This will be a totally techie comment, but I’m so surprised by something I’ve got to explain it. I have a Verizon FiOS Motorola QIP6416 DVR set to 720p with an HDMI cable going to my Panasonic video projector. HDTV looks wet-your-pants fantastic. SDTV is rather disappointing, and I avoid it.
I have a FiOS Motorola DCT-700 digital/analog converter with a cheapie RCA composite video cable going into a Panasonic DMR-ES15S DVD Recorder that’s set to 480p. From there is a 12-ft component video cable going to a Kenwood THX receiver that has a 50-ft component cable going to the projector.
There is absolutely no comparison in picture quality. The bottom-of-the-line DCT-700 going through the recorder and the receiver totally blows away the video going directly from the top-of-the-line DVR over HDMI. Savvy techies would say “no way!” but I’m telling you definitely yes.
Hi Doug! The thought of analog TV seems primitive already. In 1979 when my sister first got cable it was mainly for better reception. It mostly had Philly broadcast channels, WPIX and WOR in New York, PRISM (Phila. Regional Sports & Movies-now Comcast Sports Net and Starz). Later a few networks like Nostalgia/ARTS, ESPN, Weather Channel, CNN, Financial News Network, etc. were around but that was about it. Weird to imagine, huh? My friend June had cable and got rid of it 2 years ago (?). It wasn’t financial-her reason was “non-use”. Her husband is with PENNDOT and is my notoriously miserly cousin, which is why I didn’t introduce her to the cheap bastard-but that’s another story! 😡 Now she complains to me about him and the rabbit ears reception!
This is a very good point, Joan, and it’s something I’ve been thinking about. Newscasts and many other programs are served perfectly well by webpage video. The CBS 48 Hours program I embedded is a perfect example. It gains nothing by being big, wide and high definition.
As one of my friends has learned, over-air digital TV is much better than analog. He was mad about having to buy the tuners and annoyed by the bother of submitting for the credit from the government, but he was sold on the technology the moment he saw the Boston PBS station come in perfectly in his living room, where it hadn’t come in at all. Now he no longer has to be in the kitchen to watch his most frequently viewed channel.
“Screech! BAM! Whoa…Dude!”. Can anyone tell me why “Entertainment Tonight” needs to be in HD, other than it sounds like an early ’90s male adolescent fantasy of Mary Hart, maybe. Now in a perfect America everyone will be able to have HDTVs and it will be the standard, but we’re just now only going all-digital. I love the idea of HDTV for sports, nature shows, travel shows, even the Weather Channel, but the Sunday morning discussion shows would never be more interesting in HDTV unless one of the panelists falls asleep! Digital TV sure beats the days of analog signals coming to your antenna on the roof and should prevent another great Motorola TV from a “KABOOM!” from a direct lightning to antenna hit like ours took in the 70s! That sound wakes you up fast!
Don’t worry Joan, I’ll just send my almost a PhD in electrical engineering husband over to supervise installation! Just kidding, Dougie. 😉 I can’t believe I used to say I didn’t care about sound and picture quality, but now I DO! When all the channels go digital in February, our TVs will work just fine, and we have cable, but the HD shows (like Entertainment Tonight) and all-digital channels (like Channel 8 out of Altoona) we do get don’t look all that much better.
Now if you have a wet-your-pants moment Doug, don’t touch anywhere too close to a wall outlet! We don’t need the Great Dograt going “ZZZZIPPP!” across the room! Then you would look like Ron Howard on a very dry and windy California day! Or like Ron Howard Meets the Mutant van der Graaff Generator!
The difference could be that the projector does a better job of converting 480 to 720 than the DVR. I’ll test it by putting the DVR’s composite video into the DVD recorder, then switch back and forth between it and the DVR’s HDMI signal. What fun!
No way!
(just proving my savvy techie cred)
Left-brained Twinster Jean explodes while trying to concentrate on the above blog entry! Ka-BLAM! 😉