Direct TV/ HD Question

JackB1 · Post by **JackB1** » Sat Nov 26, 2005 3:10 pm

Best Buy still has the $200 HD Reciever with the $200 rebate deal going, so I think I am going to take ther plunge, since we already have a Sony
42" WEGA HD TV.

Question is this........do I still need my old Direct TV Receiver or does the new one do both?

bdunn13 · Post by **bdunn13** » Sat Nov 26, 2005 3:20 pm

It does both. But you will need a tripple LNB dish (the oval one).

JackB1 · Post by **JackB1** » Sat Nov 26, 2005 3:24 pm

thanks - one other thing. I just learned that I need a separate off air antenna to get local channels in HD. I already have a "rabbit ears" antenna for local channels. Will that work or do I need a special "HD" antenna? Also, does the antenna plug into the back of the HD Receiver?

jondiehl · Post by **jondiehl** » Sat Nov 26, 2005 3:57 pm

"Rabbit ears" are usually VHF band, and don't have the best reception.

Most digital OTA signals are via the UHF band. If you live near the transmittion towers, you can get away with a smaller, indoor, omni-directional UHF antenna. If you're more like 20-60 miles away, then an outdoor/attic type antenna (the ones that look like christmas trees, also known as "yagi" style antenna) work. That's what I have, made by Channelmaster. I'm about 40 miles from the towers and pickup everything just fine OTA. I bought my UHF antenna at Lowe's for around $30.

This site will help you understand what you might need:

http://antennaweb.org

Just enter your address and it will show you the distance to each broadcast tower and in what exact direction (which will help later on when you get it home, for pointing).

redneck · Post by **redneck** » Sat Nov 26, 2005 4:02 pm

Jon,

Thanks for the tip. Very helpful.

red

Zeppo · Post by **Zeppo** » Sat Nov 26, 2005 10:46 pm

Jack:

I would get in touch with DirecTV's customer retention dept. and see what kind of a deal you can get to upgrade to the HD hardware. I'm pretty sure that if you keep trying until you find an agent that will wheel and deal with you, they will hook you up with a free oval triple LNB dish with free installation and cabling and likely a very good deal on the box or TiVO/DVR box just for committing to two more years, or some such.

Whatever the case, you will get a better deal from them than any B&M store. Your HD box won't work without the triple LNB dish.

JackB1 · Post by **JackB1** » Sun Nov 27, 2005 4:12 pm

Zep..we already have the triple oval dish, so all we need is the receiver, which I got today. It was $200 with a $200 rebate, so it's "free" assuming we get back out rebate sometime before the next milenium.

Watched some football on a local network channel in HD and it really is a big difference to the "old" signal. Looks so much clearer and detailed.

A few more questions....
-I am using the component cables that it came with. Are thise sufficient or should I fet better ones?
-Is it worth it getting DMI cable? I think they were $75 at Best Buy. Wow....they really have to be substatially better to be worth that much.
-I have a Sony 42" WEGA LCD HD set and I never did anything to "calibrate" the TV. Am I missing something? There wasn't much stuff to change in the "setup" screens.

Sport73 · Post by **Sport73** » Sun Nov 27, 2005 5:26 pm

JackB1 wrote:
A few more questions....
1. I am using the component cables that it came with. Are thise sufficient or should I fet better ones?
2. Is it worth it getting DMI cable? I think they were $75 at Best Buy. Wow....they really have to be substatially better to be worth that much.
3. I have a Sony 42" WEGA LCD HD set and I never did anything to "calibrate" the TV. Am I missing something? There wasn't much stuff to change in the "setup" screens.

1. If you're just getting into HD, the provided cables will be fine. As with any analog cable, they run the risk of signal loss/degradation as opposed to digital cables (HDMI/DVI). Don't bother with higher end component cables; get the HDMI/DVI (whichever yor equipment accepts) if you're going to upgrade.

2. Yes and No. Presuming you have HDMI output/input, it's got 3 key advantages: First- it's all digital and therefore you know you're getting the BEST possible picture information to your set. Second - HDMI also carries audio, meaning you only need a single cable to connect both digital audio & video to your set, a nice reduction in cable clutter. Third - HDMI supports HDCP (copy-protection), so programs that may be broadcast in the future with this safeguard will show in true HD - standard component outputs will actually downgrade HDCP protected signals to 480p (not HD). The likelihood of HDCP encrypted shows is debatable, but it's nice to know you're future-protected.
If you've got DVI, you lose advantages 2 & 3...Usually, though there are some boxes that output DVI with HDCP, and if your receiver outputs HDMI and your set accepts only DVI, you still have HDCP but you have to run separate audio cables since DVI carries only video.
Lastly, get the cheapest possible HDMI/DVI cable you can find. By nature of being all digital, the signal either gets to its destination (consistently) or does not. An expensive HDMI cable will look NO DIFFERENT than a cheap one, but it might last longer...

3. Yes. You're missing the best picture your TV can produce. Sets are intentionally tuned to produce an overly saturated/contrasted/bright picture out-of-the-box because it helps them stand out in crowded TV showrooms. There are basically 4 levels of 'calibration', though the latter can hardly be described as such:

1. A professional $300+ calibration during which a trained professional will use equipment and your TV's service menu to get the best possible picture from your TV and sources. Bear in mind, when I say "BEST" I mean truest to original source or intent, meaning Star Wars will look closes to how George Lucas intented, even if that's not as saturated as you prefer...

2. The best value! Buy a Digital Video Essentials DVD or Avia Guide to Home Theater DVD and follow the relatively simple instructions for bringing your TV inline using the Contrast, Brightness, Tint, Color, and sharpness controls on your TV. If you're fortunate enough (like me!) to have a TV with independent color controls (RGB/CMY) then you can tune the colors to near perfection using these DVD's. If you're not sure, you can hire me for $50 to do this for you.

3. The best for the non-discriminating viewer. Use the THX calibration tools provided on many 'spectacular' DVD's, like the new Star Wars Trilogy. While not as complete or in-depth as dedicated DVD's, these tools will quickly help you ensure that your brightness/contrast settings are tuned to produce a natural picture.

4. Use your eyes and adjust the settings for the picture that looks best to you. You're the one whose going to be watching it after all!

PS> Bear in mind that pretty much all of these options use your DVD player as the input tool, so technically they only calibrate your TV to IT (the DVD player). But, they give you enough understanding of your sets performance tendencies to use as a guide for your Satellite receiver etc. Also, the adjsutments are environment senstive, meaning you will probably want a discrete set of settings for daytime vs. night-time veiwing.

JackB1 · Post by **JackB1** » Sun Nov 27, 2005 9:29 pm

Thanks for all the good info Sport. You definitley know your sh*t when it comes to TV's

So far I'm digging my HD/Direct TV, but there's one thing that's puzzling..... why is it a different "channel guide" for HD as opposed to non-HD? The guide for non-HF was so much more helpful.....it gave you more details on the program, like if it's a repeat or not...the episode "title". This new guide just says "2005", so you don't know if it's a repeat or a new show, unless you can recognize it from the small description. I don't know why they wouldn't keep it basically the same?

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Sun Nov 27, 2005 11:47 pm

Sport, I recently purchased a Sony Bravia LCD TV which is hooked up to my cable box via HDMI. On another post, people were talking whether they should hook up the games to 720P or 1080i.

1. With regular TV shows, when I turn on the HD channels does the Bravia TV automatically tunes you to the best reception possible or do you also have to caliber the HD chanels?

2. Also, as you know there's like 3-4 different angles to watch HD, Zoom, Full, Wide Zoom etc. By choice I have it set an wide zoom to cover the whole 40 LCD screen ,yet on flipping the chanels, sometimes it sets back to a default screen. Don't know if that's the TV or a specific station doing it.

Appreciate your opinion.

Sport73 · Post by **Sport73** » Mon Nov 28, 2005 10:07 am

10spro wrote:Sport, I recently purchased a Sony Bravia LCD TV which is hooked up to my cable box via HDMI. On another post, people were talking whether they should hook up the games to 720P or 1080i.

1. With regular TV shows, when I turn on the HD channels does the Bravia TV automatically tunes you to the best reception possible or do you also have to caliber the HD chanels?

2. Also, as you know there's like 3-4 different angles to watch HD, Zoom, Full, Wide Zoom etc. By choice I have it set an wide zoom to cover the whole 40 LCD screen ,yet on flipping the chanels, sometimes it sets back to a default screen. Don't know if that's the TV or a specific station doing it.

Appreciate your opinion.

1. Your cable box is typicaly set to output a specific resolution (if it's the Motorola HD box, then hit settings twice and scroll through the menu to find display settings), unless it has the option to "Pass-Through". I'm not sure which model you have, but as I recall ALL of the Bravia's are 1366x768 WXGA resolution sets. Ideally, a "pass-through" option where the native resolution of the source (480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i) is kept intact and provided to your TV would be best, but if your Cable box forces you to select a single resolution, choose 1080i. As with Spooky's set, you've got more pixels than 720p available to you, and downscaled 1080i will look better (especially from 1080i sources) on your set. Let your eyes be the judge on the XBox 360 settings, since there is an argument to use both 720p and 1080i.

2. The zoom modes allow you to stretch various images to fit your entire screen. Standard def TV broadcasts are 4:3 (mostly square) while your set and all HD broadcasts are 16:9 (A rectangle). The modes allow you to stretch 4:3 content to fit the width of your screen or 'zoom' on 2.35:1 aspect movies (wider than your tv) to eliminate top/bottom bars. For SD programming set to FULL should stretch the image to fit your screen without cropping. HD broadcasts should NOT be strectched at all (set to OFF, Normal, or none). Your TV may be smart enough to turn stretch off automatically when it senses a 720p or 1080i input, but you can usually still force it to stretch in order to eliminate the borders on SD shows broadcast on an HD channel (ESPN uses grey ESPN-branded side-bars when showing SD content on ESPNHD).

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Mon Nov 28, 2005 2:38 pm

Sport73 wrote:
10spro wrote:Sport, I recently purchased a Sony Bravia LCD TV which is hooked up to my cable box via HDMI. On another post, people were talking whether they should hook up the games to 720P or 1080i.

1. With regular TV shows, when I turn on the HD channels does the Bravia TV automatically tunes you to the best reception possible or do you also have to caliber the HD chanels?

2. Also, as you know there's like 3-4 different angles to watch HD, Zoom, Full, Wide Zoom etc. By choice I have it set an wide zoom to cover the whole 40 LCD screen ,yet on flipping the chanels, sometimes it sets back to a default screen. Don't know if that's the TV or a specific station doing it.

Appreciate your opinion.

1. Your cable box is typicaly set to output a specific resolution (if it's the Motorola HD box, then hit settings twice and scroll through the menu to find display settings), unless it has the option to "Pass-Through". I'm not sure which model you have, but as I recall ALL of the Bravia's are 1366x768 WXGA resolution sets. Ideally, a "pass-through" option where the native resolution of the source (480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i) is kept intact and provided to your TV would be best, but if your Cable box forces you to select a single resolution, choose 1080i. As with Spooky's set, you've got more pixels than 720p available to you, and downscaled 1080i will look better (especially from 1080i sources) on your set. Let your eyes be the judge on the XBox 360 settings, since there is an argument to use both 720p and 1080i.

2. The zoom modes allow you to stretch various images to fit your entire screen. Standard def TV broadcasts are 4:3 (mostly square) while your set and all HD broadcasts are 16:9 (A rectangle). The modes allow you to stretch 4:3 content to fit the width of your screen or 'zoom' on 2.35:1 aspect movies (wider than your tv) to eliminate top/bottom bars. For SD programming set to FULL should stretch the image to fit your screen without cropping. HD broadcasts should NOT be strectched at all (set to OFF, Normal, or none). Your TV may be smart enough to turn stretch off automatically when it senses a 720p or 1080i input, but you can usually still force it to stretch in order to eliminate the borders on SD shows broadcast on an HD channel (ESPN uses grey ESPN-branded side-bars when showing SD content on ESPNHD).

Thanks for the explanation Sport, regarding the motorola model it's the DCT 6412 Phase III, it has a double tuner and I believe it has a HD of 120 GB.

Regarding your explanation on point #2, you're right the Bravia always stretches the TV on the movie channel, while on other HD channels, you do see the shades you were mentioning on some programs, depending on the broadcast.
However, based on your explanation, I should not touch the Zoom feature regardless and let the TV automatically do it for you correct? Thanks.

Bakes · Post by **Bakes** » Tue Nov 29, 2005 10:13 am

If you were still looking for HDMI or DVI cables these are the cheapest I've found. $10 for a 6ft cable and free shipping. I've ordered from them before and had no issues. I have a Sony LCD with the directv box hooked up via these cables and do notice a slightly better PQ vs. component.

http://svideo.com/hdmicable.html