Subject: Re: [NEXTEL-1] HDTV

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 12 Nov 2002 19:49:36 EST

In a message dated 11/12/2002 4:38:12 PM US Mountain Standard Time, 
[email-masked] writes:

> 
>     Please contribute on any of these areas.  That is one way to put
> together the whole picture.
> 
> 

I have not made a point to keep track of the dates and slippage. If you call 
a local station and get a talkative tech person they will fill you in on a 
lot of the details.

When the local station vacates the analog channel depends on the number of 
people in the area that can receive digital.

Locally in Phoenix, only one station is broadcasting HDTV, the others are 
upconverting 480i to HD. Many broadcast two digital channels in their 
bandwidth. I understood they could broadcast two digital or one HDTV, but the 
station mentioned has one of each?/

I chose to get a DIsh 6000 receiver with a local converter module + an 
advanced HDTV converter for newer HD channels from the satellite. The 
receiver can receive 18 or so forms of signal can convert them to 480i, 720p, 
or 1080i. Oou new set has a 3-2 pulldown or progressive scanning which 
eliminates the interlace lines and thus gives a much better picture even on 
std. 480i analog. (The set stores one raster and then combines it with the 
second 1/2 so that you get both parts of the original picture, rather than 
1/2 of this picture and 1/2 of the next.) There is more to it than that, but 
that is close enough for my needs. There is something to do with 24 frame 
movie and 30 frame TV also.
The receiver has outputs for RCA video, s-video, RGB, and component output. 

Dish has a HBO and Showtime movie channel + the Discovery Theater ($95 per 
year) a great channel as Discovery has more HD material than anyone else. It 
is broadcast in a new compression format that gives greater amount of 
information that is on the HBO/Show channels.

That is my current experience, The great thing is the off the air signal is 
as good as satellite and is either there or frozen on not at all. No noise. 

I hope this helps to get you started and if this thread should be on an other 
list, my apologies. 

Jim Ray, Sr., Phoenix, AZ, USA, Protector of the Great American Desert, "Each 
grain of sand is a national treasure."