Posted on 02/18/2005 1:57:47 PM PST by tang-soo
Hehe. Well, once we get the priority home improvements done, we'll get a larger set - hubby is lobbying for a plasma set. I thought the several thousand dollar price tag was a big steep - so we have the $150 20" set. It'll do for now. We do, however, have a 27" older set in the living room, but wanted something in the family room so we could enjoy the fireplace and watch the tube.
Geeze, what a scrooge. Good company, good food, beverages - the football game is incidental, isn't it?
Time to build your Media Center PC with one of these:
ATI HDTV Wonder
http://graphics.tomshardware.com/video/20040917/
NVidia also will have an equivalent product.
With remote you can pick one up for around $180.
Combine it with something like this: http://www.gocyberlink.com/multi/products/product_main.jsp?ProdId=12
or this: http://www.mythtv.org/
That is what they cost now, they may get cheaper but royality payments on the patentes necessary to make them limit how low the cost can go. I am not exactly sure of the license cost per unit but I think it is between 5 and 15 dollars.
Get a projector :P
For ~$1100 you can throw a 180" image @ 1024 by 768. Hook up your pc, too and play games. Who needs a tv to take up all that space?
I agree, the market will decide. What it is going to take though, is for more channels to be available in HD. When people can watch everything they want in HD (more than just the major networks), the market will repond accordingly, people will buy them. Let's face it, Americans like cool toys, and HDTV is a really cool toy. I'm just pi$$ed off that I won't be able to watch the Daytona 500 in my area, even though fox is HD ready, just not in bloody middle GA, apparently.
Just too many whiners out there.
Thanks, I may have to do that. Probably though I will just give up TV. It drives me crazy seeing all the remote controls my daughter and son-in-law have to use because of all the equipment they have now. I would never be able to figure it out.
I work at a local TV station (NBC affiliate)...latest news has analog "turn-off" date being pushed back to 2009. As to your specific question, you would probably have to get a new 5" LCD TV or get the digital to analog tuner "adapter" for your old TV for around $100. or so. "Glass" TV's (CRT's) are going the way of buggy whips (only one CRT "glass plant" left making them in the USA, in Tenn. I believe).
It was a part of the deal in selling them exclusive rights to the digital frequencies. They agreed to vacate the analog channels so they can be resold for wireless communications. Those analog TV frequencies are perfectly placed to allow for penetration of buildings with very little loss of reception which is a problem with some of the microwave frequencies used for digital cell phones.
So they agreed to give up valuable spectrum in return for getting digital broadcasting space. Now they want to keep the analog channels too. No fair. They should honor their original agreements -- otherwise give back the digital spectrum.
Some other considerations: although ghosting will not be a problem due to the digital nature, lightning and and other noise sources can completely drop out the signal. No more watching a weak station -- it's either good or nothing, as is the nature digital transmission.
Although moving to the UHF frequencies will permit smaller, less obtrusive antennas, the nature of UHF propagation means that summertime reception will be poorer due to foliage, and anything other than a clear line of sight will be an iffy proposition beyond about 40 miles from the transmitter. This means either stations will have to invest in remote transmitters to fill in the loss of coverage, or just give up part of the over-the-air market. I see local broadcasting and 'free' TV as we know it going away within 10 years. You'll be buying service from the cable companies or other provider, watching a per-minute service over your mobile phone or living with the few channels you can get reliably. But that's just my WAG.
As soon as the analog TV frequencies are given up, that space can be resold to cellular telephone carriers.
Get a Baldwin
Their more solid than Steinways and don't have the muddy basses they have. My roommate has an SD-10 that takes up almost the whole basement, lol! But the sound is incredible. Solid, steely, and earth-shattering.
You should hear him play Rachmaninoff.
;-)
Believe me, no one missed him. He absolutely loves his pricey big screen TV. (My hubby and I think it has a lousey picture.) His wife and kids came. :)
This morning, I heard Greg Knapp of KLIF (sitting in for Glenn Beck) refer to this as the "Leave no Television Viewer Behind Act". What a hoot!
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