Any "out-of-the-box" PVRs or "digital VCRs"?

[Walter Dnes]

On Mon, Nov 20, 2006 at 02:09:31AM -0500, ted leslie wrote
> i am interested in this too, you have to also note what HD you have
> (want), i.e. real   1080(i/p) or sort-of-fake  720p, Rogers and
> other canadian cables companies seem to broadcast all in 1080i

  Stay away from low-end plasmas then.  You'll see EDTV resolution
(852x480) and so-called HDTV resolutions of 1024x768, 1024x1024, and
even 1024x1080.  Plasmas have enough other problems; these low-end
displays are killing their reputation.  I haven't seen ads for an LCD
below 1366x768 for a long time, and 1920x1080 are starting to show up in
the 42 inch and higher sizes.

> movies are 24p so having them at 1080i (which does 1080p at 30fps)
> is more then enough to preserve the motion pictures, its just sports
> that "can" look better at 720p...

  Anything with lots of movement is better in "p" than in "i".  This is
mostly sports, but can include "action movies".  The reason is...

  - anything "p" (e.g. 720p) means "progrssive scan", i.e. the entire
    picture is blasted out at once.  The picture looks great.

  - 30 fps interlaced is actually 2 half-pictures 1/60th of a second
    apart.  24 fps interlaced is actually 2 half-pictures 1/48th of a
    second apart.  If you have lots of fast movement, the half-pictures
    a fraction of a second apart won't line up.  The more-expensive TV
    sets have motion-compensation algorithms just for this, but you can
    only do so much.

> Not sure what "off the air" broadcasts at? is it 1080i/720p? or
> a mixture?

  See http://www.remotecentral.com/hdtv/ for an idea what things are
like in the GTA.  Looks like mostly 1080i, with some 720p.

> Anyways, I think Haupauge has a HD card, not sure about linux support.

  During the mailing-list outage, I did some looking.  The AutumnWave
OnAir HDTV GT USB unit has been drawing rave reviews, but I couldn't
find any outfit in the US that would ship to Canada.  I finally found a
Canadian reference at http://www.expansys.ca/p.aspx?i=140064 and was
able to place an order at a 416-area-code phone number.  It took a
minute to figure out that when they asked for the "code number" they
meant the stock code, i.e. the "140064"

  It requires Windows (yeah, I know); XP Home is sufficient.  The
AutumnWave actually loses some functionality under Windows MCE.  I plan
to get a basic Dell with XP Home and a 320 gig drive.  It'll be
dedicated as a PVR, and no internet use, so I'm not worried about
"Windows Security" (or lack thereof).

-- 
Walter Dnes <waltdnes-SLHPyeZ9y/tg9hUCZPvPmw at public.gmane.org> In linux /sbin/init is Job #1
My musings on technology and security at http://techsec.blog.ca
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