[BC] An HD Tuner for $110

[Dennis Cope]

I think HDTV is the greatest advance in home entertainment since NTSC
color. I find myself watching shows I wouldn't have otherwise watched
because of the near feature film production values that are visible in the
HDTV broadcasts in the best network series (like the CSI's). I only see
artifacts very occasionally and find them far less annoying than the
ghosting I get from off-air NTSC or the video noise from the analog NTSC on
my cable service.

As far as I can see, the only dark cloud on the horizon is that Hollywood
plans to screw early adopters by not making analog high definition outputs
available on the upcoming high definition DVD players (and possibly
down-rezing the analog outputs of existing HD cable boxes). In Hollywood's
brave new world, you need HDMI or you don't get high def, period.

The consumer magazines are WAY behind the curve on this issue; Consumer
Reports recently did an issue devoted almost entirely to big-screen TV
without mentioning copy protection issues and HDMI even once. I can
understand advertiser-supported magazines not making an issue out of this
because the fact is that right now, any multichannel receiver you buy is
obsolete before you get it out of the box. Smart consumers will wait until
a new generation of receivers with a full complement of HDMI inputs and
outputs becomes available. And no one should buy a big screen TV that
doesn't have at least one HDMI input.

Bob Orban



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How does HDMI differ from the DVI system I use (except the audio)?

I shove the DVI signal directly into the Hitachi.  The audio uses the TOS
link into the Sony receiver for 5.1 or PCM decoding.
I then further process the audio with an Aphex 204 and the sound (R L)
appears to jump out of the speakers into the room.
FC and the RR - LR are unprocessed.

Dennis
WESR, WCTG