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Cable HDTV Not Ready For Primetime?

A reader writes: "Shelly Palmer head of the New York Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Advanced Media committee and the man that gave us the singing cats in the meow mix ads has posted a very entertaining article on his blog about finally getting a Scientific Atlanta SA8000HD High Definition, DVR-enabled cable boxes from Time Warner Cable in Manhattan, his adventures getting it to work, and its less than stellar performance."

9 of 415 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Not ready for Hi-Def DVRs by Mattintosh · · Score: 4, Funny

    this guy seems like someone who thinks they know a lot about digital electronics, but doesn't

    He has a bose lifestyle system

    'Nuff said.

  2. Re:Not ready for primetime... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    I have the same problem with computers... I don't know how many computers I've filled up with porn!

    Houses too! I've got 17 houses filled with porno mags. I'm currently living in my 18th house. It'll probably bve filled up by Christmas. I can just barely squeeze down the hall from my bedroom to the bathroom.

    F-ing 'tard!

  3. Re:HDTV? by BenjyD · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yes, it would be nice to get the higher resolution. I can't say I've heard anything at all about it here (UK) outside of US-based websites.
    My guess at the reason was that PAL resolution is just about good enough for most people, whereas NTSC is just the other side of the acceptability threshold. That, and the fact that American TVs are bigger than most British houses ;).

  4. Re:Not ready for primetime... by warb · · Score: 4, Funny

    Twenty years from now, people will be saying "What's a 'Microsoft'?" It is inevitable that Linux will become the standard desktop the world over; it will just take time.

    Twenty years from now the world will be metric/Linux while the U.S. is English Units/Microsoft ;(

  5. Re:Dino-Tech by jargoone · · Score: 5, Funny

    TV is rapdily becoming something for the poor and uneducated. Good riddens!

    You watch a lot of TV, don't you?

  6. Re:Dino-Tech by richy+freeway · · Score: 2, Funny

    poor and uneducated. Good riddens!

    That would be riddance. :P

  7. Re:No compelling reason to switch by RPI+Geek · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...try explaining to your average Walmart shopper the difference between 480p, 720i, and 1080p and watch their eyes glaze over...

    That reminds me of last night, when I went to the local WalMart and looked for a laser pointer. None of the 3 of the employees that I talked to even knew what it was. I used the word "laser pointer" and they repeated those same words back to me... but they had never heard of them. I'll just have to take a drive to Circuit City or Radio Shack or something. :-)

    --

    - "Nobody came out that night, not one was ever seen. But Old Man Stauf is waiting there, crazy sick and mean!"
  8. Joe Sixpack bait by Ryan+C. · · Score: 3, Funny

    Absoulutely spot on. When any of my Joe Sixpack friends come over, I show them my HDTV projector setup and they ooh and ahh a bit about the nature program or whatever is on. Then I switch to some recorded Mondy Night Football and they plop down in a chair and start to twitch. This usually gets me in trouble as their wife complains two days later that their bank account is mysteriously missing a couple thousand dollars.

    Sidenote: they also seem quite smitten with HD baseball, which I can't for the life of me understand, my favorite meduim for basball is radio.

    On the beer goggle front: Sometimes when we're all watching something like Sunday football in HD, I'll switch over to the regular SD channel of the same game for effect. This causes everyone to groan, boo, and yell "Turn the game back on!".

    --
    -Ryan C.
  9. Re:The World is 4:3 by jmcmurry · · Score: 3, Funny

    If the HD broadcast is in 4x3 and has side letterboxes, then the picture is effectively 50% of my total screen real estate. I wind up with an incredibly clear 16" picture in the middle of my 32" tv, surrounded by black boxes on all sides. And of course, there's no way to override this "feature."

    I really hate this. And it's worse when you get commercials that are in a faux 16:9 format, like most IBM commercials. Then you get this:

    1. horizontal letterboxes from the TV going from 4:3 format to 16:9 signal
    2. vertical letterboxes because the 16:9 signal is actually 4:3 content
    3. inner horizonal letterboxes as part of the 4:3 content because the ad agency wanted to shoot in 16:9

    ...such that what you see looks stupid on your 36" television.

    It's not that I care that commercials look good, but I feel absurd trying to explain this to visitors who ask why the picture is so small. It looks like Picture In Picture without the outer Picture.