Re: [A/S] Hunters setup

["Maurice Riggins <maurice.riggins@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>" <maurice.riggins@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Maurice, how much HDTV can you get from DirectTV with your set up?

Jim, the short answer is none.  I've been following HDTV ever since 
it came out... look in on it every 4 years.  IMHO, HDTV is still not 
ready viable for most consumers, including myself.

Although I bought the elliptical dish (so I wouldn't have to replace 
it down the road... one trip to the roof-top), I did not spend the 
$500-$800 to buy one of the many available HDTV DirecTV receivers, 
which BTW also have the ATSC (vs the old NTSC we all use now) tuner 
to receive terrestrial over-the-air (OTA) broadcasts.  

This is important since most of the "HDTV Monitors" (which cost 
double that of a comparable NTSC TV) the new name for HDTV-ready or 
HDTV-capable TVs, don't have that tuner... all they can do is display 
an HDTV picture (or standard NTSC TV)... you have to buy SOME kind of 
tuner, be it OTA ($400) or Sat/OTA, or rent an HDTV cable box if the 
cable provider offers it on digital cable.  We don't have digital 
cable here and last I checked only one of the local stations is on-
line with HDTV.

The more expensive HDTVs have an ATSC tuner but cost 3-4 times what a 
comparable NTSC TV does.  The worst part is that with most of the 
programming being in 4:3 format, you get a small 4:3 picture on the 
16:9 screen with black bars on both sides.  On a CRT based HDTV, this 
can result in "burn-in" making the center of the screen dimmer than 
the sides over time.  So most 16:9 TV owners use the stretch mode to 
fill the screen, which is fine if you like a world of fat people and 
LONG cars, motorcycles, etc.

It finally took an order from the FCC to make TV manufacturers start 
including ATSC tuners in TVs.  It goes in effect this year with large 
screens but doesn't get down to small screen until 2006 or so.

Finally, it takes a $1,500 D-VHS recorder to record HDTV and there 
are no TiVO boxes for it.

All these prices should come WAY down in 4-5 years.  If the FCC is 
going to shut off traditional analog NTSC broadcasting in 2006 or 07, 
ATSC tuners BETTER be down to $49.95 or there will be political h*ll 
to pay!

The good news for Airstream owners is that the standard Winegard 
batwing antenna works fine for ATSC reception.  And with DirecTV, all 
one has to do with a round dish antenna with one LNB is repoint the 
dish to the 119 or 110 satellite if they want to watch an HDTV 
channel.  Not as convenient as an oval dish with 3 LNBs, but you only 
have to worry about elevation and azimuth, not tilt, as you do with a 
multi-sat antenna.  Mark Cuban's HDnet and HBO-HD is on 119 and I 
_believe_ SHO-HD and subsequent HDTV will be on 110.

An Airstreamer could get buy with any of the cheaper Korean 4:3 17" 
LCD computer monitors that are setup for TV connections (such as the 
YPrPb component video for HDTV) and do 1280X1024.  Their HDTV picture 
will be 720p, which is 1280 X 720.  Some have NTSC tuners, none have 
ATSC tuners.  Most have a 12V power cord for boondocking and only 
draw about 4A from the batteries.  The Samsung 171MP is a good 
example... the 170MP, at 1024X768 doesn't have high enough 
resolution).  Sony has a $1000 16:9 LCD display that has neither 
tuner nor 12V capability and it's wider than the 17" 4:3 models, 
giving a larger 16:9 image.

Anyway, that's my view of the state of HDTV for Airstreamers.
--
Maurice
WBCCI 5446