[Novalug] HDTV for 59$ (linux supported)

[Maxwell Spangler]

On Fri, 16 Mar 2007, Miguel Gonzalez wrote:

> I have a Dell Inspiron and in the specs they say I have a S-Video output, I 
> guess that's the one you mean. My TV only has coaxial antenna, I have not 
> seen any other jack, Do you think that I would be able to connect the output 
> of my laptop to my TV?
> 
> I have checked the website and the list of only digital channels are 6 !! :S 
> That's not many...

There are some important things to keep in mind about getting HDTV receiption:

1) Broadcast HDTV is free, so if you have a tuner, you can receive your local 
channels for free.  That means free HD news (if they produce it) and prime 
time television shows in HD.  As times goes on all television will switch to 
HD so you'll eventually be watching everything [ new ] in HD.

2) You get "high definition" broadcast local channels with an HDTV tuner, plus 
2-3 "subchannels" which are normal or low quality channels put out by the same 
producer.  This allows a local station to show something on their main HD 
channel plus two or three other things on their sub channel.  Some stations 
replay their news broadcast all day, others show weather information, others 
show the same HD content in non-HD.  So compared to cable or satellite it is 
less channels, but compared to traditional broadcast, HDTV receiption is 
higher quality and more channels by quantity.

3) If you have Dish or DirecTV with local channels being beamed down from the 
satellite, it's likely those local channels are not in HD.  If anyone can 
comment on this, I'd appreciate it. See #5 below.

4) When I last looked about a year ago, paying the premium for HD with cable 
or Dish network didn't get you much.  A handful of channels, usually with 
limited content.  When you see something you like, hopefully it's worth the 
extra money, but you're going to find yourself watching a lot of non HD 
content on that HD television setup.

5) Transmitting HD either by broadcast, cable or satellite takes a lot of 
bandwith.  Some companies like Dish Network don't seem to have much capacity 
so you don't get manny HD channels.  DirecTV, IIRC is sending up new 
satellites to fix this for their subscribers..  One reason I didn't jump into 
HDTV before last year was simply that I was waiting for the balance between 
content and cost to work itself out.  In my opinion, many people in the past 
have paid way too much for HDTV and gotten too little.. These days its about 
to turn..

 -- 
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Maxwell Spangler
Chapel Hill, North Carolina