Anybody else sick and tired of the digital TV commercials and warnings?

[seamusuk]

LOL!

I dunno...

Less lowering of the tone please ....

 

[sudsmaster]

According to Consumer Reports, 40 inches and above are the best fit for most American living rooms for the main set. So you might want to multiply your old figures by 25% to 40% more to get a good size. I have a 42" Vizio LCD set mounted on the wall above the mantel in the living room. It's big enough, although I reckon a 50" set would look even better. What I might do, eventually, is replace it with a larger set and move the 42" into the family room above the fireplace there, where it would look right at home. You don't want to go too big in a small room because then the pixels will be too obvious, I guess. Or you'll get whiplash trying to watch tennis matches or The View.

Lately I've noticed a new scrolling message on the broadcast channels. It's saying that even if you already have a digital tuner you'll have to rescan the channels after February whatever in order to get their new frequencies. I guess there's been a lot of jockeying of just where the channels go in the final setup. And I suppose it's technically easier to change the frequency (or "digital signature") of a digital channel than it was with the older analog broadcast transmitters.

 

[danemodsandy]

Call Me Old-Fashioned...

...But I cannot abide today's billboard-sized TVs dominating a room. To me (a 1952 model brought up in the '50s and '60s), a 25-inch TV is pretty big, and certainly as much as anyone really needs. The TV in my bedroom (a combo unit with a built-in VCR), is an eight-inch set; I did not want a larger set looming over everything.

For my taste, a 52-inch TV set in a private house is a sign that television has become entirely too important to its inhabitants.

 

[jeffg]

What Sandy said. With the way most shows are intentionally produced these days (e.g. cut shots at least twice every second, and in the case of HGTV etc, four times a second), I can't even watch large screens without getting motion sickness and a scrambled brain.

 

[tolivac]

I am afriad I am hooked on the large "billboard" sized TV screens-Currently I have a 53" set-next is to be a 58"Panasonic 1080P plasma.the main reason I like the Huge screens is that I am primarily a movie veiwer.Hardly watch"TV"most of what the networks air is TRASH.Esp their news programs.I like the movie experience and like the feel of veiwing the larger screen-small Tv's are useless for movie veiwing-you can't see the details and the 4x3 screen aspect is fine for very old movies shot in that aspect.Newer moive are all mostly 16x9 or similar so you need the wider aspect if you like movies-and many new TV programs are now shot in 16x9.Too me the BIGGER the TV the BETTER!!However in many newer movies i feel the cameramen and producers should show some restriant on some types of shots-esp the round and round the actors heads or scenes-yes on a big screen-esp the theater ones!these shots can make me nauseous.Some patrons have been complaining about this.also the "shaky cam"shots.Get the tripod PLEASE!!!And what another Applianc eville member mentioned is the frequent scene and shot changes-most people don't look at things for only a split second as these producers have you do-most folks have to look at something for several seconds or longer to get what it is and have it "register" in the mind.And with newer HDTV technology it makes large screen TV's afordable and readly available to anyone.I would not want to watch standard definition on some HD type sets.LCD esp-low def looks really BAD on these.

 

[bpetersxx]

bump

I agree with everyone.

I wanted a simple solution for digital tv

I got the government boxes 23$ for 2

Then my analog TV blew up so I had to get a new TV

Then I got new Dish DVR 625 receivers

So this digital conversion has cost 1000$

Sorry the picture is bad I have to retune the TV antenna rotor

Doesn`t this just fit in

 

[bpetersxx]

this is for cable

Dish network pizza dish

 

[bpetersxx]

I can`t get local channels on the dishes so I had to fix this

This is a wineguard chromastar deep fringe antenna

works better on digital than on analog

 

[bpetersxx]

And I have this for everything else

Still works after all these years

Unimesh satellite dish c and ku band and a 4dtv satellite receiver

 

[whirlcool]

Since DTV will give the broadcasters better control over what we see and don't see and what we can record and not record, I forsee a time in the near future where this will be used to increase profits by charging for additional services. "Want to timeshift and record a program? That'll be an additional $9.95 a month to do that, sir."

Since we are on the subject, I also hate those DVD Region codes. If you buy a DVD to play, it should be able to play where ever you are, not where the studios want you to play it!

 

[mattl]

Whirlcool, on many dvd players it's a simple matter of keying in a "secret" code via the remote to enable region free playing. But I do agree the region code is ridiculous.

 

[tolivac]

Will all of these warnings and promos disappear when its "plates off" for analog TV in February?On the broadcast end of it sure many of the stations are trying to squeeze the remaining hours out of sagging transmitter tubes.

 

[bpetersxx]

dish network and local channels

I cannot get local channels on Dish network because the broadcast station and the cable conpany says I am in a satellite home viewers act area

does anyone else have dish or directtv and has to use a terrestrial antenna to get local channels

Dish network says all you have to do is have programming and u are set
That is not right u have to not be in a designated area to get local and I aint

 

[rp2813]

Jeff, I agree that the cut shots on the DIY, Food (OMG I can't watch Tyler Florence at-all) and HGTV type channels are ridiculous. I mean, even the most A.D.D. kid today isn't THAT A.D.D., and since when were any of these channels appealing to kids of video game and action movie vintage anyway?

Meanwhile, I have my 1950 Admiral 10" and an early 90's GE 13" with built-in VCR that will need converters since we didn't get a Dish box for them. I haven't done anything about it yet. I got a couple of coupons for my mom that we never used, so I think I'll start looking for those. There are still two antennas on the roof here but the leads to them are nearly toast. It may not be worth the trouble, as I think U-Verse in almost here in our neighborhood. Once it is, I'm quitting Dish right away, as I don't have a contract and there won't be any ETF.

 

[mattl]

bpetersxx, in the SAT community,( much like this one btw...)there is a fairly well know solution to your problem, it's called "moving". No, I don't mean you have to move, you just change your service address. People do it all the time. You need to be fairly close to where you "move" since most of the country is covered by various spot beams, think of a series of overlapping cones. As long as you move somewhere in the "cone" that covers you you will be able to get the channels in that area.

You need a valid address, a friend or relative might allow you to use theirs, or you can use a gas station, McD's or a vacant lot, doesn't matter. You simple go online and change your service address, you can leave your billing address the same, the computer doesn't care.

I've been doing this for years. To Direct I live in Detroit, HATE the Flint stations, and my bill used to go to my office, but now it goes to the house I"m working on. I may "move" home and get updated equipment, D is replacing all the HD TiVos with their crappy unit, but it is free. They will do a free updated dish install too. In a few week I won't be able to get any HD SAT delivered content, bummer. But I get plenty of OTA HD.