Hi there,

1. I recently acquired a Dell 2405FPW 24" screen (Supports D-Sub, DVI-D, Component, Composite and S-Video) and a Dell Inspiron 9400 laptop to plug into it. I am planning to set these up in the living room and "live the dream" by turning them into my home's AV hub. Therefore I am looking into HDTV options.

I was originally going to buy a USB tuner for the laptop, but am now thinking that may not be such a good idea, because I want to remove the laptop and still use the screen for TV. So a dedicated STB seems to be in order.

On the other hand, I want to be able to record/transfer shows to the laptop's HDD. And while I'd like the ability to do stuff like timeshifting, I don't want to fork out for a fully fledged HD PVR with a massive HDD.

Any recommendations, or am I dreaming?

2. Assuming that I am dreaming, can anybody suggest a basic HD STB of reputable quality, with timeshifting, for me to use with that screen? I'd prefer to spend less than $300, but could stretch to $400 if there were a compelling reason.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions,

--

Peter

I believe its a quirk of the market but I don't think there are any single tuner HiDef STBs around. As such your only HD PVR option at the moment costs around $1200. I suspect you may be dreaming a little bit for your budget (especially as just a bog standard display HiDef STB costs around $300).

Personally I find HD a bit overated (file sizes are massive 10-20 Gig for a move) and usually you end up compressing them in some way or other (a DVD will hold about 3 Gig). you may wish to investigate (as a transitory step) sticking to SD for the moment - its much cheaper and basically everything to do with it is easier.

If your looking to TimeShift (Pause live tv, skip ads, chaseplay, etc.) you can do it for as little as $230 (Digicrystal at Strathfield). For transferring files from the PC you probably have to up the $ a bit to a Toppy or Humax Twin Tuner PVR - lots of options (you can even record HD, just not display it).

Otherwise maybe look into some devices that can wirelessly stream video from a PC to a TV (Costs are around $300 or so)

Regards

Peter Gillespie

PS Just looked over your specs again. There is significant debate as to whether the average viewer could discern the difference between a HIdef and STD TV under 36". At 24" I'd say it would be almost invisible (unless you plan to sit around 1m away from the TV?) - your screen is probably more geared towards playing computer games on.

PPS If you're looking to have the PC and TV right there then it probably wouldn't be too expensive to by a HD digital tuner card with remote and run it using Media Centre (if the PC is powerful enough). That's a different branch in this forum though.

Why don't you want a USB tuner? It'll give you all of that functionality you wanted all in one and since you already have the notebook in hand, there's no need for any extra hardware.. just plug in and go... The ability to timeshift, skip ads, and record on the laptop is all there... even better, the money you save by buying a USB tuner instead of a standalone PVR could be used for a bigger hard drive, so storing those High Definition recordings won't seem as bad.

Any reason why both is not an option?
HD STB + HD USB for the lappy. Probably come out cheaper than a HDPVR when they arrive.

The screen runs 1920 x 1200 @ 60Hz natively. So I would have thought HD would be discernable? No? Can you point me to a thread that carries this debate?



I agree with all of this, apart from my basic requirement to, for example, take the laptop into the office while my gf still watches TV on the screen at home. I don't really care if the recording compresses/downsamples to SD anyway.



Well, in an ideal world I'd prefer to have a basic STB, augmented with a USB port, such that if you connect it via USB to a computer it acts as a USB tuner (with channel changes etc wholly under software control, but still accessible by the one remote), and if you unplug the USB, it acts as a standalone STB.

The problem with having two devices is just that: I would have two devices, two remote controls, etc.

Assuming that I am dreaming (and it sounds like I am) and assuming that pgdownload is correct in asserting that HD would be wasted on my screen anyway, perhaps my needs would be met by a good quality SD PVR with the ability to easily transfer recorded programs to a laptop via 802.11g or USB2...? Can anybody recommend such a model?

Can't post you to a specific post unfortunately Peter - The search functions are too general to find the imprecise wording used. Usually mentioned when talking about buying a HD CRT or smaller Plasma/LCD. Essentially as you normally sit 2+ metres away from a TV in general viewing and at that distance the eye simply can't discern the increased resolution. One of the big reasons for HiDef is to allow screen sizes to increase beyond 90cm - otherwise the picture just gets too pixilated as you blow it up.

Sitting 50cm away (ie like a computer) you would see a difference. I'll let you decide on the merits of all that anyway, just so long as you're aware of it as a possible issue. In the end only you can decide what looks better to you and if the added expense is justified. Maybe post a specific query on this only to get some other opinions? Just provide viewing distance, screen size and resolution and ask if HD is worth it.

As mentioned If you want to transfer files you're probably looking at a Humax or Topfield. These are generally $600-$800 or so. Great machines, and worth every penny but possibly not what you're after or in your budget? You could just grab a single tuner SD PVR for around $230 (Digicrystal at Strathfields) but you won't be able to copy files off unfortunately.

Note wireless transfer of SD recordings is not really recommended. 5+ gig files at those speeds. Some Toppy users have set up an external caddy and just swap the drives over to there PC for burning/processing. Most have an ethernet connection or just use the USB to download (not full USB2 but about 20 minutes for a 1 hr recording)

Regards

Peter Gillespie