CableCARDs and HDTV

An anonymous reader writes: "HDTV is the next big thing. I attended the NAB conference in Las Vegas last week and everyone was pitching HDTV or asking about it. DesignTechnica has an interesting article on CableCARDS, which allows viewing HDTV through a CableCARD compatible HDTV set without needing a set top box. Cable companies are required to enable CableCARDs with card-compatible HDTVs by July 1, 2004. So here's some questions: Has anyone heard of CableCARD? Is anyone planning on buying a CableCARD compatible TV? How many people actually get HDTV in their area, and how many channels? HDTV is so hyped right now but seems that there is barely any deployment."

Comments

Firewire on Digital Cable

[AIX-Hood]

The FCC recently stated that all cables boxes that offer HDTV now must have working firewire outputs. This of course lets users now record the transport stream right off the cable box, and allows DVR's to do the same. The regular broadcast channels are required to be unscrambled at all times, but the premium channels are kind of up in the air at the moment and will probably require more decryption at the end. The question is, will DVR's such as Tivo, start coming with this cardcapable thing so that decryption can happen and let us record even scrambled shows?

Re:Overrated.

[pogopogo]

There's maybe 3 or 4 high definition channels available right now. On my cable system in Oklahoma there are 6 full-time HD channels and 3 locals which carry a significant amount of HD programming. Just because you don't watch HD doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Go type in your zip code over at I Want MY HDTV.com and see how many channels are available in your area.

The problem with HDTV right now...

[adenied]

The problem with HDTV and digital broadcasting right now is there's very little HD content. Some examples..

PBS around here (San Jose/San Francisco) only broadcasts HD starting at 8pm. They however have pretty decent content and it's all HD when they say it will be. It looks great, it's just limited in what they show.

The rest of the broadcast networks have very little content. Maybe one or two shows a day at best and the occaisional sports event. NBC had the Kentucky Derby in HD yesterday, but it wasn't even advertised as such and I didn't know if it would be HD until I turned it on.

And one of the problems with some of the "HD" broadcasts is that a lot of the cameras they're using aren't even HD. They're standard definition that's then upconverted to either 720p or 1080i. Or if you're Fox, 480p 16x9. So a good bit of "HD" sports is actually just clean SD.

Then there's stuff like ESPNHD. They usually just take the ESPN feed and stretch it to 16x9 which is really lame. They have maybe 4 or 5 events in actual HD per week.

And then there's also the question of how do you get the content? I tried over the air with an antenna and that was just painful. Even a fairly high gain one didn't work too well for me. You can't get broadcast HD over any of the DBS services (Dish, DirecTV, Voom) except CBS. You have to generally get Cable TV for that. So I got Comcast out here and get all the broadcast stuff. But it's still more cost effective for me to have basic digital HD service on cable for HD broadcast content and also have Dish Network 200 service for all the other content.

And I hardly watch TV. Sigh. But I got a HDTV so I really want to watch HD content when I can.

The service I'm currently looking at switching to is Voom which is a DBS service from Cablevision that has something like 30 HD channels, many of which are their own content. It's about the same price as Dish Network, but has fewer channels. Luckily mostly the ones I watch from time to time. I'd have to keep cable for the broadcast channels.

Some people might say it's a waste of time. And they're probably right. But HD does look awesome so at least it's kinda fun.

Re:The problem with HDTV right now...

[-tji]

I also live in the SF Bay area, and my experience with HDTV is the opposite.

There are around 20 channels with digital broadcasts right now (depending on where you are in the Bay Area, you may be able to pick up more from Sacramento, etc. In the Peninsula, I get 20). Prior to digital TV, I couldn't get acceptable analog reception, so I paid for cable. Now, I use a simple antenna to get all the locals, so I don't need to pay for cable anymore.

As for the HDTV content.. I don't know if you're expecting all the content from the last 50 years to be magically converted to HDTV, but I think most people would expect a transition period. Currently, most of the new staged shows are done in HDTV (The West Wing, CSI, ER, Law & Order, etc.) but the "reality" shows with all the handheld cameras are still 4:3 SDTV. It will take a while before the small/cheap units used in those shows are HD.

And, almost all the big sporting events - World Series, SuperBowl, NCAA Final Four, etc. are done in HD. The amount of sports done in HDTV is rapidly expanding. ESPN is ramping up their studios and equipment and are doing more and more HD. Fox will do up to six NFL games per week in HD this year, ESPN already does their Sunday Night football game in HD, and Monday Night Football is HD. If you're an NFL fan, you'll see almost nothing but HDTV this season.

With digital signals, MPEG2 compressed, I can easily use a PCI card in my HTPC to record HDTV programs for time shifting. I record The West Wing and Malcolm in the Middle every week, and skip through the commercials on playback. All at a much higher quality than available through other means.

With all the incredibly expensive infrastructure the broadcast industry has invested in, I'm actually surprised at how fast the conversion is going. And now, as it is being seen as a competitive advantage, the momentum seems to be growing even faster.

Re:The problem with HDTV right now...

[Anonymous Coward]

OTA HDTV reception is a pain in the ass.

You either have signal or you don't. In analog you could watch the screen and see if you are improvined your reception or not. As is, my HDTV signal drops out for 3 sec every 5 min or so and I don't have a clue how to improve the reception. At least with analog, the reception just gets worse, but you can still see and hear what's happening. No such luck with HDTV.

Also, with analog, the artifacts are spread uniformly over the image. However, with digital the artifacts happen right where the action is. I assume this is due to the nature of the compression.

HDTV is beautiful when it works, but there is not much to work with when it doesn't.

DirectTV HDTV

[mp3zero]

I signed up for DirectTV HDTV about two months ago. I was an existing directTV customer but I still talked them into selling me the equipment for 99.00 (normally 399.00). The equipment consists of a Samsung HD DTV receiver and a new dish to pick up the HD channels. (also picks up all the international channels DTV offers)

Channel Lineup:
ESPN
Discovery HD
HDMovies (Movie channel showing various movies from classics to recent favorites)
HDNet - pretty much a worthless channel showing repeats of recent Nascar Races, Horse, Races, and concerts. They also have some original series on it (I think).

CBSHD - I live in Utah and they allow me to pick up the CBS HD feed from LA. This is great because I can watch my shows an hour later in HD without needing the off air ant.

If you subcribe:
HBOHD - The regular HBO in HD.
SHOWTime HD - The regular showtime in HD.

Cost: Basis HD is 10.95 a month. HBO is 12.00 a month and Showtime is 10.00 a month.

Is it worth it?

Hmm.... I can tell you this. I am a big fan of Sopranos and Deadwood (HBO series) and love watching them in HD. I also enjoy watching Golf in High def on the weekends. You can tell a HUGE DIFFERENCE between the shows in HD and regular shows. People come over and just say WOW to the sporting events. Movies are not that much different.

So, its worth the money (10.95 a month) to me just to get golf in HD on CBS on the weekends. Basketball playoffs are also great. Its hard to watch golf/basketball in non-hd now.

Cons:
No STINKING TIVO!!!!!! I can't wait for the HDTivo to be affordable.

Just my .02

Re:Overrated.

[evilviper]

Go type in your zip code over at I Want MY HDTV.com and see how many channels are available in your area.

Man, that's a terrible site.

It just lists all the stations within ~200 miles of you, and says if they are providing HDTV or not... According to that list, I should be recieving about 30 TV stations, and about a dozen in HDTV. In fact, there are no HDTV stations available because of range, and that won't change until an HDTV re-broadcaster is installed around here.

For a MUCH BETTER TV look-up, try antennaweb.org.

Boston MA Stations

[maynard]

I own a Hitachi HD widescreen RPTV and a Sony HS20 HD Front Projector. I have both OTA and DirecTV STBs; here are the channels available in my area:

Broadcast OTA:

WGBH-DT PBS 2-1 SDTV and 2-2 HD channel
WBZ-DT CBS 4-1 HD
WLVI-DT ABC 5-1 HD
WCVB-DT NBC 7-1 HD
WFXT-DT FOX 25-1 Widescreen SDTV
WSBK-DT UPN 38-1 HDTV (Enterprise is in HD, for what little that's worth)
WLVI-DT WB 56-1 HDTV (Smallville is in HD, for what little that's worth)

Over DirecTV Sat:

76 Discovery HD
78 HDNET Movies (lame movies no one remembers, in HD)
79 HDNET (some interesting stuff like quality reporting, some lame stuff like old Charlie's Angel's and Hogan's Hero's repeats, in HD)
85 Pay Per View in HD
88 HBO-HD
91 Showtime-HD

-------

Boston is a good area for OTA HD. Also, the local cable company Comcast has finally gone HD and will rent an HD box for $7/mo. If you only have an HD ready set and want a cheap STB, Comcast is definitely the way to go (I went Sat before Comcast rolled HD out). You can also pick up a cheap OTA STB these days for about $200. The Sat STBs are, IMO, not really worth it. If I were buying today, I would go cable or OTA only. Note that HD TIVO has recently been released and should be on store shelves now or very soon.

HD is broadcast in most major metropolitan markets now. And don't forget the advantage a widescreen TV offers for DVDs. It really is worth the money, IMO.

Cheers,
--Maynard

Brighthouse in central florida

[techstar25]

High definition channels, with widescreen programming:
ABC local affiliate
CBS "" (you haven't lived until you've seen CSI:Miami in HD
NBC ""
Fox ""
PBS ""
The WB ""
UPN ""
Discovery HD theatre
HBO-HD (Sopranos in HD, bada-bing, plus all the movies are upconverted to 1080i from their original film source msking them that much nicer than the DVD equivalent at 480p)
Showtime-HD (same as HBO)
INHD and INHD2 (an assortment of various HD programming, sports-looks like your are watching through a window in the luxury box, movies, specials, concerts, IMax movies)
HDnet HDnet Movies (various programming like INHD)
HDNets and INHDs are $6 mo. to subscribe. HBO and Showtime are included if you get them regularly. All the other channels are free with digital cable, so there is no additional fee to lease the HD set top box. The only downside is that once you've seen HD you can't go back. Other channels start looking like crap to you.

Re:Overrated.

[RyuuzakiTetsuya]

I watch DVDs and play games in HD.

There's more to using an HDTV set than just broadcast video