HDTV Buyers FAQ
 

HDTV was one of the hotest items for Chirstmas 2004. Many people are no
doubt now struggling with a new set. If you find youself in this
situration I'd like to offer up my HDTV Buyers FAQ, which can be viewed
at:

http://hdtv.0catch.com

This FAQ was assembled by myself with the contribution of a few others
who frequent this newsgroup. It's designed to help new HDTV owners and
shoppers a like demystify this technology.

Happy Holidays
-Jeremy

wrote:
HDTV was one of the hotest items for Chirstmas 2004. Many people are no
doubt now struggling with a new set. If you find youself in this
situration I'd like to offer up my HDTV Buyers FAQ, which can be viewed
at:

http://hdtv.0catch.com

This FAQ was assembled by myself with the contribution of a few others
who frequent this newsgroup. It's designed to help new HDTV owners and
shoppers a like demystify this technology.

Happy Holidays
-Jeremy


I visited your Web Site. I was there probably less than a minute and got
a dozen pop ups. Maybe there is some good information there, but I
was so busy closing pop ups that I gave up and closed your Web Site.
I'll never go back. I have better things to do with my time. I'm sure
that I can find better information someplace else without the pop ups. I
recommend that nobody waste their time either.

I too found the website very useful without problems with popups. I am using
AOL which has good popup control.
Thanks Jeremy.

Paul

Yes I should have warned about the pop up ads, the host provider forces
these on my site (one of the cost for free hosting). If I ever get
sponsors (advertisers) I will put the money back in the site and
purchase pop-up free hosting space.
As others have said, pop-up blockers work well.

-Jeremy

Tom wrote:
wrote:
Yes I should have warned about the pop up ads, the host provider
forces these on my site (one of the cost for free hosting). If I
ever get sponsors (advertisers) I will put the money back in the
site and purchase pop-up free hosting space.
As others have said, pop-up blockers work well.

-Jeremy


When you get rid of the pop-ups, maybe I'll go back. I am using
Mozilla Firefox with a pop-up blocker and the pop-ups still got
through. Comcast offers a FREE 25mb personal Web Site. Are your
pop-ups actually paying for your hosting or is it a profit generating
site. Thanks but NO THANKS. There are several other more informative
Web Sites with out the annoying pop-ups.

I'm using Firefox, and only had 1 popup at this site make it through....are
you sure you have it configured correctly?

wrote:

HDTV was one of the hotest items for Chirstmas 2004. Many people are no
doubt now struggling with a new set. If you find youself in this
situration I'd like to offer up my HDTV Buyers FAQ, which can be viewed
at:

http://hdtv.0catch.com

This FAQ was assembled by myself with the contribution of a few others
who frequent this newsgroup. It's designed to help new HDTV owners and
shoppers a like demystify this technology.

Happy Holidays
-Jeremy

A good start. The section on finding out what's available in HD and
how to get it should provide a link to www.antennaweb.org, which will
tell you what stations are broadcasting digital (or analog) in your
area, how far away they are and in what direction. It also suggests
what sort of antenna you'll likely need to receive them.

For those who are still trying to decide what to buy, you might
discuss what's needed for OTA, cable or satellite reception, and what
you can expect to get from each.

For cable, cover the major differences among cable-provided STBs,
user-owned STBs (or HDTVs with tuners) with CableCard slots, and those
with only the ability to receive unscrambled digital cable. With the
latter, you generally are limited to cable-carried broadcast stations,
regardless of what you have subscribed to.

Newbies considering satellite often don't realize that the locals they
may subscribe to are not in HD on satellite. A few broadcast networks
are represented in HD and there will be more, but most people aren't
allowed to subscribe to them.

Del Mibbler

"L Alpert" wrote in message
news:[email protected]_s01...
Tom wrote:
wrote:
Yes I should have warned about the pop up ads, the host provider
forces these on my site (one of the cost for free hosting). If I
ever get sponsors (advertisers) I will put the money back in the
site and purchase pop-up free hosting space.
As others have said, pop-up blockers work well.

-Jeremy


When you get rid of the pop-ups, maybe I'll go back. I am using
Mozilla Firefox with a pop-up blocker and the pop-ups still got
through. Comcast offers a FREE 25mb personal Web Site. Are your
pop-ups actually paying for your hosting or is it a profit generating
site. Thanks but NO THANKS. There are several other more informative
Web Sites with out the annoying pop-ups.

I'm using Firefox, and only had 1 popup at this site make it
through....are you sure you have it configured correctly?

I have SP2 and I got 1 popup.
Strychnine

Del Mibbler wrote:
wrote:

HDTV was one of the hotest items for Chirstmas 2004. Many people are
no
doubt now struggling with a new set. If you find youself in this
situration I'd like to offer up my HDTV Buyers FAQ, which can be
viewed
at:

http://hdtv.0catch.com

This FAQ was assembled by myself with the contribution of a few
others
who frequent this newsgroup. It's designed to help new HDTV owners
and
shoppers a like demystify this technology.

Happy Holidays
-Jeremy

A good start. The section on finding out what's available in HD and
how to get it should provide a link to www.antennaweb.org, which will
tell you what stations are broadcasting digital (or analog) in your
area, how far away they are and in what direction. It also suggests
what sort of antenna you'll likely need to receive them.

For those who are still trying to decide what to buy, you might
discuss what's needed for OTA, cable or satellite reception, and what
you can expect to get from each.

For cable, cover the major differences among cable-provided STBs,
user-owned STBs (or HDTVs with tuners) with CableCard slots, and
those
with only the ability to receive unscrambled digital cable. With the
latter, you generally are limited to cable-carried broadcast
stations,
regardless of what you have subscribed to.

Newbies considering satellite often don't realize that the locals
they
may subscribe to are not in HD on satellite. A few broadcast
networks
are represented in HD and there will be more, but most people aren't
allowed to subscribe to them.

Del Mibbler


Del,

You've made some great recommendations and based on your feedback I
plan to add new sections to the FAQ to address some of these issues.

Also, I want to add that I'm always open to submissions. I think of
myself as the organizer of this FAQ, not the author. I love it when
someone puts togeather a Q: A: block (or blocks) related to a specific
topic and makes a submission. When submissions come in, I try to
corroborate the information against at least two other sources and then
it gets added and the contributor gets credited at the top.
Again, thanks for the feedback.

-Jeremy

To answer your question: the ads you see (pop-ups) I have no control
over. the site is currently a non-profit site (only because I have had
no one offer to pay me for ad space) so all the ads you see are paid to
the host provider who collects any and all profits.

I'm not at all offended by your decision not to return to the site. I
hate pop-ups as well as many of them try to install spyware and other
undesirables. Also, thank you for the information on Comcast. In my
area TimeWarner cable "owns" the market and Comcast is not an option.

I greatly appreciate your feedback and I'm sure your perspective on
this is reflective of many others. After giving this some thought I'm
strongly considering paying for hosting space.

As I'm sure you've already discovered, there are numerious HDTV related
resources on the web. I wish you the best in finding the information
you are seeking.

-Jeremy

wrote

... I'd like to offer up my HDTV Buyers FAQ,

Jeremy, I just visited your site and I like it. It's more readable than many
of the other sites I've been struggling through. I only had one pop-up (XP
with SP2), but if you're relying on advertising for revenue (which is a fair
trade for your efforts) you might want to switch to banner ads since SP2
blocks pop-ups.

Thanks for your effort and I've bookmarked your site.

"Paul Kienitz" wrote in message
oups.com...
wrote:

Yes I should have warned about the pop up ads, the host provider
forces these on my site (one of the cost for free hosting). If I
ever get sponsors (advertisers) I will put the money back in the
site and purchase pop-up free hosting space.
As others have said, pop-up blockers work well.

A real website with no ad requirements and tons of space costs what,
five dollars a month? And you need a sponsor to be able to pay it?

Give the guy a break. He put the site together to help people, using his
own time and effort. What have you done but criticize him?

Hey, curmudgeon, want to give this guy your posting name? I think he might
deserve it.

Leonard

wrote in message
ups.com...
HDTV was one of the hotest items for Chirstmas 2004. Many people are no
doubt now struggling with a new set. If you find youself in this
situration I'd like to offer up my HDTV Buyers FAQ, which can be viewed
at:

http://hdtv.0catch.com

This FAQ was assembled by myself with the contribution of a few others
who frequent this newsgroup. It's designed to help new HDTV owners and
shoppers a like demystify this technology.

Happy Holidays
-Jeremy

A comment regarding your answer on recording HD. You state " You can not
record HD broadcast using VHS or S-VHS based recorders/tapes "

That's not quite correct. My Motorola DCT6208 set-top box converts HD
signals to 480i for output to my VCR. Certainly not a great picture but
works in a pinch if we want to record something while we're out.
Eventually I'll get a DVR.

Bill

Thanks Jeremy,
I've bookmarked it for future reference.
--
Tally Ho!
Ed Forsythe
Maryland, USA


wrote in message
ups.com...
HDTV was one of the hotest items for Chirstmas 2004. Many people are no
doubt now struggling with a new set. If you find youself in this
situration I'd like to offer up my HDTV Buyers FAQ, which can be viewed
at:

http://hdtv.0catch.com

This FAQ was assembled by myself with the contribution of a few others
who frequent this newsgroup. It's designed to help new HDTV owners and
shoppers a like demystify this technology.

Happy Holidays
-Jeremy

Bill: I too have the dct6208 and have been racking my brain trying to
figure out how to archive on tape. I read the manual and they say to
connect via a coax cable, but when I did this, I didn't get anything over to
the tape. I would greatly appreciate a heads up on how you did it?

Thanks


"Bill Sharpe" wrote in message
...

wrote in message
ups.com...
HDTV was one of the hotest items for Chirstmas 2004. Many people are no
doubt now struggling with a new set. If you find youself in this
situration I'd like to offer up my HDTV Buyers FAQ, which can be viewed
at:

http://hdtv.0catch.com

This FAQ was assembled by myself with the contribution of a few others
who frequent this newsgroup. It's designed to help new HDTV owners and
shoppers a like demystify this technology.

Happy Holidays
-Jeremy

A comment regarding your answer on recording HD. You state " You can not
record HD broadcast using VHS or S-VHS based recorders/tapes "

That's not quite correct. My Motorola DCT6208 set-top box converts HD
signals to 480i for output to my VCR. Certainly not a great picture but
works in a pinch if we want to record something while we're out.
Eventually I'll get a DVR.

Bill

Paul Kienitz wrote:
wrote:

Yes I should have warned about the pop up ads, the host provider
forces these on my site (one of the cost for free hosting). If I
ever get sponsors (advertisers) I will put the money back in the
site and purchase pop-up free hosting space.
As others have said, pop-up blockers work well.

A real website with no ad requirements and tons of space costs what,
five dollars a month? And you need a sponsor to be able to pay it?

Well, you could always agree to fork over the money to him.....

The site works as is, and only one pop up made it through Mozilla Firefox on
me. Not a big issue.

Coax cable from antenna out of DCT6208 to antenna in on my Toshiba VCR.
Video/Audio out cables(yellow, red, and white) from VCR to input of
Samsung HDTV. Set timers on cable box and VCR for recording times. Set
desired channel(902, for example, for CBS-HD in my area) to be recorded
on cable box and channel 3 for the VCR.

Hope this helps.

Bill


"edee em" wrote in message
...
Bill: I too have the dct6208 and have been racking my brain trying to
figure out how to archive on tape. I read the manual and they say to
connect via a coax cable, but when I did this, I didn't get anything
over to
the tape. I would greatly appreciate a heads up on how you did it?

Thanks

Thanks for the reply Bill but I didn't want to record the programs at same
time on the DCT and on the vcr. I have a recording on the DCT and I wish to
transfer it over to tape. Can that be done?

Eddie

"Bill Sharpe" wrote in message
...
Coax cable from antenna out of DCT6208 to antenna in on my Toshiba VCR.
Video/Audio out cables(yellow, red, and white) from VCR to input of
Samsung HDTV. Set timers on cable box and VCR for recording times. Set
desired channel(902, for example, for CBS-HD in my area) to be recorded
on cable box and channel 3 for the VCR.

Hope this helps.

Bill


"edee em" wrote in message
...
Bill: I too have the dct6208 and have been racking my brain trying to
figure out how to archive on tape. I read the manual and they say to
connect via a coax cable, but when I did this, I didn't get anything
over to
the tape. I would greatly appreciate a heads up on how you did it?

Thanks

Eddie
I don't know. Adelphia in Santa Monica hasn't activated the DCT
recording feature here yet. I am using my setup for time-shifted
recording only, not archival recording.

Bill

"edee em" wrote in message
...
Thanks for the reply Bill but I didn't want to record the programs at
same
time on the DCT and on the vcr. I have a recording on the DCT and I
wish to
transfer it over to tape. Can that be done?

Eddie

"Bill Sharpe" wrote in message
...
Coax cable from antenna out of DCT6208 to antenna in on my Toshiba
VCR.
Video/Audio out cables(yellow, red, and white) from VCR to input of
Samsung HDTV. Set timers on cable box and VCR for recording times. Set
desired channel(902, for example, for CBS-HD in my area) to be
recorded
on cable box and channel 3 for the VCR.

Hope this helps.

Bill


"edee em" wrote in message
...
Bill: I too have the dct6208 and have been racking my brain trying to
figure out how to archive on tape. I read the manual and they say to
connect via a coax cable, but when I did this, I didn't get anything
over to
the tape. I would greatly appreciate a heads up on how you did it?

Thanks

Just checked Adelphia's local page and DVR is now indeed available in
Santa Monica. I need to make a phone call...

Bill

"Bill Sharpe" wrote in message
...
Eddie
I don't know. Adelphia in Santa Monica hasn't activated the DCT
recording feature here yet. I am using my setup for time-shifted
recording only, not archival recording.

Bill

"edee em" wrote in message
...
Thanks for the reply Bill but I didn't want to record the programs at
same
time on the DCT and on the vcr. I have a recording on the DCT and I
wish to
transfer it over to tape. Can that be done?

Eddie

"Bill Sharpe" wrote in message
...
Coax cable from antenna out of DCT6208 to antenna in on my Toshiba
VCR.
Video/Audio out cables(yellow, red, and white) from VCR to input of
Samsung HDTV. Set timers on cable box and VCR for recording times. Set
desired channel(902, for example, for CBS-HD in my area) to be
recorded
on cable box and channel 3 for the VCR.

Hope this helps.

Bill


"edee em" wrote in message
...
Bill: I too have the dct6208 and have been racking my brain trying to
figure out how to archive on tape. I read the manual and they say to
connect via a coax cable, but when I did this, I didn't get anything
over to
the tape. I would greatly appreciate a heads up on how you did it?

Thanks

In article ,
says...
wrote:
HDTV was one of the hotest items for Chirstmas 2004. Many people are no
doubt now struggling with a new set. If you find youself in this
situration I'd like to offer up my HDTV Buyers FAQ, which can be viewed
at:

http://hdtv.0catch.com

This FAQ was assembled by myself with the contribution of a few others
who frequent this newsgroup. It's designed to help new HDTV owners and
shoppers a like demystify this technology.

Happy Holidays
-Jeremy


I visited your Web Site. I was there probably less than a minute and got
a dozen pop ups. Maybe there is some good information there, but I
was so busy closing pop ups that I gave up and closed your Web Site.
I'll never go back. I have better things to do with my time. I'm sure
that I can find better information someplace else without the pop ups. I
recommend that nobody waste their time either.


Try Mozilla Firefox as a replacement browser for Internet Explorer. It
has built in popup blocking. (No need for third party 'utilities'). Its
also opensource, which is a 'good thing'.

www.mozilla.org

If you simply must use IE: I pity you... :)

But there are also no shortage of popup blockers for internet explorer.
Some good, some awful, some worse than the popups they purport to block.

Many ISPs even offer popup blockers, which can at least usually be
relied upon not to be adware/trojans themselves.