HD....FTA or 4DTV?

[Inno]

I've decided that what I need for FTA is a dedicated high def. receiver. Should I be looking for a 4DTV setup with HD sidecar or a FTA receiver with HD output?

I know there are plenty of FTA receivers out there but I'm having a hard time finding one that will output HD. Any ideas?

 

[updatelee]

fta hdtv is a hard thing to find. dreambox has been talking about their 8000 series that will have HDTV, but its been years in the making, and still no hardware released yet, just demo's here and there.

the easiest method right now seems to be using a dvb card, pci or usb.

pbs still broadcast in HD ? any others out there ? OLN and Discovery used to as well right ?

 

[dashaund]

The choice isn't that easy. Bascially, there is only one HD channel that I know of that is true FTA HD and that is PBS HD on AMC3. Other than that, any HD you would see would be a wild feed or backhaul. THEN, if it's a sports backhaul, it will usually be in 4:2:2 HD and that makes it more complicated. Bascially, for 4:2:2 HD you have two choices: a computer based card or USB box, or there's ONE receiver out there that will do 4:2:2 HD. For any regular HD programming that you would get from cable or DBS sattelite you would need that 4DTV receiver with a subscription to the channels that you would want to see. So, to answer your question, it depends on what you want to watch.

 

[Inno]

K, well I know I don't want to sit in front of the computer to watch tv so that is not an option.
I already have an Express-Vu HD receiver with subscription and an HDTV, I'm just looking for whatever feeds I can find and some hopefully non-compressed HD to watch. I guess my thinking was that I want to get back into free tv and eventually there will be a lot more HD to watch so when I'm buying FTA I might as well get one with HD capability.
I'm guessing that non-compressed HD feeds whether it be sports or news etc. would look much better than the compressed subscription stuff I'm used to.

Or maybe for the time being I should just buy a decent FTA receiver and wait 'till there's more HD content available and hope that there are more HD FTA receivers available.

 

[PSB]

I'm guessing that non-compressed HD feeds whether it be sports or news etc. would look much better than the compressed subscription stuff I'm used to.

Correct! It puts DBS HD (Lite) to SHAME!

MUCH more FTA HD than the above suggests! I think you would get your monies worth out a dedicated HD receiver!
(I much prefer watching HD on my computer as the LAST thing I want to do is lay about watching TV)

 

[dashaund]

Well, you don't HAVE to watch it infront of your computer....you can do what I'm going to do. My TV has a DVI input, so I can run the DVI out on my computer video card to the TV and watch it there. Then, the 102g has a remote, so I can sit back and watch it from there. I hear the PQ is stunning, so I can't wait till my package arrives!

 

[digiblur]

I have a Fortec Lifetime for scanning and watching SD material. Once I find an HD or 4:2:2 feed I switch over to the Twinhan PCI card and flip the input on the TV to the HTPC. The HD FTA feeds look and sound awesome on the 57inch and 6.1 audio system.

 

[dashaund]

digiblur

Yeah that's what I like to hear. It seems like that's exactly what I wanted when I bought my HDTV. In the beginning (I know, I sound like an old timer), it seemed like the HD feeds WERE so awesome, but now it's so compressed...makes me mad. BUT, I can't wait to see what some of those college football feeds look like. I hear the new video cards (bought a Geforece 6600GT) accelerate the DVDs too and make them look awesome too. I'm going to be like a kid on Christmas day if this stuff lives up to my expectations.

 

[digiblur]

digiblur

Yeah that's what I like to hear. It seems like that's exactly what I wanted when I bought my HDTV. In the beginning (I know, I sound like an old timer), it seemed like the HD feeds WERE so awesome, but now it's so compressed...makes me mad. BUT, I can't wait to see what some of those college football feeds look like. I hear the new video cards (bought a Geforece 6600GT) accelerate the DVDs too and make them look awesome too. I'm going to be like a kid on Christmas day if this stuff lives up to my expectations.

The 6600GT card is nice card! Exact same card I have. I have an HDMI cable to DVI cable attached to it.

Here's a thread when I was building the unit:

http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=63848

 

[Inno]

Yeah, that might just work. I have a HDMI connection on my TV (Hitachi 51F520 I believe) and my computer room is adjacent to the living room............in fact the audio/video rack that houses all the components comes through the living room wall and into the closet of the bedroom which serves as the computer room. I'll have to post some pics. But that would be pretty easy for me to set up if I (someday) got a HT receiver with HDMI switching. I'm still a little leary of running video from my 'puter but it sounds like the only affordable way to go for now.

 

[voomvoom]

There are 2 places in the states, that I know of, to get a set top box receiver, that does HD and 4:2:2. It's the Quali-tv QS1080IR receiver, and can be found here:
http://gofastmotorsports.com/
and here:
http://mechtech.satforums.com/
the cost is $700 + shipping (about $20, I think)

Al

 

[bidaw]

Other FTA HD receivers are on the way...one is the Pansat 7000 HD. I googled it and the specs are N..I..C..E!!!!

 

[Inno]

The 6600GT card is nice card! Exact same card I have. I have an HDMI cable to DVI cable attached to it.

Here's a thread when I was building the unit:

http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=63848

So with the HD video card and the FTA card, what would you consider the minimum specs. for a computer that could run that comfortably?
I currently have a P4 2.8Ghz and 496megs of ram.

 

[digiblur]

So with the HD video card and the FTA card, what would you consider the minimum specs. for a computer that could run that comfortably?
I currently have a P4 2.8Ghz and 496megs of ram.

I had a 2.4ghz P4, 1GB ram, with the 6600GT card and 4:2:2 1080i feeds with an SR of 25000+ would have a good bit of dropped frames. You might be able to sneak it by with a 2.8 though.

 

[Inno]

How about a Asus N6200? Would that be sufficient? I have one readily available to me.
With that and the Twinhan 102G, this becomes quite affordable. Anything else I might need to upgrade the computer with?

 

[dashaund]

I believe that is marginal. I chatted with a guy on here last week about what video card to get since he has a solid setup and he said the 6200 would be the absolute minimum and that a 66 or 6800GT would be better. I chose the 6600GT since it was about half the price of a 6800GT and doesn't fall off that much comparibly. You can get a 6600GT from newegg.com for about $125. If you can return that 6200 card if it doesn't work, then I would say give it a shot...wouldn't hurt and would definately increase your performace.

 

[digiblur]

I believe that is marginal. I chatted with a guy on here last week about what video card to get since he has a solid setup and he said the 6200 would be the absolute minimum and that a 66 or 6800GT would be better. I chose the 6600GT since it was about half the price of a 6800GT and doesn't fall off that much comparibly. You can get a 6600GT from newegg.com for about $125. If you can return that 6200 card if it doesn't work, then I would say give it a shot...wouldn't hurt and would definately increase your performace.

You are going find that you'll need more CPU performance that GPU power. It's all about demuxxing the stream quick enough to send it to the video card.

 

[Inno]

Dashaund, I just might have a remote for that 4400 listed in your sig. I know I used to have one, will have to go digging in the shed if you're still in need. PM me.

Actually I might still have the whole receiver although I think it was in need of some capacitors in the power supply or possibly some other work, can't remember.