Saturday afternoon misc
2003-12-20T16:27:32Z
Am watching Tampa Bay lose to Atlanta on Fox. On minor difference is that I'm watching it on Fox's HDTV simulcast.
Back in November I'd read that Time Warner will upgrade you to HDTV for free if you have digital service and an HD-capable TV. I did a quick look at the TV and noticed that it has RGB (component?) video input and verified that it indeed can display HD signals.
Around the same time we picked up a Panasonic Combination DVD Recorder-Tivo Series 2. Since it's a DVD recorder/player it has component video out as well.
Hmm.
I ordered the upgrade from TWC and spent a Saturday afternoon rewiring the TV cabinet. We had a net loss of one box (since the new Tivo replaced both a Tivo and DVD player), which was good since the TW digital cable box is twice the size of the DirecTv box I'd pulled out.
So, now we can watch Tivo either through the standard S-Video input direct to the TV, or component video (routed through a receiver).
There's only seven or eight HD channels on cable, and of those only HBO and Discovery are broadcasting anything appearing to be true HD. Fox is broadcasting the NFL game in what I'm guessing is EDTV format (instead of 16:9 it appears to be 15:9 or 14:9.
At this point the Bucs just scored a 76 yard touchdown. Maybe the won't lose just yet.
Anyway...the picture quality is quite nice. I don't know if it's the HDTV signal though or the effect of using component video (another two points on the conversion here).
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