Making the HDTV Vision Quest?

DumbSwede asks: "I have embarked on a do-it-yourself HDTV project with a NEC 135LC quad-XGA projector purchased on eBay. But I have only found 2 HDTV tuner cards, AccessDTV and WinTV-HD, both far short of quad-XGA resolution (if I am reading the specs right, they max out at SXGA for VGA output). ATI claims to support all DTV resolutions and has quad-XGA resolution with its All-In-Wonder 9700, but has only a standard analog tuner built in. A search of ATI or NVIDA web-sites, give no recommendations on DTV turners to use in conjunction with their products (perhaps either accessdtv or wintv-hd will work). Any details and insights would be appreciated, as two or three days of web searching seems not to have provided me with total solution answers."

"Granted an 8' foot wide front projection system is probably over kill for my bedroom, but the heart wants what the heart wants. For now I have had to be content with XGA and SXGA DVD playback from my 300 Mhz Dell Laptop. So far, the results appear better, than the best HDTV setup I have seen playing progressive scan DVD, so I am anxious to get to the next level, now that HDTV is supposedly finally rolling out in my area.

As an aside, I have noticed that broadcasters are transmitting in a range of resolutions from 480p to 1080i, but all the HDTVs I have seen for sale are 720p or lower (although 720p on 720p looks pretty sweet).

NVIDA mentions the need for a digital TV tuner with compressed transport stream and software decoder. ATI I think needs MST (MPEG Stream Transport)

With the booming market in Graphics boards, one would think they'd be falling over themselves to provide HDTV solution information, but a site search of ATI, only gives HDTV details by way of a press release, and comes up short on how to best get the job done.

The plan is to buy a 2ghz+ system with DVD RW-/+ from Dell with Window XP (I have no desire to be a Linux pioneer on this project), and drop everything in and have it working within a few minutes. Easily converting my back video collection is a high priority with this project (though a AIW9700 would be overkill for this, and perhaps overkill for HDTV as well) and having a decent digital video recorder to time shift both HD and Analog TV shows. I would also like to have multiple monitor outputs so I can web-surf and watch HDTV on my big screen at full res at the same time (without annoying hiccups). I am not a really a gamer (anymore), so again, perhaps the AIW9700 is overkill (as well as being pricey), though it seems to have all the other essential features I crave (though earlier model AIWs should have them as well). With this kind of size and resolution, I may wish to get back into flight simulators again and getting back into gaming is not out of the question."

Comments

Re:TV is Not That Important

[Selanit]

You're just sitting there, being immobilized and spoon fed artificial ideals by observing make-believe stories and/or lives of media-friendly commercial-pimping characters in some fabulously unrealistic plot.

Television can indeed be stultifying. I think the reason that we continue to watch it nonetheless is that we have an inborn need for continuing validation of the way we think things are supposed to be. If we see that others behave in the same fashion as we do, then it reassures us that we are in tune with our culture. It helps us form a sense of ourselves as belonging to a larger social unit than just our families or immediate friends.

In the past, this sort of external validation was provided by books, and before that by oral storytelling. The fact that the characters are fictitious makes them excellent for conveying abstract ideas about what an ideal person is supposed to be like.

This sort of thing can be repressive and conservative in the extreme. Note that while most of our recent movies portray the ideal woman as sassy, smart, and independent, the ultimate fate of these heroines is the same as always: marriage and presumed domestic bliss. There is the implication that these characters are basically templates to model ourselves after. "If you follow the script, you will be fulfilled," whispers the sub-text, "And if you don't, you will be isolated and unhappy."

That said, there are counter-examples: some shows subvert the dominant ideals through parody, satire, or irony. The Simpsons is a prime example. Regrettably, however, such counter-cultural shows are comparatively few. Likewise for movies; the vast majority of 'em are essentially forms of brainwashing, especially those out of Hollywood. Independent films from smaller labels are much more likely to be aware of their own messages. Books are subject to the same sort of division.

There's no way we can stop doing this; there is no such thing as a totally unbiased text. We automatically encode our beliefs into anything we write, or sing, or act. And though this is a subjective value judgement on my part, I find that the best pieces of literature are the ones that are aware of this fact. They don't have to be progressive, or anything: simply being aware of the effects and writing a thoughtful and deliberate piece of work makes it a lot better than a simple regurgitation of dominant values.

As for wanting really big televisions, I think that's more of a status competition than anything else. If your neighbors can watch your television from across the street and not miss any details, that advertises your ability to spend large amounts of money on fancy equipment. Same as big expensive cars.

Anyway, this post is getting long and rambling, so I'll shut up now.