except for having some more stations to flip past.
The high definition is another story though. Needless to say, after you see the crystal clear picture once, in all the glorious detail, it become quite addictive, and I see why whole web sites are devoted to this technology. Not even in the stores selling the TV sets have I seen a feed this good (they probably divide it up so many times that it loses the detail). My cable box is hooked into the TV with the component inputs, but I hope to get an HDMI cable if for no other reason than to simplify the spaghetti behind the set.
Optimum TV gives me the locals hi def, and a handful of other channels, but I quickly realized that it's too bad there's not more HD choices. Also, even for the hi def channels, not all of the programs are broadcast in hi def. For example, when watching the local news, I can see the studio cams are hi def, but the field reporters are shot standard def, and they look like something I could do with my Flip Video cam, well, you get the idea.
Speaking of news, while NBC and ABC's nightly news broadcasts are in hi def, CBS is lagging behind with a standard def broadcast. While I'm no fan of Katie Couric, and hope she leaves the broadcast, there may be more to her slacking ratings than the lack of appeal of her perkiness for a national news broadcast, and CBS should upgrade to level the playing field.
While I'm completely unimpressed with digital television over analog, I will say that hi def is a really nice implementation of technology. While it's too bad that it requires too much gear and service to be able to see it (hi def TV, cable subscription, hi def converter box, HD channel and HD broadcast on HD channel), when the planets align, it is something to behold. Here's to a hi def future!
Jonas
Correction: While my local news on ABC is in hi def, my national news is not. As of now, only the NBC Nightly News is in HD of the 3 OTA newscasts. And ABC's is in 1st place, with NBC's in 2nd. Perhaps the HD effect is not as strong as I thought...
While even with a fat cable, that's still a lot of info to come into my house, and of course it's compressed. The regular definition channels are not really any better than my old analog TV feed, except that the few lines of interference are gone, and there are a lot more channels. Still, it's not any better in the end, except for having some more stations to flip past.
The high definition is another story though. Needless to say, after you see the crystal clear picture once, in all the glorious detail, it become quite addictive, and I see why whole web sites are devoted to this technology. Not even in the stores selling the TV sets have I seen a feed this good (they probably divide it up so many times that it loses the detail). My cable box is hooked into the TV with the component inputs, but I hope to get an HDMI cable if for no other reason than to simplify the spaghetti behind the set.
Optimum TV gives me the locals hi def, and a handful of other channels, but I quickly realized that it's too bad there's not more HD choices. Also, even for the hi def channels, not all of the programs are broadcast in hi def. For example, when watching the local news, I can see the studio cams are hi def, but the field reporters are shot standard def, and they look like something I could do with my Flip Video cam, well, you get the idea.
Speaking of news, while NBC and ABC's nightly news broadcasts are in hi def, CBS is lagging behind with a standard def broadcast. While I'm no fan of Katie Couric, and hope she leaves the broadcast, there may be more to her slacking ratings than the lack of appeal of her perkiness for a national news broadcast, and CBS should upgrade to level the playing field.
While I'm completely unimpressed with digital television over analog, I will say that hi def is a really nice implementation of technology. While it's too bad that it requires too much gear and service to be able to see it (hi def TV, cable subscription, hi def converter box, HD channel and HD broadcast on HD channel), when the planets align, it is something to behold. Here's to a hi def future!
Jonas
Correction: While my local news on ABC is in hi def, my national news is not. As of now, only the NBC Nightly News is in HD of the 3 OTA newscasts. And ABC's is in 1st place, with NBC's in 2nd. Perhaps the HD effect is not as strong as I thought...
Labels: Digital Television, HDTV, Television
posted by digitaldoc at 10:14 PM
5 Comments:
Told you HD is amazing :)
Couple things though. Digital tv is a TON better than analog cable! You might want to see if your cable company is broadcasting everything in digital or not, I know our local one broadcasts the same channels you get with analog cable in analog even to the digital sets, but the digital sets have higher channel numbers that have either digital or HD pisture quality - hence the reason cable is WAY too expensive for this type of service, since with the sat providers EVERYTHING is digital or better ;)
Also - our local channels have some non-hd programming also. Ours changes from widescreen to the old 4:3 format, does yours? Does your box stretch it if it doesnt? Kinda goofy to watch a program in HD then have a commercial in 4:3..lol
I am curious as to how well the HD signal holds up also. With sat service, we do get interruptions when it rains or snows sometimes! I am curious as to whether the cable HD does the same thing or not, since they get their signal from a satellite also.
Have fun enjoying the beuatiful picture! Discovery and HGTV are awesome in HD!
Mike
Now that you see the HD goodness, maybe you will check out satellite service in the future ;)
I've had analog cable at work, and you're right, the quality sucks on many of the channels. Then again, we had one feed split among at least 6 TV's so it's not really a fair comparison.
Both of my TV's are on boxes so everything is digital now. I'm not sure if I really need the 2nd box, but I figured they wouldn't run the cable to it if I didn't get it, and it involved getting a feed to an interior wall TV set so I wanted cable to be motivated to get the feed there which worked out.
I'll let you know if it goes out in frost and hurricanes, but so far so good.
I think Oldster turned me off to satellite, but DiscoveryHD would be nice, and Optimum doesn't have it...
Hmmmmm...never had a weather related issue with Fios. We also have the dish just for football season and that is affected by wind, rain, snow, tides, cosmic events, sunspots and gnomes that live on the roof.
I can say watching Deadliest Catch on HD plasma with Discovery HD channel through FIOS is a positively religious experience. It's rare to enjoy something this much that isn't illegal.
I'm not that big of a fan of Deadliest Catch anyway. On the other hand, if you mentioned Dirty Jobs or Mythbusters it would be another story.
At this point, I'm just happy to have Discovery channel and any HD, at least for this week.
andrea - ours has glitches with certain winds also, but not very much.
I would LOVE to test drive FIOS, but it isnt offered here :( Verizon is too slow rolling it out.
I am also wondering if FIOS and cable delay the transmission by a couple seconds so it matches up with the regular digital or analog broadcast, thereby being able to cycle out those glitches..??
It is wierd to watch something in HD in our bedroom and the kid has the same show on in her room on regular digital and there is a time difference between the two - gets disconcerting if you hear them both :)
Mike
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