WWTBAM Bored

My coupons run out on the 9th, so I gotta buy before then. A friend highly praises Insignia. But someone else is supposed to have better sound. So now I've got to find the better sound one & see how it compares.

Last time I bought a TV-related thing because it supposedly had best sound, it was an RCA VCR; unfortunately, when you used the timer it only recorded in black & white. The best sound in the world can't cover for that on a VCR, so that baby went back in record time.


I also don't want to get into the "many choices" aspect of "to letter box or to square-off"; I want the shows as they are broadcast. I may not be able to avoid this, though.

My sister has settled for "fill the screen" setting on her (letterbox shaped) HD TV, even though it distorts stuff not broadcast in letterbox format. I'm surprised & upset about that. It was getting too troublesome to keep getting up & resetting it, or something.


Q in advance:

Friend's dad is amazed that they're getting all the extra HD channels, just by funneling antenna reception through the convertor box.

I plan to funnel my antenna reception to the convertor box, but then split the box's output to go to each of my 2 VCRs. Will I get "all these extra channels" that way too? I thing friend's dad is using the convertor box sort of like I use my VCRs (my TV itself only has a tuner for whatever channels they had in 1987, but I can play up to channel 67 when using it as a monitor for the VCRs). Except, of course, convertor boxes don't record; its will be kind of bittersweet if I can watch extra channels through the box-to-TV, but not through box-to-VCR-to-TV, & so not be able to record from them.

Some of my friends live in a rural, no cable area and they've bought their converters already.

They said the brand name doesn't matter as much as its COMPATIBILITY to your TV brand. One of them returned the box, but then was mad because they couldn't get another one at the discounted price, so they had to scrounge around for another coupon ...

My friend said, "Tell him/her to talk to a KNOWLEDGEABLE salesperson familiar with the different brands and how they work with their TV."

One thing I hate when I visited another friend with "the box": when reception is poor, your screen will go TO BLACK, not just fuzzy. Annoying.

You say you have 2 VCR's from hat I understand the boxes only have 1 tuner and therefore only one channel choice to watch, you won't even be able to tape 1 program and watch another unless you get a second box. Since I have a satellite I haven't looked ino this much.

dimzy says:

Some of my friends live in a rural, no cable area and they've bought their converters already.

They said the brand name doesn't matter as much as its COMPATIBILITY to your TV brand. One of them returned the box, but then was mad because they couldn't get another one at the discounted price, so they had to scrounge around for another coupon ...

My friend said, "Tell him/her to talk to a KNOWLEDGEABLE salesperson familiar with the different brands and how they work with their TV."

One thing I hate when I visited another friend with "the box": when reception is poor, your screen will go TO BLACK, not just fuzzy. Annoying.

Thanks.

I don't like the idea of "go to black". My friend's father, outside of Portland Maine but in a fairly rural area, didn't mention that. I'm in Boston, & have about given up already on being able to get those New Hampshire & Rhode Island stations I used to count on as "network backup" when the local network station was covering a local crisis. Even in these days before the "go to digital", these stations have stopped broadcasting their former "cover the earth" signals that reached Boston easily. Either that, or some new tall buildings have gone up in my neighborhood, & I sure don't see any! Maybe in the neighborhood of the New Hampshire & Rhode Island broadcasting towers?


macrae says:

You say you have 2 VCR's from hat I understand the boxes only have 1 tuner and therefore only one channel choice to watch, you won't even be able to tape 1 program and watch another unless you get a second box. Since I have a satellite I haven't looked ino this much.

I see what you mean; I do have coupons for 2 boxes, & was planning to buy 2 anyway, but basically that was going to be "to see which one is better". I guess now it will have to be "each VCR gets its own box". Maybe I'll splurge & get a 2nd antenna-&-booster-thingie, too. So that each can "have their own".

ghostjmf wrote: Friend's dad is amazed that they're getting all the extra HD channels, just by funneling antenna reception through the convertor box.

I don't understand this. I was under the impression a converter box would only be necessary for televisions that hadn't been made in the last umpteen years and were incapable of receiving a digital signal.

How can a converter box let you receive HD on a non-HD television? And getting it for free from an antenna without paying the extra fee to cable or dish for the HD, not to mention the channels themselves?

How can a converter box let you receive HD on a non-HD television? And getting it for free from an antenna without paying the extra fee to cable or dish for the HD, not to mention the channels themselves?

It's totally true because the box gets DIGITAL signal which is sent in Hi-Def. My friend now gets 4 CHANNELS of PBS, instead of one.

dimmzy wrote:

How can a converter box let you receive HD on a non-HD television? And getting it for free from an antenna without paying the extra fee to cable or dish for the HD, not to mention the channels themselves?

It's totally true because the box gets DIGITAL signal which is sent in Hi-Def. My friend now gets 4 CHANNELS of PBS, instead of one.

However if the TV set doesn't have HD capability the picture won't appear in HD no matter what kind of signal it receives.

dimmzy wrote:
It's totally true because the box gets DIGITAL signal which is sent in Hi-Def. My friend now gets 4 CHANNELS of PBS, instead of one.

This statement is misleading. Digital signals are not sent in Hi-Def. They can be but are not necessarily the same thing. The digital broadcast signal can contain a lot of information. A broadcaster can choose to use all of that information capacity to send a High Definition signal or can break it up and send multiple channels as part of the same signal.

The person that is getting four channels of PBS is getting that because the station is using the capacity of the Digital signal to send several channels.

Here's Fanny! wrote:

ghostjmf wrote: Friend's dad is amazed that they're getting all the extra HD channels, just by funneling antenna reception through the convertor box.

I don't understand this. I was under the impression a converter box would only be necessary for televisions that hadn't been made in the last umpteen years and were incapable of receiving a digital signal.

How can a converter box let you receive HD on a non-HD television? And getting it for free from an antenna without paying the extra fee to cable or dish for the HD, not to mention the channels themselves?

TV stations are now broadcasting lots of channels on their digital broadcasts. Those are free since they are being broadcast. Some of them are HD depending on what the local station is choosing to do.

Recently purchased TVs are capable of receiving the digital signals via an antenna but only those channels that their receiver is designed for.

I now guess my question is "what convertor box is capable of receiving the most channels"? And then get that one.

And it, sadly, is beginning to look like I will need new VCRs if I want to be able to tape these new channels, or at least any channel numbered higher than 67, which is as high as both my current VCRs go.

Now, lessee:

If I just want the channels I can see now, I put a convertor box after the antenna but before a VCR (do I really have to do one box for each VCR, or can't I just split the signal from the convertor box, the way I now split the signal from the antenna? I thought the box gave you a flow of channels, but didn't actually choose your channel for you. Or does it. Gotta read up on all this in the next day or so.).

But if I want all those new shiny channels I will have to buy new, digitally-capable VCRs, and pipe the signal from each of them (don't worry, not at the same time; I have a splitter, which, by the way, leaks signal, gives lousy pictures & which I would replace by putting a buffer jack at the TV antenna-in level so I don't wear out the antenna-in connector & just manually plug in whichever VCR I want to be watching, but I can't buy that female-in-male-out buffer jack, nor can I get parts to construct one cheap) into the convertor box & then into the TV.

Right?

If I'm going to buy 2 new digitally-capable VCRs, I might as well buy a digital TV as well, & forgo the convertor box entirely. Except I can't spend that much money right now.

So I guess I only watch shiny new channels if I know there's going to be something on one I really want to see. I can make that connection manually each time.

OK:

Consumer reports states:

While you can connect a VCR between the box and the TV, and program the VCR to record an off-air broadcast at a specified time, you must manually set the converter box to the desired channel. That means you can't program the VCR to record two different channels in your absence, say channel 7 at 8 p.m. and then channel 11 at 9 p.m. You would have to be there to switch the box to channel 11 for the second recording.

That's about as clear as it gets.

My fears were right; This is definitely going to impede VCR recording.

Even with 2 VCRS & 2 converter boxes, I'll be limited to 2 channels/absence.

So when is the converter box with the built-in channel-changing timer coming out?

More reading ahead.

So now I'm finding out about DTV Pal converter boxes, said to be the only one with timer, vs VCRs with IR Blasters (say what?)...aaaargh

Apparently DTVPal is the box formerly known as Echostar, the only converter box with a timer to change channels for tapers who like to go out at night.

And according to at least one poster on a tech forum (or the reviews on Dish Network [which sells the DTVPal]'s own site; I'm getting scrambled), you do have to set your VCR to "blank channel 3" in order to tape what's coming in from the converter box.

It figures.

I think.

Ghost - since you're buying VCRs anyway, look into those which have Cable Box Control. I haven't recorded to tape since 2006, but the last such VCR I bought was a Sony and had dropped from $500 or $600 to $250 or $300.

They used to provide a "mouse" that would sit on top of your cable box and send the infrared signal to the cable box. My newest one has an infrared on the top edge, so you just have to place the cable box on top of it. Since the VCR always records on channel 3, it doesn't matter how many channels are available from the cable box.

Hopefully, the converter boxes can be controlled in a similar way.

If I'm going to buy 2 new digitally-capable VCRs,

Who's selling VCRs these days?

I only know one person who still has a VCR.

Might be better off buying a DVD recorder and hooking that up to TV.

ghostjmf wrote:So now I'm finding out about DTV Pal converter boxes, said to be the only one with timer, vs VCRs with IR Blasters (say what?)...aaaargh

An IR Blaster is the thing that acts like a remote and sends an infrared signal from one device to another. A VCR with an IR Blaster would be able to send a signal to the converter box and tell it to change the channel.

They work pretty well if you set them up correctly. My Tivo has an IR blaster that controls my cable box and correctly changes the channel as long as I'm not doing anything with any other remote to interfere with it.

I don't know too much about the digital converter boxes or VCRs equipped with IR blasters but that is the general concept.

estonaut:

I don't have cable. If I had cable, I wouldn't need converter boxes, as the cable companies all promise to keep translating to analog for their digitally-deprived set-owners. (My sister's cable co will be broadcasting analog on the lower "normal TV-land" #s).


aj:

My sister must own something with this IR blaster capability, because it was changing channels for her when she didn't want it to. She hit it with a rock or something. (Not Really; just moved it to where it could do no more damage.)

My VCRs do not have IR blaster, that I know of. And yes, they all record on tapes, though one will play DVDs. I was waiting for cheap re-recordable DVD devices to come out, & TiVO was invented instead.

So I will be buying the DTVPals. Except the early models had defective timers, & I'm buying them for the timers. The late models did not. Also, if you have Dish Network, which I do not, the remote for the DTVPal can change your channels on the dish unless you reset the codes for one of the devices. (Dish Network fixed that, I think, on recent models of DTVPal too.)

Dimmzy, now you know at least 2 people who own VCRs. I own 2. That work. We're not talking about the things under the couch I have to throw out.

ghostjmf wrote:estonaut:

I don't have cable. If I had cable, I wouldn't need converter boxes, as the cable companies all promise to keep translating to analog for their digitally-deprived set-owners. (My sister's cable co will be broadcasting analog on the lower "normal TV-land" #s).

Ghost, I understand you don't have cable. I was simply talking about my experience with VCRs that can control a cable box by sending an infrared signal to change the channel. This is exactly the same thing that AJ called an "IR blaster". My last sentence was "Hopefully, the converter boxes can be controlled in a similar way."

estonaut:

I understand. But I have no way to know if either of my VCRs send out that burst of IR when I have nothing to test them on. Well, I could read the books! But I have, & don't recall it. Also, wouldn't they effect each other if they were sending out these bursts?

At any rate, I went & bought my DTVPals. I am a big chicken & am not going to even test them until my analog signal disappears in Feb. Well, maybe test them. But not use them. Right now I have 2 VCRs with 30-day timers. They will be being replaced by 2 DTVPals with 7-day timers. This is not progress in my book; I guess the makers of converter boxes have a very low opinion of the programming abilities of analog TV viewers, since DTVPal is the only one that even has a programmable timer.

And even if my VCRs do have "converter box channel-changing ability", similar to cable-box channel-changing ability, wouldn't I have to have them turn on at their own channel to do so? But they'll have to be on "blank channel 3" to even receive a converter box signal. And nothing is playing on blank channel 3 except what the converter box sends to the VCR. I don't wanna tape blank channel 3!

I have read about independent IR blasters, but having a converter box with built-in programmable timer that plays on your TV screen, even if its only a 7-day one, seemed like the better route to me.

Apparently this brand gives you one of those "what's on" guides too. I don't find my sister's cable system "what's on" guide as helpful as a good old fashioned paper schedule, but she loves it.