Originally posted by hanjke
Anyone ever see the list of top ten celebs to see in HD... and top ten NOT to see?

http://www.onhd.tv/thelist.htm

Is it bad that I don't want to see any of the people on either list in HD?
Dug

bigdaddy10,
I live in Ferguson, which is a bit closer to the WRBU tower than you are. I get the best results with an indoor hdtv powered antena from Radio Shack. 46-1 is really hard for us for get out here. Just recently, I started getting a watchable signal, but only late at night, after the air traffic has died down.....and there's nothing of interest to watch anyway. A few months ago, I got great signal during the day for a few days, and actually recorded a couple of episodes of Enterprise. Then, all of the sudden, the signal just dropped, and it hasn't been there like that since.

Hey guys, how'd you like that SW III trailer last night after The O.C.? Pretty cool huh? I recorded it onto dvhs.

Yep, definitely a must-see May 19!

Originally posted by jedi35
Hey guys, how'd you like that SW III trailer last night after The O.C.? Pretty cool huh? I recorded it onto dvhs.

Sweeeettt!!!

The trailer looked awesome. We caught a glimps of Chewy...anybody think we may see a few minutes of Han (as a boy/smuggler)?

Originally posted by jedi35
bigdaddy10,
I live in Ferguson, which is a bit closer to the WRBU tower than you are. I get the best results with an indoor hdtv powered antena from Radio Shack. 46-1 is really hard for us for get out here. Just recently, I started getting a watchable signal, but only late at night, after the air traffic has died down.....and there's nothing of interest to watch anyway. A few months ago, I got great signal during the day for a few days, and actually recorded a couple of episodes of Enterprise. Then, all of the sudden, the signal just dropped, and it hasn't been there like that since.

Hey guys, how'd you like that SW III trailer last night after The O.C.? Pretty cool huh? I recorded it onto dvhs.

Thank You for your reply,

I really just wanted to see Enterprise in HD. I don't believe they have anything else broadcast in HD.

Originally posted by jedi35

Hey guys, how'd you like that SW III trailer last night after The O.C.? Pretty cool huh? I recorded it onto dvhs. [/B]

The O.C.? You have got to be kidding me. Did you know the trailer was going to be broadcast or did you actually watch the O.C.?

Originally posted by redwine
The O.C.? You have got to be kidding me. Did you know the trailer was going to be broadcast or did you actually watch the O.C.? They had been promoting the trailer all week. I switched over to watch the trailer. I'm with you though, I can't stomach The O.C.

hey the OC is my favorite show!.......ALRIGHT my wife watches it. But yes the trailer makes this movie look awesome

In all fairness, The O.C. has some pretty nice eye candy of the female gender, looking great in HD......(just watched it for the first time). Speaking of eye candy, have you guys checked out Point Pleasant on FOX? Pretty cool stuff. Thanks, Bob.

bigdaddy10,
Oh no, 46-1 doesn't broadcast ANYTHING in HD. Enterprise is being shown in 480p 4:3 aspect ratio.

Well, I've having some fun with my ChannelMaster 4 Bay. If you recall, I'm near Antonia and wanted to receive the local stations over the air. I'm not done experimenting as yet, but I don't understand what is happening. Perhaps I need to know exactly where the TV station antennas are!?

Anyway, I get Channels 2 (22 degrees,13 miles), channel 4 (37 degrees, 14 miles), channel 5 (26 degrees, 16 miles), and channel 11 (27 degrees, 16 miles). The signals are strong, and the reception is great. The angles and distances are most likely to Imperial, which is about 5 miles east of my house.

I don't understand why channel 9 (23 degrees, 9 miles), and channel 30 (26 degrees, 17 miles), are not received equally well. It would make sense (to me, the novice), since they are within the direction and approximate distance that the other stations are.

Anybody got any ideas? My guess is that channel 9 is behind a hill, but I don't have a clue about channel 30.

Thanks, Don

Hey Jedi, correction: WRBU is 480i, 4x3. Even on Enterprise.

About Point Pleasant... that Dina Meyer gets hotter every episode.

I took my kids to see Robots yesterday and they showed the trailer for Episode III. It really does look good. I'm sure they'll break all kinds of box office records. I bet the DVD release is set for the Christmas season only to have the HD-DVD release a couple months later. Lucas will make $$$$ coming and going.

Oops, correction noted. Surprise, surprise....it looks like I got a steady enough signal to actually tape Enterprise onto dvhs off 46-1. This is quite rare for me. I still need to check the tape to be sure. This might be a stupid question, but how hard is it for WRBU to set the correct time for their digital channel? It's off by more than 2 hours, and the minutes are wrong as well. This makes timer recording a RPITA.

Off Topic: I saw the new Bruce Willis flick HOSTAGE tonight. Go see this one, folks. It's the best thing he's done since the original DIE HARD. Edge of your seat stuff from beginning to end.

I just got a Charter hi-def cable box. (not the Moxi box). When I tune to a hi-def station I receive a 1080i signal even if the broadcast is not hi-def.
On all other stations I receive a 480i signal. Is it possible to change the output on the cable box? I went to the setup menu, but there are no options to do that. I have an NEC plasma and haven't been able to do it from the TV either.

StockInv,

I assume that you're referring to a situation where a local broadcaster is sending a non-HD program over their HD station. If correct, the actual format of the broadcast is high-definition (for example, 1080i for KMOV or 720p for KTVI).

The station converts the analog broadcast to the HD format, and as far as I know there's no way to selectively change this to 480i or 480p using the Charter (Motorola) STB.

If I'm misunderstanding your issue, clarify and I'll try again.

Oh, I think I can help here. Turn the power off on your Charter box, then press "menu" on the remote right away. this will pull up a settings menu that you can't get to when the box is on. The first menu item is for the kind of display you have(widescreen or 4:3), and the second listing is for output resolution. You can chose anything from 1080i to 480i. Next, you can chose how you want the box to handle 4:3 material within the 16:9 frame, disable it(so it can fill a huge SD screen), or whatever.

When you are done, press menu again, and power up the box.

I finally got around to playing with my ChannelMaster Jointenna today. I had special ordered a channel 56 (for KMOV 4DT). I was only getting 68-71 with my Channel Master 4228 in the attic, but I have a large VHF/UHF antenna on the roof with a rotator. So I connected both the channel master and the roof antenna via the channel master, and am now getting 83 strong for KMOV.

I'd said I'd keep you all updated, so there it is. This thing works awesome! Didn't interfer with the other stations signal strength, and PBS works better (probably just random coincidence).

This is seems to be a great solution to people with signals coming in opposite directions who don't want to mess with a rotator. Note, you can also chain/waterfall these, so you could, in theory, have several different antennas in all directions to maximize signal strength.

I have been trying to watch Gladiator on the TNT HD (E*) for the past hour and it is terrible. The sound is all right but the picture looks like it being shown in slow motion. Just terrible for such a great movie. Anyone else notice this?

Originally posted by bigdaddy10
Can anyone in Florissant pickup WRBU with an indoor antenna?
I can pickup all the other stations with about an 80 - 90% signal. KETC is the worse at 70-75% but that is plenty good. WRBU only comes in at 48% when I try to manually tune it in but it never shows a picture. I use the DishNetwork 811 receiver.

This is SOP for the Dish 811. It seems that when it struggles to pick up a weak signal it will display 49%. This what most ch. 46 users see, so you're not alone. Not much to see on that channel anyway.

Remove all splitters BEFORE sending your antenna to the 811. This may help.

StLouG,
I had some guys over last night for a pj comparison, and Gladiator was one of the films we touched on. However, I got it through TNT HD on Voom. All 3 of us marveled at the picture quality, there were no problems. I suspect it was your Dish feed.

The 2 pjs were my Optoma H31 and the Infocus 4805. I'll leave the details to someone else who took good notes on what he saw. These 2 pjs represent the best value/performance in the sub $1500 range, IMHO. Bottom line, you won't make a mistake by buying either one. You'd have to spend thousands more to significantly beat them, if possible.

It was also nice to have 2 witnesses to see me get a good stable watchable signal on 46-1 during daytime hours, proving that I'm not seeing things. I'm sure that the airport or WRBU will screw something up so that I don't consistantly get a good signal. It would be nice for this good signal to continue through the end of Enterprise, then I don't care.

Originally posted by jedi35
StLouG,
I had some guys over last night for a pj comparison, and Gladiator was one of the films we touched on. However, I got it through TNT HD on Voom. All 3 of us marveled at the picture quality, there were no problems. I suspect it was your Dish feed.

The 2 pjs were my Optoma H31 and the Infocus 4805. I'll leave the details to someone else who took good notes on what he saw. These 2 pjs represent the best value/performance in the sub $1500 range, IMHO. Bottom line, you won't make a mistake by buying either one. You'd have to spend thousands more to significantly beat them, if possible.

It was also nice to have 2 witnesses to see me get a good stable watchable signal on 46-1 during daytime hours, proving that I'm not seeing things. I'm sure that the airport or WRBU will screw something up so that I don't consistantly get a good signal. It would be nice for this good signal to continue through the end of Enterprise, then I don't care.

Great to hear. My wife just told me that my Toshiba 62HMX94 was just delivered. I can see if the television can pick up 46-1 better then the 811 receiver.

Saw this article in the Post today. Indicates that, like last year, KMOV will be showing different games on their HD vs SD channel, unless Illinois or SIUC are playing, in which case the game will be on both channels
Story (http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/stories.nsf/ncaatournament/story/16D8AF82F1D1A11F86256FC50017B2CC?OpenDocument&highlight=2%2Ccaesar)

I love this quote:
Viewers who receive KMOV's high-definition channel will be able to see games in the NCAA Tournament that aren't on Channel 4's over the air station.
Silly me, I was under the impression that the HD channel was OTA also:rolleyes:

Here's the crazy new DVD release pricing at Ultimate Electronics, "The Incredibles" is $11.95 plus you get a $5.00 gift card. The new CEO (founder of Hollywood Video) wants to increase floor traffic. I bet this will get it done.

Oooh, I'd better get to Ultimate. BTW, here are a couple of links to reviews written by me and Dan, comparing our pjs(the Optoma H31 and the Infocus SP4805). I think they both represent the best values in the sub $1500(if not the entire)home theater pj market. Those of you who are thinking about purchasing a pj now or anytime in the future might want to check it out.

My writeup:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=479946&perpage=20&pagenumber=59

Dan's:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=520007&perpage=20&pagenumber=1

They are both pretty long, so grab something to eat...:D :D

I thought I'd just throw out a reminder here that there's a bunch of useful information for OTA HDTV newcomers at the very beginning of this thread:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?postid=2995679#post2995679

The first three posts cover some of the basic information about stations available in the St. Louis area, maps showing where each station's transmission tower is located, your rights to erect an antenna or satellite dish, information about Dolby Digital 5.1 availability from local stations as well as answers to some of the most frequently posed questions popping up here during the past year or so.

If you're new and you've got "learning curve" questions or issues, I suggest you take time to browse through these first few messages, especially if you ask a question that doesn't get you an answer in a reasonable amount of time.

Tom,
Thanks for the heads up on the Incredibles DVD.
Dug

OK, I know this isn't the right place, but currently it's the only site I can actually post on. Is anybody else having problems with Charter Internet tonight or the internet in general? I lost navigation capabilities to most sites, but I can still get to this and MSN, but can't get to yahoo or a host of other sites. Anybody else having problems?

And to keep this somewhat on theme, thanks for the info on The Incredibles :)

edit: Update: I can get to ebay, but cant see any pictures. Most sites I can't get to. On top of this Charter's phone number stopped working, although I can't for sure it's them....at this time, I almost sure.

For a while tonight, I wasn't getting any web sites at all. But e-mail and GAIM were working fine. Problem seems to be fixed now, though.

Is anyone else using a MyHD card for OTA HD and what success are you having with it?

To answer the question on Charter internet... I tracked it down to DNS issues. I changed my dns servers and it resolved the issue so I could surf again.

Ultimate Electronics here I come.

Rich

I just read the Greenville, SC thread, and the Charter subscribers there are celebrating the addition of TNT HD, AND, UNIVERSAL HD. (Their also going ga-ga over the just added local cbs hd).

I read the prior announcement about Charter adding TNT HD--but I did'nt know they were going to add, Universal HD.

Of course, what St. Louis eventually gets is anybody's guess.

Originally posted by skippy_rq
To answer the question on Charter internet... I tracked it down to DNS issues. I changed my dns servers and it resolved the issue so I could surf again.

Ultimate Electronics here I come.

Rich

How do you know what to change them to?

Originally posted by tcfila
How do you know what to change them to?

My friend runs a hosting company so I used his. I also had the IPs of the DNS servers for SBC. I had called my friend that has SBC DSL and he gave me his servers if the hosting ones didn't work.

Rich

Originally posted by DroptheRemote
I haven't looked closely at the HDNet test patterns, but it's been documented here on AVS (and elsewhere) that the overscan pattern has been incorrect since Day One and the problem has never been addressed.

In my mind that raises questions about the usefulness of all of the HDNet patterns, even for a basic AVIA-style tune-up. It's nice that HDNet is doing this, but if the patterns aren't based on correct standards, what's the point?

While I wouldn't worry too much about what the resolution pattern is indicating, feel free to drop me a private message if you want to go into more detail on this issue. I actually recorded the patterns last month, but don't have them available at the moment, so a screenshot would be useful if you want to get into specifics. Thanks for the reply. I've been out of town a few days so that's why I'm just now responding. Have you have a chance to look at the HDNet's test pattern and see what kind of resolution it says your HD set is displaying? The have directions that tell you what to look for in the third test pattern (to supposedly determine your display resolution).

Originally posted by skippy_rq
My friend runs a hosting company so I used his. I also had the IPs of the DNS servers for SBC. I had called my friend that has SBC DSL and he gave me his servers if the hosting ones didn't work.

Rich

One could also use any of the Level3 DNS servers which are rarely down. Try anything from 4.2.2.1 to 4.2.2.6.

Incredible!
I drove right past Ultimate in St. Peters last night to get it at Best Buy!
Should have read the forum first...

Went to Ultimate earlier and picked up two copies (one for my mom). Got the $5 gift card on both of them. Sweet deal!!

Rich

Fiasco

I have both the original 100 and the 120, seriously considering ordering the I think 130 before the broadcast flag goes into effect and it will record from cable.
Have a UHF only Radio Shack exterior antenna at my home and it is mounted high above the roof but am in a valley, at another location have the zenith silver inside antenna.

With the exterior antenna I consistently have a strong signal on all but CBS and UPN, have never recd UPN. Can change the direction slightly and get CBS but loose WB and Channel nine.

With the inside antenna I am getting UPN off and on and all channels but WB and Channel nine.

I have had the original 100 for several years and the 120 for one year. I almost never see prime time TV when it is broadcast and record something nearly every night.

Also have the MOXI box. Had a tivo that the hard drive died and I replaced it with the 120 last year.

The newest software allows you to use the MYHD's like a TIVO and the MOXI with pause and replay.

You will enjoy.

Ron

I caught this week's episode of 24 at Bob's tonight, and man was it good. It had a killer 5.1 soundtrack that was especially great this time. It had us looking up and behind us...

Can't wait to hear Alias and Lost in 5.1 as well.

Originally posted by jedi35
I caught this week's episode of 24 [...] It had a killer 5.1 soundtrack that was especially great this time. It had us looking up and behind us...


I agree. The sound on the shootout at the gun shop was magnificent.

Has anyone ever seen or heard of a way to transmit an HDTV signal over Cat5 wires? I have found some hardware called baluns (http://www.svideo.com/500021.html) that let you send a component signal over cat5 but it is limited to 480i/480p level signal. Does anyone else know of another way to do this and get a higher signal? I am trying to place an LCD HDTV on the wall and have the signal sent over a cat5 cable that is all ready located at the mounting area. That way my box can be located out of sight.

Scroft391,
You might be able to get an encoded digital HD signal over Cat5, but I don't think you can get an analog HD signal over Cat5 without a lot of signal degradation. I even question how well the product you mentioned would really work for 480p!

Looks like I might be wrong:
http://www.remotecentral.com/cgi-bin/mboard/rc-custom/thread.cgi?4763,new

I'd be curious to find someone who used one of the (much cheaper) passive products to hear how well they really work.

I see that Comcast in Baltimore and Sinclair Broadcasting have come to a agreement on Fox 45. I wonder how many cable companies carry Sinclair DTV signals.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bal-bz.sinclair17mar17,1,1352241.story?coll=bal-business-headlines%3Ehttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.baltimoresun.com%2Fbusiness%2Fb al-bz.sinclair17mar17%2C1%2C1352241.story%3Fcoll%3Dbal-business-headlines&ctrack=1&cset=true

Hey Tommeyj,

I think Comcast in Baltimore will be the first.

I wonder if Comcast agreed to pay the 50 cents per subscriber that Sinclair was demanding? If so, I wouldn't expect to see KDNL on Charter for a looooong time. But if not and Sinclair caved/compromised, that might actually be a good sign.

Jedi and Dave, 24 has been my favorite show for four years now, and that soundtrack is a major reason why. It gives big budget Bruce Willis Die Hard flicks a run for their money! Can't wait to see what they have in store for the President the next few episodes....

why is Charter broadcasting KTVI's SD feed on 782?

To all you local Tivo, Moxi and other dvr users out there, here is a clip from an email that went out to the members of ATLAS, a Star Trek Club I belong to(yes, I admitted it....now move on). :D :D It seems that the Post Dispatch is interested in our dvr experiences....

While leafing thru the online version of the St. Louis Post Dispatch, I
saw this:

"Tell us how, for a story on the DVR revolution. We're interested
hearing from TiVo users (cable or satellite), viewers with Charter's
Moxi box or anyone who uses a different brand. Please include your name
and city. E-mail TV critic Gail Pennington at
gpennington@post-dispatch.com <mailto:gpennington@post-dispatch.com>"

I figure that many of you have a great deal to contribute to this and
have a great chance to get on both the online edition and printed
edition of the newspapers.

Well, it's been several days now, and I'm still getting a steady signal from 46-1. I recorded Enterprise again tonight OTA. Has anyone else noted any kind of improvement in the signal strength?

The LA Times recently ran a lengthy feature article about the founder of the Imaging Science Foundation (ISF), Joe Kane, and the continuing trend toward calibration of home theater displays and big-screen TVs.

This story originally required an LAT subscription, but I noticed yesterday that it has been hosted here at AVS, so I'm passing on the link for anyone who's more interested in learning what video calibration is about.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?threadid=520657

StockInv -- thanks again for pointing out this story to me earlier in the week...

Anyone here know a good place to take a vintage turntable to get overhauled? Also, who in the area sells turntables?

Scott

I have never taken a turntable to him (mainly because I don't have one) but Zaw Win at Alpha-Tech Electronics is where I take my electronics in need of repair. He does excellent work. (314) 645-5251

Steve

Thanks Steve.

Scott

Scott,

Music for Pleasure still does a lot of turntables, they might be able to help you or suggest someone.

Best Sound on Lindberg also does turntables.

Thanks guys.

Scott

Ya, Talk to Tim at Best sound for a new TT rig and Zaw is your man for the restore. Good People!

Originally posted by GlendaleHDTV
Saw this article in the Post today. Indicates that, like last year, KMOV will be showing different games on their HD vs SD channel, unless Illinois or SIUC are playing, in which case the game will be on both channels
Story (http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/stories.nsf/ncaatournament/story/16D8AF82F1D1A11F86256FC50017B2CC?OpenDocument&highlight=2%2Ccaesar)

I love this quote:

Silly me, I was under the impression that the HD channel was OTA also:rolleyes:

Apparently they forgot SIU was playing today...had to watch it in SD :(

Monday Night Football move to ESPN in 2006?
Possibly.
I am torn at this one, guys.
GOOD- On one side, we cable customers can't watch it in HD because of the Sinclair issue in St Louis. On ESPN I would be able to watch it.
BAD- ESPN broadcasts in 720p, and when I lived in Chicago I saw a HUGE difference between MNF on ABC (spectacular) and NFL on ESPN (better than SD, but not even in competition with 1080i on ABC.)

Any other thoughts?

Everything ABC is 720 if I'm not mistaken. Some local stations upconvert to 1080 inhouse.
dug

I never saw any HD on ABC, but ESPN had by far the best production IMHO.

I'm all for ESPN doing MNF. Sinclair is the devil...

Yeah, ABC does 720p. I have my STB convert it to 1080i so my monitor can see it. Since ABC and ESPN are both owned by the same company, I'll bet they use identical equipment anyway.

I've got a question about Charter. Do they have a PVR capable of recording HD? Is that the Moxi? Does it have RGB (HD-15) out? I have an NEC 6PG projector that I'll be feeding.

I am currently using DirecTV and their dual tuner SD box but don't want to invest in their HD PVR or wait until they begin leasing their boxes. Can anyone compare the DirecTV PVR and Charters?

Thanks.

Todd,

The Moxi box has composite, component, S-video, and DVI outputs. DVI is not yet activated in the current release of the Digeo software. It does a fantastic job of recording HD with one big negative being the 80GB drive which limits you to 7-11 hours of HD recording capacity. The HD picture quality is excellent, SD digital is average, but SD analog is sub-par. I split the signal so I watch analog channels via my set's tuner input.

Check out the Moxi ( Motorola BMC90xx ) Q&A and Discussion Thread in the AVS HDTV Recorders & Players forum (2100+ posts), http://users.adelphia.net/~ksoltmann/SPLMoxiFAQ.htm, and http://www.moxifaq.com/forum/ for lots more insight.

If you are interested in a demo, I'm in Glen Carbon also and would be happy to give you a tour.

Terry

Todd & tlmcca,

The Moxi has 2 USB 2.0 outputs on the rear of the unit. According to Digeo's website, that is for future connection of external hard drives. I belive the content providers are against that and trying to slow it down. Don't know when it'll happen, but it's somewhere on the horizon.

Another cool thing the Moxi can do (but isn't available yet in this area) uses the USB 1.1 ports in the front of the unit. With the proper software upgrade from Charter, you would be able to insert your digital memory cards and save some photos on the BMC (Broadband Media Center) and have a photo album.

Of course, we don't know when this will happen. But I think it's neat.

I just got my moxi installed this morning. OMG are the analog's horrible looking. I'm going to give it a week and if I don't think i can put up with it for another month or so I'm just going to stick with DTV until Charter goes All Digital.

The primary reason I dumped the MOXI was because of the horrible analog picture quality. Until Charter goes all digital, I won't consider them as a service provider.

Steve

Charter is going all-digital in the next couple months.

ya I know I just can't wait.

How long does is take this thing to load all channel guide? It's been 4 1/2 hours and still nothing.

hall316,

I would call them up - it should not take that long. Sometimes the tech installing can be clueless. I'm guessing that someone will need to 'send a hit' to your box. Don't let them off the phone until you have the channel guide loading.

I think I'll wait until all media content is digital and compression is performed by backend servers rather than on the client end.

I used to have a stand-alone TiVo and the difference between it and the DirecTV TiVo is night and day. When I move forward I would prefer it to be a step forward and not one step forward and 1/2 a step back.

Thanks, everyone.

hall316,
It took my Moxi box a full night's cycle to get the program info coming in. There is a nightly download/update that happens at around 2am, I'm told. When I got up the next day, the guide was working. Maybe my installers did something wrong, but if you give it a night cycle, you should be fine. If not, then bug the heck out of Charter.

I am excited about the future possibility of adding more hard drive storage to Moxi. I'm really frustrated with the small 80gig limitation.

Well I called them up and they said they could send a tech out tomorrow or later in the week. I told them that if that was teh case, I'd just leave the Moxi outside and the tech could just take it with him and I'd stick with DTV. Well turns out all they had to do was hit the box from the office and everything was working just fine.

Ok now a little help here. I started going through and setting up it up to record whole series of shows on the hd channels only. After just setting up all of the Law & Orders it says I'm out of room. Is this becuase I select to keep until I delete? If I select keep until room is needed will it go by actual space left, or space needed to record. Is this confusing? This really needs a bigger hard drive already.

Originally posted by hall316
After just setting up all of the Law & Orders it says I'm out of room. Is this becuase I select to keep until I delete?

Probably. The 80 gig drive will only hold about 7 or 8 hours of HD programming, so if you've set it to record and keep every airing of a L&O episode on the HD channel, its probably telling you there won't be enough room to do that.

If I select keep until room is needed will it go by actual space left, or space needed to record.

If you select keep until room needed, it will let you schedule as much programming as you want, but if its time to record something, and it doesn't think it will have enough space, it will delete the oldest show. One (of several) things that is confusing is the "Keep 2 days" option. This doesn't mean that it will delete the show after two days. It means that it will keep it for two days no matter what. After two days, it may be deleted if space is needed, but not before.

hall316,

The Moxi has a 80gb harddrive. Translated: for HD shows you can get about 8-10 hours worth.

Remember that Law & Order shows are shown on multiple channels so that may be the issue. And also, select "record first run only" and not "accept repeats".

Ultimate Electronics to close 30 stores. Bridgeton, Brentwood, all Kansas City and Texas stores will be closing very soon

Originally posted by Tom Grooms
Ultimate Electronics to close 30 stores. Bridgeton, Brentwood, all Kansas City and Texas stores will be closing very soon

Wow, they must really be in bad shape. I believe they only have like 50-60 stores total, so closing half of them cannot be good news.

I went and deleted everything I had set up and did the 2 day and only 1 episode at a time in the series so basically if I don't have time to watch it in a week it will get deleted. This seemed to have fixed the space issue for now.

Wow, I didn't know Ultimate was doing that bad.

hall316,

One more tip on the Moxi: There is a dedicated Moxi Thread on avsforum that has lots of information. It is also frequented by MoxiGuy who is one of "the main guys" working on the Moxi boxes. He offers tons of information and listens to our input.

Moxi Thread Here (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=5369408#post5369408)

Hope this helps.

Bruce

They're in bankruptcy

http://denver.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2005/02/21/daily51.html

Originally posted by Tom Grooms
Ultimate Electronics to close 30 stores. Bridgeton, Brentwood, all Kansas City and Texas stores will be closing very soon

Where did you get this information? Do you have any links verifying this? I would be interested in seeing some sort of documentation about this.

Patience young grasshopper ;)

WB 11 and Fox Midwest have announced that about 30 games this year will be in HD. Anyone know if Charter will be adding these channels to their HD lineup?

KPLR (WB) has recently been announced as an April 1 addition to Charter's HD package.

As far as I know, there's no official word on Fox Sports Midwest. While it's logical to assume that in light of the Cardinal HD games on FSMW that Charter would be adding FSMW-HD for its cable HD customers, history tells us that logic is not a favored decision-making ingredient at Charter.

Here's a general story on the Ultimate store closings. No details here on specific stores:

http://www.reuters.com/financeNewsArticle.jhtml?type=bondsNews&storyID=7983263

Originally posted by DroptheRemote
KPLR (WB) has recently been announced as an April 1 addition to Charter's HD package.

As far as I know, there's no official word on Fox Sports Midwest. While it's logical to assume that in light of the Cardinal HD games on FSMW that Charter would be adding FSMW-HD for its cable HD customers, history tells us that logic is not a favored decision-making ingredient at Charter.


Honestly I doubt that FSMW would be announcing Cardinal games in HD this season without Charter being involved. Especially with the information I have read that DirecTV does not have room currently to add more HD channels, like ESPN2-HD:

DirecTV Not Like To Add HDTV Soon (http://www.tvpredictions.com/hdtvdirect032205.html)

I too would prefer to see something in writing but it does seem like some things are changing for the positive lately in Charterland...

Its still very frustrating that Charter seems to add HD faster in other markets, than St. Louis. In their Greenville SC market, Charter has added TNT HD, and Universal HD. They already have Discovery HD.

I would be very happy with those three channels here in St. Louis.

oby,

I understand your frustration, but from what I have read, those other markets don't have more total HD channels. They may have TNT, Universal, etc, but they then are missing channels like ABC, NBC, etc.

I too want every single HD channel I can get, and do get frustrated that I do not have them yet, but it does seem like the wheels are beginning to spin at Charter. WB-HD is coming in a week, Disc-HD and TNT-HD are coming in the next 2 months. And we'll see what is up with FSMW-HD.

By the way: Expect the pricing of the HD Tier to go up with the addition of Disc-HD. Every other Charter market who has added that channel has had the pricing of the HD Tier go from $3.99 per month to $6.99 per month.

I can understand why UE is going out of business, I pass by or I am at the Dierbergs in Brentwood and UE consistently has about 10 employees compared to the 4 customers that are in the store, not an exaggeration either. I bought The Incredibles DVD last week and there were about 6 employess huddled in one spot 4 more by the Cashier and the cashier plus a few more employees back in install. 5 customers in the store including me. When Best Buy opened next door their business really took a nose dive.

Originally posted by wilkemp
I can understand why UE is going out of business, I pass by or I am at the Dierbergs in Brentwood and UE consistently has about 10 employees compared to the 4 customers that are in the store, not an exaggeration either. I bought The Incredibles DVD last week and there were about 6 employess huddled in one spot 4 more by the Cashier and the cashier plus a few more employees back in install. 5 customers in the store including me. When Best Buy opened next door their business really took a nose dive.

I agree, the place is never busy. No matter what day of the week or the time of day.

BTW: I read someplace that Best Buy is going to build a store in Fenton. With American and Circuit City already out there, I wonder if that UE store will also close?

Also: tried to get a Moxi box installed for the second time on Monday. Had an appointment scheduled from 1 to 5. I worked until 12:40 and was home by 12:50. Waited until 5:30 and called Charter to see where the installer was. They said he had already been and nobody answered when calling or knocking on the door. Checked my caller id and it looks like the installer was there at 12:35.:rolleyes:

Ouch, I have a couple of buddy's who work at UE Brentwood. I hope that they can find another place to get work. That's too bad....

Doug,
I was wondering where you were earlier today, then I saw your post. Let me know if you might have time soon to take a peek at my new pj.

Is anyone else having trouble with WB11 tonight? I'm having to watch Smallville in SD (GASP!!!)

I am having problems also. At first I didn't get any signal. Now my signal jumps up and down. I am glad it's not just me.

Yeah, I wasn't getting ANYTHING between 7-8. From 8 until now, it's been very intermittent. I just figured it was because I was soooooo far away from the tower. Fortunately, they weren't NEW episodes of smallville or I'd have had to get angry. hehe

I feel your pain!

I just *tried* to play back both of tonight's Smallvilles with the Tivo. SD, with pixellation, breakups, and freezes throughout. Until I said the hell with it and erased both episodes.

Yep, I didn't even bother with Smallville tonight, knowing that the 2 episodes were repeats. Same with LOST. Was Alias a repeat tonight as well, Bob?

Nope, Alias was a new one. Good one, too. Goes into Nadia's past.

Both Alias and 24 will be repeat-free until the end of their seasons. While I hated having to wait til January for the new season to start for both shows, I like having new episodes every week without fail.

Gotta love that 5.1 on 24, even though there was no big firefight to really show it off this week.

Here is a copy and paste from yesterday's Charter bill that I got online.

Important Information about your Cable Service
GREAT NEWS for Cardinals baseball fans! Effective April 1, 2005, WB-11 (KPLR-TV) will be added to our
High-Definition line-up on Digital Channel 781. A minimum of 10 Cardinal games will be broadcast in vivid,
High-Def clarity during the 2005 season on WB-11 HD. We hope you enjoy this added value. Thank you for
being a Charter Communications customer.

Hope that answers any questions!!

Rich

jedi,

I've been busy with work and the college basketball, so haven't been online a lot.

Maybe we can aim to get together in early April. As a general rule, I have more daytime flexibility, so if that works for your schedule we can do a weekday morning or afternoon viewing session.

Does anyone know which games will be shown on CBS tonight in St. Louis? Which game on SD channel? Which game on HD channel? Any chance of other game on sub HD channels?

I really want to watch Louiville and Washington (bracket issue) and I am affraid we are only going to get Illinois as it is kind of local.

-Jym-

As listed in todays paper, the Illinois game is supposed to be on both channels. However, what's actually been broadcast is not what has always been listed in the paper. The Washington game starts about 15 min before the Illinois game, so we'll probably see some of that.

Any word on which stl UE stores are closing or already have closed?

Originally posted by Ice024
Any word on which stl UE stores are closing or already have closed?

Brentwood and Bridgeton will be closing.

I suppose I should hurry up and use my $5 gift card :rolleyes:

Originally posted by wilkemp
I suppose I should hurry up and use my $5 gift card :rolleyes: Why? Manchester, Fenton, Fairview and Mid-Rivers aren't going anywhere anytime soon.

Tom and Doug,
Good to see you guys out here. I'll be getting the Hitachi tomorrow...hopefully this one is a keeper.
Interesting to see so many STL guys on here.

Dave Blue

Hey, glad you found us!

I have the Toshiba 62HMX94 and American Idol has one of the best HD pictures I have ever seen. I've only had the television for 2 weeks and have not seen that much content but is it because it is a live show? It isa truly a a flawless picture, I feel like I can reach in the television.

ya I was watching a little of it last night. It really does look nice in HD. After playing with the moxi for a few days, I'm still torn on keeping it or sending it back until they come out with the Charter All Digital rumored for May. It's been awhile since I had Charter, but I thought Charter had HBO on demand or something like that. Don't they offer it over in IL?

Also, it looks like you are going to be able to transfer calls and listen to voice mails using the Moxi. Check it out.

http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000680037526/

I heard charter is adding digital channels 2-99 but will also keep the analog signal up for customers that dont have a box. That cant be good, can it?

It does make one wonder where all that bandwidth will come from.

Maybe Charter's about to pull a DirecTV?

Originally posted by Robert Simandl
It does make one wonder where all that bandwidth will come from.

Maybe Charter's about to pull a DirecTV?

But can't Charter put 6 to 8 digital SD channels in the space of one analog channel?

Originally posted by dweebe
But can't Charter put 6 to 8 digital SD channels in the space of one analog channel?

Yeah its something like that... The doing both anlog & digital is more than likely a temporary solution to the problem of requiring cable boxes or cable cards... The bad part is temporary probably will mean no less than 2 years or so of wasted bandwidth used for both...

Here is more information concerning the bandwidth of a cable plant and ways to increase it.

http://cedmagazine.com/ced/2005/0305/03a.htm


Mark

hall316,
Yes, Charter does offer HBO OnDemand services, free to those who already subscribe to HBO. You'll have to check with Charter to see what areas are wired for it.

Doug,
Sure, early April sounds good. I plan to ceiling mount the pj in the next few days. Just PM me when you have time.

Originally posted by Tom Grooms
Why? Manchester, Fenton, Fairview and Mid-Rivers aren't going anywhere anytime soon.

I live downtown, for $5 and with the price of gas I'm losing money :D

However I did forget about those other stores.

Ya I was over in IL last night showing my dad how to use his HBO ondemand. I don't see an option in the moxi set up for the HBO, Showtime etc on demands. Does anyone here that has a Moxi have the option for the ondemand for HBO's etc?

I've got it. There should be a "card" for OnDemand, and then when you click "OK" on that, it brings up HBO, Showtime, etc. It will bring up the premium channel OnDemand submenus even if you don't subscribe (i.e. I have a Showtime card even though I don't get Showtime), but if you try to select it, it will give you a message to call customer service to subscribe. Hope that helps.

KDNL is out again....The PSIP worked yesterday. Congrats on that. Today, the PSIP works for a second, defaults to N/A in all fields, and refuses to tune. "No Signal" message, but has a positive lock light.

Is there a reset on the SIR-T151 Receivers? I've a got a firmware upgrade kit. Would that stop this problem?

Has anyone tried wall mounting some of the medium depth (about 14") DLPs to a wall?

it isn't an LCD/Plasma and it isn't a shallow depth DLP (6") but at US$2K I could keep domestic tranquility with a wall mount on a 46" DLP like the Samsung HL-P4663W.

Certainly the weight (about 70 lbs) wouldn't be out of the question.

Cheers,

Originally posted by John Kotches
Has anyone tried wall mounting some of the medium depth (about 14") DLPs to a wall?

it isn't an LCD/Plasma and it isn't a shallow depth DLP (6") but at US$2K I could keep domestic tranquility with a wall mount on a 46" DLP like the Samsung HL-P4663W.

Certainly the weight (about 70 lbs) wouldn't be out of the question.

Cheers,

I think you'd need to be very careful about wall mounting a DLP, since they have cooling fans for the lamps. In the case of my Sammy, the fan vent is on the back and needs to have enough clearance to work effectively.

Oy. I hadn't considered that. Thanks :)

Cheers,

be patient, new model DLPs are popping up from most major manufactures that are 5-7" deep. ;) There are a lot of sub $2000 854x480 plasmas out that may fit your needs. Have you seen the new Panasonic TH-42PD50U/P? I'll have them the 1st week of April.

KDNL is killing my Samsung 360 again tonight. For so long it was working great, now its back to the stuttering picture, out of sync with the audio. Any idea what is going on?

I was scanning Charter's digital channels this morning with my Fusion HDTV card and found something new. On channel 82 (real channel #) is the video for National Geographic with the audio for StyleTV and one encrypted program. When I looked at the transport stream with TSReader, the encrypetd program was 17 Mbps. This is the same as all the other HD channels. It looks like KPLR has been added.

Can someone please verify for a reality check? I don't think it's my set up.

Lately, the Tonight Show is alomost impossible to watch. Although it appears to be in Dolby 5.1, I can barely hear voice out of the center channel. When commercials appear in Dolby ProLogic, all sounds fine. As soon as we go back to Leno, and Dolby Digital fires up, he is difficult to hear, although the music, audience, etc. sounds fine. The Center channel just seems muted.

I don't experience this issue on any other channel either in conventioinal Dolby or Dolby Digital. I have not had time to check other NBC shows but have noticed this on Leno for the past few days.

I watched a little bit of Leno the last few nights and had no problems.

Interesting. I guess I will dig deeper into my setup. Strange though. It only seems to an issue on KSDK-DT.

??????????

moman,

Same here -- I regularly watch Leno (and always TiVo the musical segments) and haven't heard anything like what you're describing.

If you're not finding this problem with other channels or sources, it's possible that it might be something that's specific to your equipment and the head-end equipment at KSDK and/or the network. If I'm not mistaken, Leno only recently started Dolby Digital (2.0) broadcasting, so maybe the cause is related to that change.

Originally posted by DroptheRemote
moman,

Same here -- I regularly watch Leno (and always TiVo the musical segments) and haven't heard anything like what you're describing.



Hmmm. I'm in the minority here, so it must be at my end. I will regroup & report back if anything of interest is uncovered. Thanks.

Happy Easter everyone.

This is off topic but has anyone had experience with Sage Telecom? I just received a mailer from them advertising local phone service.

Thanks,

Steve

After a few phone calls to Charter, the On Demand function of the Moxi is now working. The CSR said there would be an update to the Moxi in a month or so. Probably before Charter All Digital went into effect. I think I'm going to go ahead and cancel my DTV service now and give Charter a chance. I'll even up paying the same as I was with DTV and now I can record HD. I'm selling my Hughes HTL-HD DTV HD Tuner if anyone is interested.

kjohnson,
Can you tell me more about this update kit for your Sammy 151 tuner? I don't know what it is or what it does.

Had been enjoying trouble-free reception since mid January, but, as of this week, the shuttering is back on our Samsung receivers. Completely un-watchable.

Same here, perfect reception from KDNL since mid Jan. until just recently.

I just sent jwright@kdnl.sbgnet.com an Email, hopefully that is still a good contact.

Anyone else experience major audio dropouts during Deadwood tonight. Every 20-30 seconds the sound would cut out for a split second. I never really have that problem with HBO on D*, but tonight was horrific.

Scott

I had HBO audio dropouts as well. Glad to hear it wasn't just me.

Mike

Does anyone know what will happen when the Charter all digital goes in effect? Will channels 2 to 99 get turned off analog or will they just be duplicated on the digital tier?

dweebe,

The Charter plan appears to be to duplicate 2-99 with digital versions, which in turn raises some possible issues about bandwidth/compression.

dweebe,

Channels 2-99 will not get turned off analog. Both analog/digital will be available for some time from what I understand.

I also experienced the audio glitches on "Deadwood."

What service/receiver are you guys using? Mine is DirecTV and HD-TiVo, and because there was a new software version recently loaded into it, I was concerned it was related to that. Hope that I'm wrong, because these updates seem to take forever to be updated/distributed...

Originally posted by DroptheRemote
I also experienced the audio glitches on "Deadwood."

What service/receiver are you guys using? Mine is DirecTV and HD-TiVo, and because there was a new software version recently loaded into it, I was concerned it was related to that. Hope that I'm wrong, because these updates seem to take forever to be updated/distributed...

I have the HD-Tivo as well. I noticed the system now has the "f" update, but I don't know when it occurred.

(Bad link deleted)

Mike

Mike,

The "f" update took place sometime in the last couple of weeks, depending on where your box was in the DirecTV queue. Apparently they roll out these updates in a gradual fashion, rather than all at once.

There's supposed to be another update coming that will provide "folders" functionality for the Now Showing List. That was initially "announced" at CES but still no official word on when it will actually see the light of day.

I was going to check the AVS Programming forum to see if there were other reports on the audio glitches, but you beat me to it. However, your link didn't work, so here it is again for anyone else who wants to check it out:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=524702

Last night before I went to bed I was channel surfing. All of my analog channels through the Moxi had video but no sound but a high pitch beeping noise. The digital channels were fine. This was about 1am. I didn't check this morning to see if it was still happening.

Originally posted by hall316
Last night before I went to bed I was channel surfing. All of my analog channels through the Moxi had video but no sound but a high pitch beeping noise. The digital channels were fine. This was about 1am. I didn't check this morning to see if it was still happening.

No problem with my analogs through the Moxi this morning - the kids were glued to the Disney channel as I walked out the door.

Originally posted by abcward
dweebe,

Channels 2-99 will not get turned off analog. Both analog/digital will be available for some time from what I understand.

But where will they place the digital duplicates?

Last week we switched back to the normal encoder in preparation for 5.1 audio. I looks like this has affected the Samsug 360 receivers, but this is now the required equipment and PSIP data as required by the FCC. I spent three hours on the phone with the manufacturer making sure everything was correct. I'm still not happy with the jitter, the system time table and the program association tables, but they claim they're fine. This jitter could be causing a problem with some receivers, buts it meets specs. Interestingly, our Samsung t-150 receivers now work fine, but when we were on the old exciter, they would lock up!

As you can see from all the other forum complaints... it's not a perfect world yet!
Jim

Originally posted by sconstan
This is off topic but has anyone had experience with Sage Telecom? I just received a mailer from them advertising local phone service.

Thanks,

Steve

Steve,

Sage is a reseller of SBC phone service. They have no service techs of their own. If you had them and had a service issue they would call SBC to send out a tech and fix it. Sage came about as a CLEC due to the higher costs of SBC phone service in the past. Now most customers have switched back to SBC because of the lower prices SBC now has and the winback promotions. Your best option, if you are a SBC customer, is to review what calling package you have and see how it compares to the current plans. PM me if you have questions.

Rich

Hi, I am in the St. Peters/St. Charles area and have an OTA antenna connected to my HDTIVO. Problem is that the DirecTV guys don't guarantee the reception of the antenna and guess what, it sucks. It had been working fine for Fox, ABC, CBS, NBC until recently (PBS, WB, and UPN digital channels have been flakey since installation) but I think with the weather the last couple weeks maybe it got moved around?

ANyway my request is for any referrals for someone that comes out and professionally calibrates an OTA antenna?

Thanks,
Matt Jacobs

Just surfin' the web, and came across very recent article at Cableworld.com ., called "How do you combat consumer confusion at retail."
The article is about Charter, and quotes Charter's Mark Guberman.

it says that Charter's HD Tier "includes HD channels for ESPN, Discovery, TNT, Universal, Wealth TV, HD Net, and HD Movies. Premium HD movie channels and local broadcasters also are available"


article also says that "in April it (Charter) plans to roll out a marketing message that compares Charter's HD package with the DBS HD offering".


Can't wait for that commerical.

oby,

Did the article say "includes" or "will include"?

Either way it appears Guberman may be a little hazy on the distinction between "battling" customer confusion and "creating" it.

But then I think that whatever passes for strategy at Charter assumes customer confusion as a key ingredient...

Confusion is an issue in everything related to HD. Cable companies, satellite providers, and television manufacturers are doing a horrible job getting consumers informed. And that translates to lower HD subscribers than would be if they did a proper job in educating those in need of education.

By the way - Charter does offer all the mentioned HD channels in various markets. They are just not all currently available in STL. Here's hoping that will change sometime soon.


OT: What a beautiful day today - why are we on the internet??

Originally posted by abcward
....


OT: What a beautiful day today - why are we on the internet??

Because we are stuck at work and can't consentrate on doing anything useful.

Where will Charter duplicate the analog channels in the digital lineup in the St. Louis area? Will they put channels 2 - 99 before or after the Family and Info tier? I guess they will have the local channels in digital and HDTV? Also anyone know if the local channels in HD are free with leasing the BMC 9012? I have the BMC 9012 now. Is it still by the begining of May or the end of May that Charter will go all digital? Thanks, Craig.

Yes with the Moxi box in STL area you get HD Locals. I get HD locals & HD Showtime & HBO because I subscribe to those movie channels.

I have a feeling they will not go around rearranging the entire lineup from scratch and will probably minimize what all gets moved around in the digital lineup. I would bet they will just squeeze it in somewhere that is not in use yet. Plus the all digital thing I haven't heard much on specific time frame. but from a post or 2 I have seen it looks like charters main goal is to have it switched over & completed by end of summer. So who know exactly when it will switch over. I know one of the new areas that got turned to all digital has been doing so slowly, and for the first month or so they only setup new customers to be all digital...

Originally posted by phatty
Yes with the Moxi box in STL area you get HD Locals. I get HD locals & HD Showtime & HBO because I subscribe to those movie channels.

I have a feeling they will not go around rearranging the entire lineup from scratch and will probably minimize what all gets moved around in the digital lineup. I would bet they will just squeeze it in somewhere that is not in use yet. Plus the all digital thing I haven't heard much on specific time frame. but from a post or 2 I have seen it looks like charters main goal is to have it switched over & completed by end of summer. So who know exactly when it will switch over. I know one of the new areas that got turned to all digital has been doing so slowly, and for the first month or so they only setup new customers to be all digital...

So the local HDTV channels are free with leasing the Moxi? You don't get charged for them? Thanks for the info.

I think I'm paying $63 a month for one moxi box with all the movie channels, all the hd channels and all the other channels except the sports tier and the family and info tier.

Originally posted by DroptheRemote
I also experienced the audio glitches on "Deadwood."

What service/receiver are you guys using? Mine is DirecTV and HD-TiVo, and because there was a new software version recently loaded into it, I was concerned it was related to that. Hope that I'm wrong, because these updates seem to take forever to be updated/distributed...

Zenith HD box and Directv service. It was doing it on both HD channels.

Scott

Originally posted by jacobms1
Hi, I am in the St. Peters/St. Charles area and have an OTA antenna connected to my HDTIVO. Problem is that the DirecTV guys don't guarantee the reception of the antenna and guess what, it sucks. It had been working fine for Fox, ABC, CBS, NBC until recently (PBS, WB, and UPN digital channels have been flakey since installation) but I think with the weather the last couple weeks maybe it got moved around?

ANyway my request is for any referrals for someone that comes out and professionally calibrates an OTA antenna?

Thanks,
Matt Jacobs

Ultimate Electronics will send an installer out for $65 per hour.

Scott

dweebe,

You do not have to do anything for the digital versions for the similcast. The channels will be the same as well. What happens is that the box is told to go to a different frequency for that channel.

Mark

Originally posted by WRacer
[...] As you can see from all the other forum complaints... it's not a perfect world yet!
Jim

Indeed ... We sure appreciate all your hard work though.

BTW ... My tuner is integrated into my Samsung TXP series direct view.
Maybe these tuners are more sensitive to jitter.

I have noticed that this encoder is quite a bit cleaner on SD material. The old one had some faint horizontal bars that rolled slowly up the frame. This is gone now, and the PSIP data is sure nice to have.

Still Curious what changed in January that fixed the original shudder problem. Was that an encoder swap ?

Looking forward to 5.1 too.

Hey Doug,

When did you get your HD Tivo?

Robert,

I finally caved in January. Although I got a decent deal, I still paid quite a bit more than I wanted to. That said, I have zero regrets.

I probably could have held out a little longer, but once my Replay died and I wasn't able to time-shift even SD, resistance was pretty much out the window. I guess the ultimate clincher was when I read the news out of CES that NDS wouldn't have an HD PVR before 2006.

You've got an HD TiVo, yes? What do you see as the pros/cons in comparing TiVo to Replay?

Doug,

Tivo Pros (mostly MAJOR):

Recording HD from both OTA and satellite

two tuners (great for recording Lost and Smallville at the same time)

One HD Tivo replaces ReplayTV *and* satellite box, freeing up space in the equipment rack and the coffee table.

direct digital bit for bit recording (as opposed to satellite box converting to analog before sending the signal to the ReplayTV) resulting in much better PQ than the Replay even on the SD channels

PPV in the channel guide (you can record a PPV without having to set the times manually)

Nice, big 250gig hard drive right out of the box

The Tivo remote is THE easiest, most well thought out layout for a remote I've ever had the pleasure to use... even in the dark without button backlighting.

ReplayTV pros/Tivo cons (mostly MINOR):

Who thought it'd be cute to have the Tivo emit those Godwaful cutesy sounds while navigating the menus? I shut them off the minute I figured how to do it.

The Tivo grid channel guide is slower than molasses.... in January.... going uphill. I switched to the List guide even though I liked the grid design better, because the list is so much faster.

No ethernet interface on the DirecTivo (unless you're fluent in Tivo hacking which I'm not... yet).

Corollary to the above, no direct, bit for bit copying of shows from the DirecTivo to your PC for editing and DVD burning. I know that can be done with standalone Tivo's but not the DirecTivo's. Besides, ReplayTV stores the files in 720x480 MPEG-2, already DVD-compliant without having to reencode... unlike Tivo.

I'll add more as it comes to me...

good stuff bob!

Forgot a really BIG con on ReplayTV: still no HD models at all, even for just OTA, and none in sight for the near future.

This is off topic, but I have a local question I need an answer to.

Does anyone know of a good speaker repair shop in St. Louis that can refoam the woofers in my speakers? I live in St. Peters, but that really doesn't matter if there is somone good here.
Thanks in advance!!

Husker,
You might try my buddy Zaw at AlphaTech Electronics(314-645-5250). Also, you could try the guys at Best Sound(314-997-7644).

Bob, I too enjoyed reading your well written skinny on the DirecTivo and RePlayTv. I've enjoyed watching your HD Tivo on a weekly basis.

Guys, I got an interesting letter from Voom today. It came under seperate cover from my monthly bill. The letter's exterior announces that Voom costs are going down!! Inside, Voom users are thanked for their support, and are offered the chance to add additional receivers at the rate of $5.00 each, instead of $14.50. Get 2 more rooms installed for just $49.00. Oh, and a 6 month contract is required for this new special offer.

The letter also states that Voom has completed preparations to deliver more than 50 new channels(and then provides a brief list of these channels to come).

Very interesting. There is no mention of the sale of the Rainbow1 satellite, or the uplink facility. The is no mention of the letter of intent between Mark Dolan and Cablevision, or its extension. There is no mention of any kind of investigation. And sadly, there is no mention of dvr service(boy that really surprised me). Comments???

Bob,

Thanks for the TiVo notes. I'm adding a few of my thoughts/observations here:

Pluses for TiVo:

* Excellent conflict resolution. TiVo immediately identifies when there is a recording conflict and it goes well beyond ReplayTV in telling you the source and specific occurences of the conflict and gives you some insitu options about how to proceed (let the new program take precedence over the old program, or leave the old priority in place).

In a related feature, I like the Season Pass Manager prioritization capability, which allows a large degree of pre-emptive conflict resolution. I always thought that ReplayTV should have had something similar. The only problem I have here is that the Season Pass Manager isn't accessible until AFTER you've set up a Season Pass. I guess the trade-off here is that setting up a Season Pass is quicker for novices.

For similar reasons, I like the To Do List, which allows me check on what's coming up in TiVo recordings and to spot any potential problems beforehand. Ditto the Recording History log, which is a subset of the To Do List.

* Agree on the two-tuner feature, and I'd add that I really like the ease of switching between the tuners.

* I like the fact that TiVo will, where possible, retroactively rescue the beginning of a program that you decide you want to record in midstream. Of course, TiVo needs to have access to the beginning of the program in its buffer, which effectively means you need to decide to do that within 29 minutes of the start of the program. Still, a fantastic feature.

* I also like the fact that you can adjust recording options in the middle of a program. For example, although I'd added 30 minutes to the recording time for the Arizona-Illinois hoops game on Saturday, when the previous game ran long and then both games went into overtime, I was able to adjust on the fly and add another 30 minutes to the recording session. The downside is that this sort of operation is very slow (see below).

Negatives for TiVo:

* I disagree on the remote -- I really hate it. The biggest problem I have with the remote is the "peanut" shape, which often results in north becoming south and south becoming north in the dark. Completely brain-dead design, in my opinion.

I also found the placement of the TV On/Off button to be WRONG, WRONG, WRONG. Situated immediately under the "instant replay" button, I was repeatedly powering down the TV when all I wanted to do was jump back 10 or 20 seconds. Of course, the easy way around that is to de-program the TV functions, but purposely reducing functionality doesn't really feel like a very good solution.

Another minor but real problem with the TiVo remote is the cursor control key (round button that moves up, down, right and left) is that it is fairly easy to be scrolling down and suddenly move right or left without intending to do so. I think separate cursor keys would be better.

In my opinion, the ReplayTV remote, based on the excellent OneForAll Cinema 7 universal remote control, is exponentially superior. Better layout and more flexibility.

* Agree on the moronic TiVo sounds. Turning them off was one of the first things I did.

* For me, the TiVo interface is a bit too bare bones. For example, when you're in the Now Playing List and you highlight a recorded program, you have to hit SELECT for TiVo to jump to another screen to see program details (synopsis, time recorded, etc.). I much prefer Replay's Replay Guide in this regard, where the information appeared in a banner similar to what you get with the Program Guide or Info.

* TiVo is V-E-R-Y S-L-O-W on certain operations, such as making changes to the Season Manager priorities. When I first got my TiVo, when I saw the clock icon appear on my screen for more than 2 minutes, I just assumed that TiVo had crashed and I rebooted the box. Now I know that it just takes a long time for these operations. This is a big negative in making on-the-fly changes to recording options for a current program, as you're effectively in the dark for 2 or 3 minutes.

* When watching a live program delayed, going to the Program Guide automatically jumps to real-time in the program. This is particularly bad if you're watching a sporting event delayed because you weren't around for the start and haven't yet caught up. But even with sitcoms and dramas, it's jarring.

Also, this is a problem when you're watching a recorded program and want to check the Program Guide. Resuming the recorded program requires that you go back into the Now Playing List. Doh!

* I dislike that bringing up the Now Playing List cuts me off from what I'm watching (live, recorded or delayed). This was one of the nice things about Replay -- you could go into the Replay Guide or Program Guide and continue watching/listening.

* I have a minor preference for the way the Replay JUMP function worked. You could use the REPLAY JUMP key during both live TV and a recorded program. When watching a recorded program, hitting JUMP should take you to the current channel live on the active tuner, and hitting it again should jump you back into the current point in your recorded program. A minor niggle, but a feature that I miss.

Overall, I really like TiVo and as I said earlier, I have no regrets because HD time-shifting is THAT important to me. Still, I think there are things that could -- but probably won't -- be improved.

WB11 coming soon in HD on Charter?
I saw the KPLR production truck at the Charter headend yesterday...
Maybe it WILL go live on Friday...

Originally posted by hanjke
WB11 coming soon in HD on Charter?
I saw the KPLR production truck at the Charter headend yesterday...
Maybe it WILL go live on Friday...

Yes April 1st is the day WB11 will be added to Charters HD Lineup on Channel 781 I believe.

hanjke,

WB/Charter announced that April 1st would be their start date for HD, but I'll take it any day before that...

Here are a couple internal announcements made at Charter recently. It was passed on by a friend of mine:

Charter All Digital

Please note that Charter All-Digital is tentatively scheduled for commercial launch the last week of June, 2005. We need to make sure we are telling customers the correct date when they ask about our all-digital service. Upon launch, all current digital customers will receive the digital version of all basic and expanded basic channels.


Outdoor Life Network On DEMAND!!!

Outdoor Life Network content will soon be featured on Charter On Demand. The category and FREE content will be available on April 7th.



Thought some of you might be interested.

Originally posted by WRacer
Last week we switched back to the normal encoder in preparation for 5.1 audio. I looks like this has affected the Samsug 360 receivers, but this is now the required equipment and PSIP data as required by the FCC. I spent three hours on the phone with the manufacturer making sure everything was correct. I'm still not happy with the jitter, the system time table and the program association tables, but they claim they're fine. This jitter could be causing a problem with some receivers, buts it meets specs. Interestingly, our Samsung t-150 receivers now work fine, but when we were on the old exciter, they would lock up!

As you can see from all the other forum complaints... it's not a perfect world yet!
Jim

I will cycle the reciever. I'll call if it does anything wierd on me. I'm just glad we got it to tune, much less tell us whats on.

Originally posted by davesalaman
Indeed ... We sure appreciate all your hard work though.

BTW ... My tuner is integrated into my Samsung TXP series direct view.
Maybe these tuners are more sensitive to jitter.

I have noticed that this encoder is quite a bit cleaner on SD material. The old one had some faint horizontal bars that rolled slowly up the frame. This is gone now, and the PSIP data is sure nice to have.

Still Curious what changed in January that fixed the original shudder problem. Was that an encoder swap ?

Looking forward to 5.1 too.

Yeah...the picture does seem a lot sharper....It looks really nice. I also noticed that newer firmware for the Samsung SIR-T151s seem to drastically improve picture quality, even with composite connections....


Question....I've got a Toshiba Qosmio with Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 on it. How do I connect it to a Samsung SIR-T151? I've got a few choices....S-Video In, Composite-In, and unfortunately, component is output (I think)....

Outdoor Life Network On DEMAND!!!

Outdoor Life Network content will soon be featured on Charter On Demand. The category and FREE content will be available on April 7th.



Of all the stations to put on ON-DEMAND, Charter is an interesting company to say the least:confused:

kjohnson,
Can you give me more info on what this firmware upgrade is for the Sammy 151? Did you get it from the main Sammy site?

Doug,
I just got my new pj ceiling mounted. Aside from one anchor, the install went pretty smoothly. The picture geometry is looking pretty good, without using keystoning or anything.....it's a bit better than when I had it sitting on a stand. It's really cool to have my leg room back, and the pj is even quieter up on the ceiling. Now I have to install the cable tracking before my student gets here.

Sorry for the slow responses. I was away for the holiday weekend, and I'm just now catching up on all of my correspondence and forums.

Tom:

I really want a true HD display, which rules out the ED plasmas. The thing DLPs are at 5-6K price points which are a bit much for the moment.

I'm probably better off waiting until next spring's tax return and picking up a 42" LCD when they're about $3K retail.

Cheers,

Originally posted by davesalaman

BTW ... My tuner is integrated into my Samsung TXP series direct view.
Maybe these tuners are more sensitive to jitter.

I have noticed that this encoder is quite a bit cleaner on SD material. The old one had some faint horizontal bars that rolled slowly up the frame. This is gone now, and the PSIP data is sure nice to have.

Still Curious what changed in January that fixed the original shudder problem. Was that an encoder swap ?

Looking forward to 5.1 too. [/B]

In January we switched to the old Tandberg encoder that has very little jitter, but no other features...it was the first version from 1999. The lines you saw were a little hum in the unit. Now we are on a Harmonic encoder on a completely different path with full PSIP insertion. I'm meeting with the various manufactures next month in Las Vegas to hopefully resolve some of these issues. However, there very good at pointing the finger at each other!
Jim

From today's Evening Bridge, formerly mediabiz.com's MarketClose:

________________________________

TOP STORY - An entity led by Cablevision Chairman Charles Dolan, who wants to take over the VOOM DBS service from the company, asked the Federal Communications Commission to deny EchoStar's proposed $200 million acquisition of certain VOOM assets from the MSO.

The joint petition was submitted by VOOM HD LLC, which Dolan set up to take over VOOM, and The Association of Consumers to Preserve and Promote DBS Competition, and the filing takes aim at EchoStar's proposed acquisition of 11 additional transponders at the 61.5-degree DBS orbital location.

More details in Wednesday's SkyREPORT.

________________________________

It seems to me that this petition seriously undermines the credibility of both Cablevision and Dolan going forward. Basically you have Echostar and Cablevision agreeing to a purchase/sale of assets, but then the chairman of Cablevision turns around and runs to the FCC to block the sale of those very same assets.

This is really bizarre. It seems to me this sort of nonsense would have to make any other company think twice before entering into agreements with either Cablevision or Charles Dolan in the future.

I think this action makes Charles Dolan's ongoing role as chairman of Cablevision untenable.

I also recently got a HD-TiVo. It replaced a ReplayTV 5040 and a Sammy TS160 that I sold to help defray the high cost. At first I was a little disappointed with the "simple" interface of the TiVo, but after using it awhile I don't have a problem giving up some flexibility/power for an interface that is easier to use. I was a little surprised that it doesn't have a power button -- it seems useless for this thing to be constantly writing to the HDD all night while I'm sleeping! I do sometimes miss being able to download (to my DVR) shows I missed as well transfer ones I recorded to my computer -- but being able to record HD (two things at once even) far outweighs that!

STL - Easy way to stop the TIVO from recording without turning it off, simply tune to a music channel. TIVO does not record them.

STL,

I should acknowledge that there's two equally rabid schools of thought on the "always on" state for consumer electronics, but I'm definitely in the school that believes that it's better to leave things like hard drives (and computers) powered up all of the time.

I think the failure risk to a hard drive is higher when the drive is undergoing regular power up/cool down cycles. In my opinion, it's better to leave it run constantly than to put the drive's electronics and moving parts through repeated expansion (heat) and contraction (cool down).

It seems that TiVo indirectly endorses that viewpoint.

While not completely legal, I've found ********** a more than worthy replacement for my ReplayTV's Internet Video Sharing function.

The XviD files download a lot quicker than Replay MPEG-2 files and are actually much better in the PQ department.

Another minor beef with Tivo... the Sunday morning political talking head shows (Meet the Press, etc) are a guilty pleasure of mine, but occasionally I called up the ReplayTV's channel guide while playing back one of those shows. The audio continued while I checked to see if that evening's shows were new or repeats. With the Tivo, calling up the channel guide stops the playback dead in its tracks and the Tivo reverts to live TV while the channel guide is shown. Grrr....

Bob,
I haven't checked to see what the Moxi box does when playing back a recording and channel guide info is asked for. I'll give it a try and let you know.

Doug,
Thanks for the recent Voom news. Yep, things just keep getting stranger and stranger.

For anyone who loves LOST but hasn't been following lately due to all the repeats this month, there's finally gonna be a new episode Wednesday (tomorrow as I type this).

Originally posted by jedi35
Bob,
I haven't checked to see what the Moxi box does when playing back a recording and channel guide info is asked for. I'll give it a try and let you know.

Doug,
Thanks for the recent Voom news. Yep, things just keep getting stranger and stranger.

MOXI keeps playing your DVR material in the display. You can pause it and resume it while in the window if you want.

Rich

My favorite excerpt from the SkyREPORT's follow-up story on this filing is Echostar's reaction:

"We're perplexed that a member of the Cablevision board of directors would now file an objection after the remainder of the board had already voted to sell the Rainbow satellite. Nonetheless, we remain committed to completing the deal and using the spectrum to help us compete in a growing pay TV marketplace."

The complete story can be found at:

http://www.skyreport.com/#Story1

There's also a more detailed analysis of the father-son Dolan struggle in today's Newsday:

http://www.newsday.com/business/ny-bzcabl304195886mar30,0,6595980.story?coll=ny-business-headlines

Doug,

Is it possible that Cablevision/Dolan could get in a tremendous amount of trouble for this type of game playing?

Cheers,

I thought dolan was out of cablevision and started (restarted) voom on his own.

Originally posted by DroptheRemote
I should acknowledge that there's two equally rabid schools of thought on the "always on" state for consumer electronics, but I'm definitely in the school that believes that it's better to leave things like hard drives (and computers) powered up all of the time.

I think the failure risk to a hard drive is higher when the drive is undergoing regular power up/cool down cycles. In my opinion, it's better to leave it run constantly than to put the drive's electronics and moving parts through repeated expansion (heat) and contraction (cool down).

It seems that TiVo indirectly endorses that viewpoint. So you really think it's good for a HDD to be constantly writing 24 hours a day and 7 days a week? Leaving a HDD powered on is one thing, but having the HDD constantly writing is another IMO. Even if I leave my computer powered up all the time, it is not constantly writing to the HDD 24/7. I understand the whole power cycle arguement, but I really don't think it applies to making a HDD constantly write. I really question if HDD makers/designers really expect their units to be constantly writing without ever getting a break.

Originally posted by sandblaster
STL - Easy way to stop the TIVO from recording without turning it off, simply tune to a music channel. TIVO does not record them. I hadn't thought of that, but by the time I make sure both tuners are on music channels I could probably just go set it to standby (via the menu). BTW, there is a discrete code that toggles the power on/off. I use it on non-TiVo remotes; I have my unit wired to four TVs in my home. It just seems silly that the remote that comes with the unit doesn't support it.

Originally posted by Robert Simandl
While not completely legal, I've found ********** a more than worthy replacement for my ReplayTV's Internet Video Sharing function.

The XviD files download a lot quicker than Replay MPEG-2 files and are actually much better in the PQ department.

Another minor beef with Tivo... the Sunday morning political talking head shows (Meet the Press, etc) are a guilty pleasure of mine, but occasionally I called up the ReplayTV's channel guide while playing back one of those shows. The audio continued while I checked to see if that evening's shows were new or repeats. With the Tivo, calling up the channel guide stops the playback dead in its tracks and the Tivo reverts to live TV while the channel guide is shown. Grrr.... Thanks for the info.

As for the programming jumping back to live after going to the guide, I just double checked my unit and it does NOT do this. I can pull up the guide while watching delayed programming and that programming continues to run and does not revert back to live when I exit the guide. Mine does do what you describe if I am watching a show delayed then toggle over to the next turner and then come back. When I come back it reverts back to live. My work around is to pause the programming myself (before toggling tuners) then when I come back it still where I paused it.

STL,

I understand your point about the possibility that having the hard drives writing 24/7 could be an issue, but I think this is more the norm than you think.

There are millions of servers around the world where disk writes/reads are happening constantly. It's even common to have 24/7 client systems processing real-time data, for example in the financial industry, where this is a prerequisite to doing business.

As a result, hard drive product design assumes constant activity and I'm reasonably confident that TiVo sourced the drives and built their boxes with just this sort of use in mind. Reducing the write activity might be very, very marginally beneficial, but I'm doubtful it adds up to any major difference over the life of the product.

John,

I'm not sure about the actual legal exposure that arises from Charles Dolan's recent actions in terms of corporate governance, but I don't think there's any question that they skirt the thin edge of the ice in terms of business ethics.

FWIW, I think it's exactly these sort of flimsy business ethics that have driven tens of millions of former cable customers to satellite over the past decade or so. I can understand how someone who's attached to the VOOM service could feel good about this sort of action, but it seems to me that sooner or later they'll be treated with same indifference as customers, should VOOM actually survive long enough.

I can envision a scenario where if the assets sale to DISH comes undone, there could be DISH and Cablevision shareholder suits against Cablevision, the board and Dolan himself, and it wouldn't be surprising to see DISH directly sue Cablevision as well.

Fiasco,

Charles Dolan remains as chairman of the board of Cablevision. He recently reconstituted the board of directors of the company after they voted to sell VOOM assets to Echostar.

Originally posted by jacobms1
Hi, I am in the St. Peters/St. Charles area and have an OTA antenna connected to my HDTIVO. Problem is that the DirecTV guys don't guarantee the reception of the antenna and guess what, it sucks. It had been working fine for Fox, ABC, CBS, NBC until recently (PBS, WB, and UPN digital channels have been flakey since installation) but I think with the weather the last couple weeks maybe it got moved around?

ANyway my request is for any referrals for someone that comes out and professionally calibrates an OTA antenna? Is your antenna hard to get to? If not, just use a compass and www.antennaweb.org (or www.titantv.com) and point it yourself -- it's not rocket science.

Off Topic...a bit:


I have researched again and again but am still stuck on buying my next HDTV set. I am torn between an LCD or DLP. I know there are other spots on avsforum and I have read a bunch, but I was wondering if my STL family could chime in?

BTW, This set will be sitting on a bookshelf, so the 46 inch sets are my max as far as size goes [total size of cabinet can be no more than 45 inches in width]. Also, my price point is really not much more than $2k.

I am torn between the DLP's [46 inch Sammy or 44 inch LG] or a few of the LCD's [including the 44 inch Zenith]. I visited BB today and the employee I talked to today freaked me out about the costs of repairing DLP's. Beyond the obvious comparisons does anyone know much about repairs costs of DLP vs LCD?

Any thoughts/views/opinions/etc on LCD vs DLP would be GREATLY appreciated - I want to buy this week and get it over with.

Thanks

Bruce

A bit of advice for you, don't put much stock in what a BB employee says!! More often than not they are misguided and sometimes just plain wrong.

Bruce,

I haven't seen enough of the LG/Zenith product to have any kind of an opinion, but overall I'd say your best bet for a DLP or LCD set comes down to the Samsung DLP or the Sony LCD. Neither are up to CRT picture quality, but they are moving in the right general direction.

Overall, I prefer DLP to LCD, but I've recently done a couple of the latest Sony LCDs where the end results were very good and significantly better than what I'd seen with last year's models.

I do have a bias in favor of the recent Samsungs, as they are beginning to provide an interface to the chipset-level TI functionality that allows a calibrator to redefine the color gamut to perfectly match the SMPTE C or HDTV standards -- the net result being virtually perfect grayscale and color accuracy. I appreciate that maybe that may be a bit too geeky for your purposes at the moment, but I do think it's worth knowing if calibration is of potential interest after break-in.

As for repairs -- well that's what I think of as the "dirty little secret" of the consumer electronics industry. To me the issue isn't so much "cost of repair" but "competence."

And this isn't just a problem with the new technologies -- I have a calibration customer who's been waiting since November to get resolution to a fairly straightforward problem with his Hitachi CRT RPTV. But service companies are even more clueless about repairing LCD, DLP, plasma or LCOS sets, because field techs haven't been provided with the training or tools needed.

The root problem with repairs is that over the years manufacturers have progressively whittled down the money they reimburse service companies for warranty repair work, which is typically the largest piece of the revenue pie for most service companies. With less and less money coming in, there's little incentive to properly train or equip staff -- and it's also harder to attract and retain skilled people.

For that reason, I think it's worth considering purchase of an extended warranty -- depending on what's covered and what it costs. This is an option I would dismissed out of hand a few years ago.

Of course, an extended warranty won't magically increase the chances that you'll get something properly repaired, but at least you'll have some recourse (replacement) if the worst happens and you're sitting there, remote in hand, staring at an unresponsive heap of plastic.

Bruce,

I've got the Sammy 46" (HLN model) on a bookshelf and couldn't be happier. I also looked at the Sony LCDs, but at the time (March of '04) there were some quality control issues on the Sony that I believe have since been corrected. As far as cost of repair, as Doug suggested, I bought an extended warranty as a hedge against this. Of course, I bought it from Ultimate Electronics, so the ol' extended warranty might not be of much use.:rolleyes:

If constantly writing to the hard drive is a concern, that's an area where ReplayTV blows Tivo away.

Tivo: at the end of a reorded program, it will show you the screen giving choices for that program (play, delete, etc)... and if you don't choose something after a certain amount of seconds, it will go back to whatever live channel was on last and start filling up the buffer 24/7.

ReplayTV: at the end of a recorded program playback, it will simply go to the main ReplayTV intro screen and sit there not recording anything until you switch to a live channel or something comes on that you've previously told it to record.

Here are some tips that I just tried out and it improved the video from my pj immensely. It may help those of you who have light colored walls and need a quick, cheap solution. As you know, light is reflected back onto your screen from light colored walls, floors, and ceilings. I'm renting and haven't really talked to my landlord about painting the walls. I imagine that he'd probably let me, but I don't want the expense of hiring someone to come out and do a few coats of a nice dark color. Besides, it's not my house, and I can't take it with me when I'm ready to move. So, I spent a little bit of money and got 4 curtain rods that can extend out to 86", and a bunch of black fabric, as well as some curtain hooks. Yes, that's right. I just made some black curtains for my side walls, very easily(no sewing at all). The 2nd pair of rods hold a second overlapping pair of black curtains that I just lifted up and stretched over the screen, across the ceiling. The 2 pairs just meet in the middle in a mountain peak shape, and the central line is stapled to the ceiling. In effect, I have built a giant shadow box around the screen area, and now, my light walls are not a factor at all.

The benefits to the picture are unbelievable!! I knew that my blacks on the H31 pj would be a little better, but I had no idea that they would be a LOT better. In fact, I have not really seen better blacks on any projector to date, including the big $13K dlp HD2+ pjs. I'm serious. The black levels are so deep now that I'm reminded of a crt set at times. It's really beautiful. Also improved is the contrast ratio. The range of light to dark is more defined. Whites look brighter, darks look darker. The 3D effect is much more enhanced. I was not prepared for the fact that my color intensity would go way up. It's like someone got into my menu, and pumped the color way up, but the settings are still the same. Guys, it didn't cost me a whole lot of money to do this, and I didn't have to change my whole room. In fact, things look much more theaterlike now. Curtains around and above the screen, the pj is mounted on the ceiling, and there are cable tracks for my wires on the ceiling and back wall...man, these last couple of days of work have paid off. I friend helped with all this, and didn't charge me a dime.

One final thing...if you are planning to get a pj, and want to ceiling mount it, I suggest that you find spot where the pj is set to a relatively small zoom on the lens, or somewhere near the middle of it's range if you want more flexibility. This way, the pj is using less of the lens surface, and you will get a better image with less of a chance for lens distortions. My lens was set at almost full zoom before I repositioned it for minimal zoom, and the improvement can be seen. Someone else gave me this idea, and I'm really glad I tried it. Happy viewing.

Personally, I'd lean towards the JVC D'ILA sets, instead of the LCDs or DLPs. That's just me though.

Three chips, with the highest fill factor gives you an incredible picture.

Cheers,

Originally posted by abcward
I visited BB today and the employee I talked to today freaked me out about the costs of repairing DLP's. Beyond the obvious comparisons does anyone know much about repairs costs of DLP vs LCD?

Any thoughts/views/opinions/etc on LCD vs DLP would be GREATLY appreciated - I want to buy this week and get it over with.

Thanks

Bruce Hey Bruce, BB sales clerks are trying to scare you into the warranty. Take something home and try it out, all the new micro display devices look really good when properly set-up.

[shameless plug] Stop by and see me @ Ultimate (Mid Rivers). I always hook-up my local avs buddies. ;) [/shameless plug]

John, The JVC rep stopped by today and informed me that we will have a 70" 1080P HD-ILA priced under $7000 :D

John,

I agree that LCOS sets can look great, but I think there's more question marks over that new technology than any other.

Toshiba had horrendous problems with LCOS reliability and ended up exiting the market. Likewise, 6 months ago Philips shut down its LCOS operations because of a variety of problems.

Everyone was hoping that Intel's entry into the LCOS market would resolve the manufacturing issues and help to drive the sort of volume that would make LCOS a long-term viable competitor to LCD and DLP. But Intel also ended up declaring defeat, taking a big write-off on their investment.

Personally I'd be wary of spending substantial bucks on an LCOS set until the track record for that technology is a lot more settled. Maybe that's overly cautious, but I've advised several of my customers to steer clear of LCOS for the time being.

Doug,
As a Voom lover I'd like to say that it doesn't make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside when I read about the radical business practices happening concerning Voom and its future. I'd really like to be able to continue using the service, but I'm almost a bit embarrassed when I read about the senior Dolan trying to get this sale to Echostar reversed at the last second, and the way he's going about it. If Voom survives, will I be proud to even say that I have it? (A little voice says yes....if they come out with a dvr.)

Originally posted by abcward
I have researched again and again but am still stuck on buying my next HDTV set. I am torn between an LCD or DLP. I know there are other spots on avsforum and I have read a bunch, but I was wondering if my STL family could chime in?0Thanks

Bruce

I own the Sharp 9000 front projector, a single chip DLP, and I'm adding a second set for a bedroom - one of the Sceptre 30 LCD's that are on sale at Costco this week for $899. My experiience in general is that I prefer DLP to LCD. I chose an LCD where I teach because I was a little afraid of the headaches some have reported after watching DLP's. I haven't experienced it, nor has anyone I know, but I didn't want to risk it with students.

I prefer DLP for two primary reasons - black level and detail. I think DLP still beats LCD for black level, though that is getting better on LCD's with every generation. And black level on one of the newer LCD's is likely better than my 3 year old 9000 technology. One area where three chip LCD is not going to beat single chip DLP is in detail. Because of the way DLP works, RGB pixels cannot misconverge. All three colors come from the same micro mirror. It's a sort of temporal dithering. Even the best converged three chip isn't usually dead on like a DLP.

Finally, you can't read about DLP too much without hearing about the rainbow effect. When I first went shopping for a projector, I was very susceptible to seeing rainbows - even the Sharp 9000 had me concerned, because I could see them. However, after watching the set every day, I've become almost completely desensitized to them. When my set went in for repair and was gone for about a month, I was shocked to walk into a Best Buy and see rainbows again from the DLP sets. When my projector came back, it took almost no time for me to adjust again.

John mentioned the D-ILA set from JVC. I've just seen it at Best Buy (bad environment for any set), but it's black level still seemed the weakest part of the picture. D-ILA is still LCD at heart, and it is my understanding from the reviews that black level is still a problem area with this technology, too.

Anyway, my vote is still DLP.

Joe Clark

Hey guys.
I have a Sony KP-53HS10 set. Bought it way back in 2000 and it has purred like a kitten ever since then. Technician set it up and tweaked it when it was delivered, but since then I have used the auto convergence button. Well, the other day something peculiar happened. While using my MOXI and switching between 480i and 1080i (I can't wait for the auto discovery upgrade) the 1080i still looks good (16X9) ... but in 480i mode (4X3) the guns aren't lined up at the top and bottom of the screen. In 480i mode it looks fine in the center, but the lineup sort of curves away at the top & bottom.
Any ideas?
I tried the auto convergence again. In 1080i everything lines up to make a nice white cross in the center of the screen. In 480i mode, the guns line up, but then the cross has a red line on the left, and a blue on the right.

Bruce - I'd go DLP. (I have the Sp4805 projector...so I might be partial.) I've heard/read that DLP is better for wider rooms, and LCD is better for longer/narrower rooms. Either way, A lot of people in my office have the Samsung DLP's and are very happy.

hanjke,

Sounds like you need to perform a manual convergence, at the least. Not sure about your particular Sony model but it's possible that the auto-convergence feature will effectively block you from doing a manual convergence from the user menus, in which case you'd need to tackle it via the service menu geometry and convergence controls.

One thought: Is it possible that your non-HD mode for MOXI got switched from 480i to 480p? This might account for the sudden change you're seeing in convergence quality. On the other hand, if you verify that you're still in 480i mode (or you have a 480p DVD player and everything looks OK there), it's probably just a problem with the 480i mode.

The fact that this problem occurred abruptly would normally make think that a convergence circuit board has gone bad, but if that were the case it would most likely affect 1080i, too.

If any other ideas occur to me, I'll let you know.

Brownie points -

Anyone with the moxi box having ghosting problems with Channel 11? It's the only station having problems, and it only happens when the signal goes through the moxi. (I could score even more brownie points if I could solve the riddle.) Any ideas?

I hooked up my girlfriend's parents with HDTV this past tuesday. They have a Mitsubishi diamond series TV. All they were missing was the antenna. After about 10 minutes they were able to get 5 locals with an old antenna I had form college. My girlfriends dad and I shared a beer afterwards...he couldn't stop smiling. Now...bring on the basketball.

Personally, I can't stand rainbows, and I've seen 'em on every single-chip DLP RP set, including the HD-3 based units. So I steer away from DLP for that reason.

JVC's D'ILA has been around in available products for about 8 years, which hardly qualifies as new technology. It's entry to the consumer market is the only part of it that is "new", and that goes back at least 3 years now probably more like 5.

Rainbows+Contrast vs. No Rainbows+Color Fidelity?

Since the room will be the limiting factor in contrast, I'll take the latter every time.

Cheers,

John,

I should clarify that my point about LCOS is that it hasn't proven itself capable of meeting high-volume demand.

There have been repeated LCOS manufacturing problems, to the point where no company involved in LCOS will even comment on production yields (% of chips manufactured that meet minimum quality control standards). This is why Intel's (brief) entry into the LCOS market was encouraging.

While it's true that JVC has been in the DILA/LCOS game longer than anyone else, I doubt they've sold even 10,000 projectors a year over that period, and for now I'm skeptical that they can gear up production to the 100,000 units that will be the minimum necessary for them to be a force in the consumer RPTV market.

The fact that Sony is pushing hard behind LCOS (SXRD) is nominally a good sign because of that company's market position and reputation, but then again Sony's recent track record in picking the winning horse in a new technology race isn't exactly awe-inspiring.

Of course, I appreciate your issue with rainbows and in that case, DLP obviously isn't a good choice for you. Maybe when the 3-chip models come down substantially in price. FWIW, I actually calibrated one of the 3-chip Runcos a few months ago, and it was far and away the best I've seen from a digital projector.

But for $40,000, nothing less should be expected.

Doug,
I saw some flickering in my Moxi picture early this morning at around 3am through the component connection. I haven't done a lot of testing of anything else in the system just yet. With my newly installed ceiling mount for the pj and cable tracking, the power cord now has to travel parallel with and fairly close to my video cables. Moxi's dvi port is not yet active, but I did briefly check the dvi signal from Charter's HD digital box, and didn't see any problems. Do you think that my component cables might be sensitive to having a power cord so close for it's entire length? The problem did lessen over the next couple of hours and it is possible that maybe some work was being done on the cable in my area. I'll check it again right now.

jedi,

It's possible that the proximity of the compoent video and power cables is a factor. But it seems like any interference from the power cable would be relatively constant, so I'd check for other sources or causes.

Still, it would be a good idea to see if there's any way to better isolate those two cables.

jedi,

One other thought on your video/power issue.

Is there any way for you to temporarily run a separate power cable to your projector -- say, across the floor and up to the projector -- so that you can see if the problem continues when the power and video cables are better isolated?

Jedi -

Many people have seen the "flicker" (aka ground loop) on projectors when the video and power cables are run next to each other. (Especially if the video signal cable is not heavily shielded.) Does it happen with all your sources run through the component cable?

FWIW - Do you have the pj plugged into a surge protector or another source of clean power?

Doug,

I could be wrong, but I thought that JVC had already cleared the 100K plateau on the D'ILA RPTV sets.

I'm checking with my JVC contact to see if that's true.

Cheers,

That was before they recalled 26,000. ;)

I haven't been able to find anything online, but heard on KMOX local business news that Charter announced today that it doesn't have enough cash on hand to pay a quarterly dividend. Strictly speaking, dividend payments are optional, but it's a big deal when a company decides not to pay one going forward.

More details below...

I got the interest rate details wrong, so I'll edit my previous post.

Here's the story from the St. Louis Business Journal:
______________________________

Charter won't pay dividend on preferred stock in Q1

Charter Communications Inc. will not pay its first-quarter dividend on its preferred stock because it does not have an adequate surplus as required by law, it said in a regulatory filing Thursday.

The rate on the dividend accrual will increase from 5.75 percent per year to 7.75 percent per year, it said.

Charter said the decision does not impact its compliance with its financial covenants or credit facilities, and does not affect its liquidity or its ability to make other payments.
______________________________

For the full story, go to:

http://stlouis.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2005/03/28/daily64.html

Originally posted by GlendaleHDTV
Bruce,

I've got the Sammy 46" (HLN model) on a bookshelf and couldn't be happier. I also looked at the Sony LCDs, but at the time (March of '04) there were some quality control issues on the Sony that I believe have since been corrected. As far as cost of repair, as Doug suggested, I bought an extended warranty as a hedge against this. Of course, I bought it from Ultimate Electronics, so the ol' extended warranty might not be of much use.:rolleyes:

Not true. Your Ultimate Performance Guarantee is underwritten by Warrantech and also backed by an insurance company. You will be just fine. I heard today that UE is closing the Brentwood and Rock Road stores.

Scott

Bruce, If you must go DLP or LCD, I much prefer DLP. Better black level. As far as the rainbow effect goes. I too own the Sharp 9000 single chip, and neither I nor anyone else that's watched it has seen rainbows. I know some people see them, but it has not been my experience. Of the many DLP's I've sold over the years, only once did I get a return due to rainbows.

All this being said. I agree with Doug. CRT is the better choice for 1/2 the price. It is proven technology that is somewhat easy to repair. My 42" Mits CRT blows away the LCD's in my house.

Scott

Originally posted by Scott Tucker
I agree with Doug. CRT is the better choice for 1/2 the price. It is proven technology that is somewhat easy to repair. My 42" Mits CRT blows away the LCD's in my house.

Scott

Scott, funny you mentioned that because my wife and I was rethinking this purchase and thinking about a CRT. And for the reason you mentioned...price. What with the expenses involved with a new house, saving a few $$$ on my tv purchase might make my wife happy. I just bought new kitchen cabinets today and you do not want to know how much that cost.

My only problem is space. This new tv needs to fit on a bookcase. The space available is 45 inches wide, 25 inches deep, and a variable height due to adjustable shelving. However the tv at its lowest will sit 34 inches from the floor, so I do not want to go to tall with the tv.

The only hdtv tube tv's that I have found to fit that space are the 34 inch tubes. Ones like Philips, RCA, etc make for about $900-$1400. However I am still unsure what purchase to make.

Too many decisions during moving week....


Bruce

Bruce,

If you're reconsidering CRTs, you may want to put the Sony 34XBR960 on your prospect list. A bit pricey, but a great picture. I also like the 34-inch Panasonics, though I haven't seen the current-year model up close.

The only downside is that the Sony flat-screen tubes tend to be a bit wonky in terms of picture geometry. I've found they can be improved from factory state, but perfect corners aren't likely.

I can vouch for the less than perfect geometry on the Sonys. Text crawls at the bottom of the news channels on my XBR400 start a bit too low on the right side of the screen (bottom of the text not visible), rise to about the right height at the center, then drop a bit again as they get to the left side of the screen.

Do you guys know if the Cardinals first game is in HD or just the home opener? I can't find it on KPLR's website.

Thanks,
Tim

Tim,

I believe that HD coverage is limited to home games, so I don't think the opener in Houston will be HD.

However, I haven't seen any official announcement or news coverage on this, apart from KTVI mentioning 22 home games on FOX Sports Midwest during a story on HDTVs they did around a month ago. So, it's possible that we might get some road coverage in HD (Cubs?), but everything I've seen so far talks about home games.

I provided story ledes to the Post-Dispatch on the Charter news about KPLR and the digital conversion projects, as well as the Cards in HD on KPLR and FSMW. But I don't believe they've done a story on any of that.

Originally posted by abcward
My only problem is space. This new tv needs to fit on a bookcase. The space available is 45 inches wide, 25 inches deep, and a variable height due to adjustable shelving. However the tv at its lowest will sit 34 inches from the floor, so I do not want to go to tall with the tv.I don't believe Scott's CRT reference only meant tube TVs. I think he might be suggesting a small tabletop (CRT-based) RPTV. I believe Mitsubishi used to make a 46" model that as if it would fit in the space you described.

abcward,

I don't know if you've looked at the Sony Grand Wega LCD rear-projection TVs, but this summer the new 42" is supposed to have the speakers on the bottom which will greatly reduce it's size.

I know the relative merits of lcd vs. dlp vs. crt, but if you're not looking for a home theater centerpiece- just a nice TV- this might fit your needs. I'm interested in this set for my family room to replace my old 32" tube tv.

If you're not in a hurry it might be worth waiting to check it out.

Anybody have digital KPLR available on Charter this morning? Forgot to check as I walked out but I thought my last billing announced that beginning April 1 that would add channel 11 to their HD offerings.

I still dont have guide info on my moxi box, but the channel was active and working when I left the house today...

Fellas-

I have checked my convergence problem. In 1080i it's fine, but in 480i and 480p it isn't. At the top of the screen the red & blue bend toward the corners (like a smile.) At the bottom, they bend downward (like a frown.) How much (average) would it run to have a pro come tweak it manually? Anyone? Anyone?

Hanjke,

Call Doug (Drop the Remote). He's an ISF callibrator and did a really good job on my set. His prices are listed on his website www.clearlyresolved.com

great work and good conversation.

I was up late last night and channel 781 WB Digital was up at around 12:30 AM. No guide at that time but the channel was there. Time to set up the Moxi to record Smallville HD just in time for the last few episodes of the season.

hanjke -- Give me a call and we can talk through the options and cost to get your set looking great. I'll be out all afternoon and evening Friday on a job, so feel free to call anytime over the weekend.

Brad -- thanks for the kind words and recommendation. Much appreciated.

I will give a thumbs-up for Doug as well. He calibrated my Mits rear projection last year and it was well worth it.

OT - If anyone knows of any senior IT positions open at their places of work, please PM me.

Mike

No one has mentioned this yet, but it appears that Charter's newly added feed of 11-1 is stretched on 4:3 material. People are shorter and wider than they should be. I don't think that 11-1 does this OTA, right?

Doug,
I'm breathing a sigh of relief. It seems that the flickering I saw the other night was just a problem with the cable feed, and it's totally gone now. I didn't have to do any big troubleshooting. It's strange that dvi was totally unaffected. Well, if it ain't broke.....

Originally posted by jedi35
No one has mentioned this yet, but it appears that Charter's newly added feed of 11-1 is stretched on 4:3 material. People are shorter and wider than they should be. I don't think that 11-1 does this OTA, right?

Yeah I noticed this too.. Looks like crap. Which sucks cuz I liked to record off the HD channels even when shows are not made for HDTV because its better than the analog feed. At least until charter goes all digital at least. Maybe they will fix it? I hope......

Originally posted by jedi35
No one has mentioned this yet, but it appears that Charter's newly added feed of 11-1 is stretched on 4:3 material. People are shorter and wider than they should be. I don't think that 11-1 does this OTA, right?


KPLR-DT just started doing that over the air in the past couple of days.

Is anyone having trouble with 4-1? It was out last night, and I forgot to bounce my HDTiVo to see if that resolved it. Now we are missing Joan of Arcadia cause it's still not working.

Anyone else missing KMOVDT?

Ok, nevermind. I guess my antenna got bumped.

I really need to stop using a table-top style antenna.

WB11-HD seems to NOT be stretching anything for me tonight when watching SD content like Friends and Raymond. Maybe they've changed things?

Originally posted by abcward
WB11-HD seems to NOT be stretching anything for me tonight when watching SD content like Friends and Raymond. Maybe they've changed things?

Let's hope they leave the 4x3 as 4x3... Alyssa Milano and Rose McGowan's cleavage on CHARMED looks great as-is..... :D

Originally posted by abcward
WB11-HD seems to NOT be stretching anything for me tonight when watching SD content like Friends and Raymond. Maybe they've changed things?

Yes, they switched back. Good !

OK, cool. 11-1 is not stretched on SD stuff now. I do wish Charter would go ahead and give us the program guide info for this channel, however. Still, it's progress that we have yet one more digital channel in the lineup.