Set Top Box - Waste of Money

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Originally Posted by garrycol

I bought a set top box yesterday - a cheapy so that I could get rid of some buzzing in the sound of the ABC caused by nearby wires. Worked for this fine - but if you already have good reception I don't see what the advantage - mine was a cheapy and worked for what I bought it for but I could not see me spending hundreds of $$ for one of these for no real improvement in quality. I know we will have to change over at some time but is it really worth it. As well my set top box is only the size of a fag packet so there is no reason why it could not be built into every panel making them TVs. Waste of money in my view. Gazzz

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You mean to say you could not see any difference in analog to digital telly? If you link it to a newer LCD rather than an older CRT picture tube type TV, you just might be amazed. If linked to an older style analog TV the STB will downgrade the signal so the older machine can handle it, if linked to a newer genuine digitally driven set, you will run from the room coz that damn Lion looks like it will jump out of the set at you. I live in SA's Mallee region, normal TV can be snowy crackly buzzy and I have to get up on the roof to turn my arial slightly if I want to watch ABC then back again for 0/10. Not with my $59 Hong Kong charlie STB, never goin back man.
As for Media Centre PC's, read the horror stories in the computer mags, as of mid year, still not worth their cost.
Myself? LCD widescreen TV ( only analog tuner) connected to my 64bit Athlon puter, with a PCI Digital Tuner card($80), I watch telly now full screen or windowed whilst tapping out this post, the surround sound is amazing, I keep looking around to see who just walked into the room, then find it was on the movie sound track. The TV I purchased from Tandy, yes Tandy. World famous brand, Wintal? Built in DVD player, 2x AVI, 1xDVI(digital video input,
that is the connection to the puters graphic card) all for the princely sum of $1600. Media Centre PC? No way. Just whack a tuner card in a spare PCI slot and press the remote buttons. Yes, puter tv cards come with remote control, mine even controls my A/C, found that out by accident, changed channel the other day and my A/C beeped, triffic a multifunction thingy.



regards shorty943.

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Originally Posted by garrycol

Guess people have different experiences - for me I cannot really see the benefit but if I lived elsewhere it might be different. But then I only live about 6km from the tv transmitters so have good TV anyway.

The cheapy I bought is fag packet size (but has full functionality and a remote) and runs off 12v (9-15v DC) so might have some application to campers where poor reception can be a problem.

Gazzz

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If it's not a rude question - what did you pay for it

Ladas

I have two STBs. The problems I've experienced with both (different brands) are that they lose channels and need regular rescanning to get them back.

They will lose sound but not pix and need rescanning to get the sound back.

Sometime one can get away with a power-down and reboot to get them working again.

They are exceptionally susceptible to electronic noise from lights or appliances being switched on or off thus causing freezing of the pic and/or loss of sound for a second or so. Almost certainly I need to completely replace my TV cabling with quad shileded cable throughout the house.

Total loss of signal on all channels is quite common when conditions are bad (Digital Cliff http://www.dba.org.au/index.asp'sectionID=25#Digital_Cliff) where the analogue TV will be soldiering on.

When conditions are good, the picture is excellent - but the shows are still crap. Certainly all the problems of ghosting and interference are gone (we get quite bad ghosting at the base of the Blue Mountains).

I can't wait to see all the oldies who will be losing TV reception when we go fully digital and their STBs lose it and need rebooting or rescanning. There's gunna be a lot of call outs for TV servicemen.

Ron

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Originally Posted by shorty943

You mean to say you could not see any difference in analog to digital telly? If you link it to a newer LCD rather than an older CRT picture tube type TV, you just might be amazed. If linked to an older style analog TV the STB will downgrade the signal so the older machine can handle it, if linked to a newer genuine digitally driven set, you will run from the room coz that damn Lion looks like it will jump out of the set at you. I live in SA's Mallee region, normal TV can be snowy crackly buzzy and I have to get up on the roof to turn my arial slightly if I want to watch ABC then back again for 0/10. Not with my $59 Hong Kong charlie STB, never goin back man.
As for Media Centre PC's, read the horror stories in the computer mags, as of mid year, still not worth their cost.
Myself? LCD widescreen TV ( only analog tuner) connected to my 64bit Athlon puter, with a PCI Digital Tuner card($80), I watch telly now full screen or windowed whilst tapping out this post, the surround sound is amazing, I keep looking around to see who just walked into the room, then find it was on the movie sound track. The TV I purchased from Tandy, yes Tandy. World famous brand, Wintal? Built in DVD player, 2x AVI, 1xDVI(digital video input,
that is the connection to the puters graphic card) all for the princely sum of $1600. Media Centre PC? No way. Just whack a tuner card in a spare PCI slot and press the remote buttons. Yes, puter tv cards come with remote control, mine even controls my A/C, found that out by accident, changed channel the other day and my A/C beeped, triffic a multifunction thingy.



regards shorty943.

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who said anything about buying a media centre? I mentioned building one up

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They are exceptionally susceptible to electronic noise from lights or appliances being switched on or off thus causing freezing of the pic and/or loss of sound for a second or so.

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There's your early warning system ... work out which switches are causing the problem and get them replaced before your house burns down ... a new switch that doesn't arc fixes that problem.


BTW, my STB with PVR is a "Wintal" and I'm very happy with it

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Originally Posted by sschmez

There's your early warning system ... work out which switches are causing the problem and get them replaced before your house burns down ... a new switch that doesn't arc fixes that problem.

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Virtually every switch in the house, be it a house one or a switch on an appliance. Even brand new GPO switches fitted when the new kitchen was installed.

Ron

Okey Dokey. slip down to your local PC shop, pick up a PCI Digital Tuner card, plonk it in a spare slot, install the software, do the required channel scan, bob's your uncle. Cards vary from as little as $80 to some hundreds of dollars. Me, pensioner, me, I got what I could afford. I noticed sschmez got a Wintal STB. You happy with it sschmez?
BTW. I live some 80K's from the transmission towers


regards shorty943.

I had a Dick Smith sd set top box till last week when it stopped working.

Of course just over a year old, and of course in the year or so of buying things when I seem to have chucked the receipts away.

Called DS and they were happy to fix it for me, even a bit out of warranty as long as I could find some evidence of purchase. Nope. Worse, my dad bought one the day before me, exactly the same, his still works fine, but the man who has the receipt for a mop that he bought a decade ago didn't keep the stb receipt.

Just more of my luck.

BTW, loved it when it worked, clock, program guide, great reception. Did have problems with the dishwasher and storms.

Cheers
Simon.

Dayum. My Twin Hann PCI Digital Tuner card just went bung. No probs. Trotted of to Coles, and purchased an STB. $59, brand MTV. Hooked it up to my No.1 AVI, got my nice digital picture back, and no more PC fans roaring to keep the 64 bit Athlon cool. My second STB, gave the first one to my kid brother when i got the computer tuner card.
Yes, I like the picture quality, the stereo sound, etc, of digital TV, no more analog for me.
EEK. Maybe my Ludditeism is slipping, have to watch that.
Shorty.

Simon, if your dishwasher is playing up, try treating her better.(lol)

Hey guys, STBs if EXACTLY what the company I (used to) work for does. Nothing more than that - and software that runs it.

In a nutshell, a STB will do nothing much for a regular CRT TV - there will be no perceptable difference except for the quality of the reception and better sound etc etc.

Wide screen - huge diff. High Def - even better. Hook up one of these to a 5.1 sound system and things get better. DVRs/PVRs are realy taking off. PVR/DVR (PVR:Personal Digital Recorder - a trademark, DVR: Digital Video Recorder - a 'common' name) with a built-in DVD burner raises HUGE copyright questions and issues. Most TV stations and movie studios will not be too happy to have a digital movie burnt directly onto a DVD. Quality is too high and they recon it would open doors to piracy - hence they will allow analogue output (lower quality) from a PVR to be hooked up to DVD burner but will not allow digital content to be recorder directly onto a DVD.

We developed a 17 inch LCD with a built-in digital receiver. Back then it was too expensive for most people to think about it so the project went bust... but the components were redistributed as STB modules for LCD TV manufacturers who would have better market presence.

Italy these days is progressively switching analogue off so people have to either buy STB or new digital TVs. The Italian government had a huge subsidy system going for all those who pay their yearly TV tax. This came to a point about two years ago where our STBs were walking out of the shops for nothing: you could pick up a STB, show the check-out chick your tax receipt and the price for the STB was exactly the same as the subsidy, so you basically walked out with a basic STB for nix. And we still got the money.

The main difference with digital tele is that for the power and bandwidth of one analogue channel you could pump out four (4) digital standard definition channels or one high def channel. Oz government was trying to mandate high def broadcast for all channels what would defeat the benefits as far as stationns were concerned. This is one of the reasons why the uptake of DTV was so slow in Oz. AFAIK this is all changed. The other problem is the software and application standard. There are a small number of key players and technologies such as MHP and MHEG middleware solutions for interactive tele and at the moment I am not sure which will be / is the standard for Oz. Italy (a good case study) went for MHP (Multimedia Home Platform). UK went for MHEG. Both have their pros and cons. Both of these are open standard so anyone can develop application etc.

As far as media centres are concerned it is all fine and good for people who love playing with that sort of thing, hooking up things and making them work together. I always designed the user interface to be very user friendly so your grandma could use it. Most people, it seems, would like something to replace their VCR - dare I say 'simple and easy' to use?

Although I work(ed) in the digital TV industry I don't have and don't watch tele - frankly I have better things to do (and doing it now).

Anyways, I should give it up - they 'did not renew my contract'...