HD Football

[Wasch_24]

Man, I sure did miss my ESPN HD last night. I had Voom and they went belly up this summer so now all I have is the antenna.

Three minutes into it ABC already kicks CBS and FOX's asses in both picture and sound quality. It's like I am at the game surrounded by thousands of fans the 5.1 surround is so good!

[tobby4]

I love it....

[CIGARHead]

Ah VOOM...I too had voom, then poof no more. Actually a good thing as I was spending $120/month on it. Now I have Dish and its a cool $60.

Wasch, what kind of HDTV you got?

[jcgoldner]

HD is incredible for sports. I got it last for last years Football playoffs and added 6.1 surround for the Superbowl. It will be nice for the entire football season this year! I'm also looking forward to seeing hockey in HD as it could be a major improvement in seeing the puck.

[Wasch_24]

I have a 2003 65" Mistubishi Diamond

I have my Yamaha rx-v1400 set up in 7.1 surround too.

[jcgoldner]

Sweet!!! And you got me by 5" too!

[Wasch_24]

Sweet!!! And you got me by 5" too!Oh man, if that doesn't make TWOB I don't know what will! :hysterica

[jcgoldner]

Oh man, if that doesn't make TWOB I don't know what will! :hysterica
I'll make that list often!

[JgButler]

So how are you guys getting your HD, cable or satellite? I just upgraded and bought a HDTV. I also dropped Dish Network and had Directv installed. Dish had Voom but Directv had Sunday Ticket. I do love my football, especially when all the games are coming across in HD. The HD is definately an awesome picture. I haven't had a chance to really play with all of the settings on either the TV or the Tivo yet, but I can say it was well worth the investment.

[Wasch_24]

Right now mine is all via the antenna. My cable is provided by the HOA and they don't offer HD.

[jcgoldner]

I'm getting my HD from Comcast cable with a backup antenna for the local channels that cable doesn't carry. One of the things I was surprised by with the digital channels over antenna is that each local VHF channel has three digital channels. For example, for those that don't have it, channel 6 on VHF has channels 6.1, 6.2 and 6.3 in digital TV. The 6.1 channel carries the main network programs, 6.2 carrys a 24 hour weather satellite and 6.3 shows repeats of local news and local programming. Pretty cool!

In the Phila. area if you area into local sports you pretty much have to use Comcast cable as they have most of the local sports packages and they don't let the satellite companies carry their signal. It sucks not having any competition for TV in Philly!

[tobby4]

same in Atlanta with Comcast, but they do a good job i guess so i really cannot bitch...

[jcgoldner]

same in Atlanta with Comcast, but they do a good job i guess so i really cannot bitch...
We can always bitch about the price! HD & HBO for $95 a month, pretty ridiculous! That's the problem with no competition.

[Wasch_24]

It is kinda cool the digital channels can be split into several sub channels but it has a negative effect on the HD signal. It creates an effect called macro-blocking because of the reduced bandwidth available to the HD signal. For the best picture HD really needs at least 19mbs if I remember correctly.

[jcgoldner]

I didn't know that. That could be why they don't always use all the sub channels. I'll have to check if it's when they are in HD mode on the main channel. Makes sense.

[Wasch_24]

Yeah, my PBS used to only have one channel and it was the best example of HD in the area. Now they hae four sub-channels and it's horrible.

Macro blocking is most noticeable with fast movement.