I am confused, sorry.

But why would a person buy a SD top box, if all it shows is what I can currently see on TV right now on my Audiosonic 51" TV?

What will buying a SDB do for me?

And if I should get one, what brands should I avoid, and what brands should I consider?

And is it possible to connect a Hard Drive to the box to record TV shows?

Thanks

Widescreen. Digital vs analogue.

Add a HDD which is a SD STB and called a SD PVR and get a lot of programming flexibility.

So you mean a SDB will turn a wide screen reception to 4:3, making everything looks squashed?

And I do experience ghosting and static at the moment. Will buying a SDB give me better picture without ghosting etc?

And can you please elaborate on your comments about adding a HDD? What SDB do I need to do that?

Pinned: Pete's Pvr Post - Diving Into Digital Tv

Lyle = Fast & Succinct (Avatar does seem to suit)

Over the next 1-3 years analogue broadcasting will cease. So eventually you will have no choice but to get a digital tuner of some sort (either a STB, built into a TV or in a recording device (ie a digital VCR).

If you have really good analogue reception on all channels then digital has less to often. Usually though most people have at least one dogey reception station and one or two others with some form of interference. If you can get digital reception then usually it will be 100% crisp clear pictures on ALL channels.

These days you'd generally recommend a HD STB for people looking to buy. The price is maybe $50 more than a comparable SD one and you get HD and SD channels. There will be 15 channels in total, some SD ones broadcasting simply a SD version of the HD channel (for those that only have SD boxes).

As mentioned widescreen is a plus for digital TV (same as all DVDs are encoded) but obviously you'd need to get a new TV to take advantage of it.

As you surmise though, better than a STB is a STB with a harddrive built in. These are called PVRs and range from $250 to $1000. They can offer a real boost to your viewing pleasure. Things like being able to record two things at once, skip ads, pause live Tv while you answer the door, etc.

There are a couple of stickies on PVRS and digital TV in general - This one is probably the least technical.

FWIW These days any STB will basically work fine. Just go into a Good Guys or the like and ask the sales guy what he recommends (keeping in mind that anything more than $100 for SD or $150 for HD is probably overkill and you'll get no additional benefit.

To answer your main query though, a STB takes a digital signal from the aerial and translates it back into an analogue one so your existing TV can understand it.

Regards

Peter Gillespie

Peter, what does this mean when you said "If you have really good analogue reception on all channels then digital has less to often." ? That sentence made no sense at all to me. Were you trying to say that the ghosting and static I get now on TV will still be there even if I bought a SD top box?

And how will the digital widescreen signal look on my 4:3 51" TV? Does it look squashed up and funny looking?

And what does PVR stand for anyway?

Thanks Peter :-)

This is going to be one of those real time conversational threads it appears

Yes digital TV is basically free of all the reception issues of analogue on all channels (its generally is either 100% good or you get zero picture - not a lot in between)

Analogue TV is broadcast in 4:3 (your current TV ratio). Digital TV is broadcast in 16:9 (widescreen). A STB will have a button to toggle the aspect ratio, so if you hook it up to your current TV then the image will not look distorted you'll just lose the extra bits of the left and right of your TV (which would be shown if your TV was w i d e r)

Regards

Peter Gillespie

So buying even a SDB for $35 from Kmart, will give me access to ABC, 7,9,10,SBS without the static and ghosting I see now?

BTW, does SD mean Standard Definition or Standard Digital?

Umm yes, well that's because you're obviously not very bright If I can figure it out I'll try rephrase it...

It started well but I must have got distracted so, ah no wait, its just a single letter (replace the last 'n' with an 'r')

FWIW, if you quote lengthy pieces (like mine) its usually a good idea to delete it all in your follow up otherwise threads get very long very quickly.

No simply that if you have no ghosting and static now then digital will look much the same. But as you do have ghosting and static then digital would likely give you a much nicer picture quality.
As mentioned no, there is a button on the remote to toggle various modes and one will look normal.
Its debatable, but probably "Personal Digital Recorder"
There are a couple of good general FAQs on digital TV here

Regards

Peter Gillespie

Yes. Plus you get the pretty nifty ABC2 with some good content and shortly the Ten 24/7 SD sport channel starting in a month or so Both terms mean the same thing really, the first is more correct though. I'd suggest you start doing some reading on the links provided (they do answer these things ) and after that bamboozles you come back and see if we can't fill in any gaps.

Regards

Peter Gillespie

Actually, two letters - the t also needs to be replaced with an 'f'

The last post says it all.

Just another troll

So Ten 24/7 will also be broadcast in SD? I thought it was only going to be in HD?

So if I buy a SDB and not a HDB, all I will miss out on is some late night programs on HD Ten? Is that right?

Not a troll, just a man who asks questions so I can learn.

And sadly, because I ask questions, some people hate me and even ask for me to banned.

Thanks.

Sometimes I prefer to say f off

Regards

Peter Gillespie

and I was just about to start doing a background check MTV. T'was a good thread too. Thanks for taking an interest though. Personally I'm not too worried if people are banned elsewhere but comments such as "I only have a 32" HD 720p LCD TV" are disappointing. Never quite sure what the point of these threads are but I guess its always good to learn a little humility.

Regards

Peter Gillespie

Seeing the same questions appearing in 3 or 4 threads made me start to get suspicious.

Now new acronyms are being created that mean nothing to any of us! Sheesh.

Without wading through all the ins and outs of the various replies... may I offer this to the OP? I purchased a set top box (just an SD one) some years back, and the difference it made to the quality of my picture was astounding. My reception was really poor, as I live in a 'shadow' in inner east suburban Melbourne, and put up with poor picture quality for years. But the reception I get via the STB is great - a few tiny pauses in the picture occasionally which are nothing compared to the superior picture I now get. Well worth the money I spent.

Thank you Eggles for your comments. Tomorrow I am going to buy a top box, look forward to it. As you, I been putting up with ghosted, static, white bars picture for years.

I will second that.
I started out with a Sd set top box on a normal CRT TV, and was surprised at the increase in picture quality.
The STB is in the bedroom now, I have replaced it with a PVR (Or 2)
I would reccomend looking at a PVR (I picked up a 2nd hand Digicrystal from Cash Converters very cheap).
The way I use it has revolutionised the way I wach TV.
JB

The only downside of digital TV is that you'll end up watching more TV than ever before!

Hence the need for a PVR

TruthSeeker, first up, there's nothing wrong with asking questions so settle down and I'll explain my situation. I live in a fringe reception area where I need a masthead amplifier but even that did not give a good signal - at times the picture was crap especially CH9. I have a widescreen (16:9 aspect ratio) CRT (cathode ray tube, not LCD or plasma) TV and I hooked up an SD (standard definition) STB (set top box) and I now get a great crisp interference-free picture. The improvement in quality is remarkable.

I also have 2 other CRT TVs, both are 4:3 aspect ratios and have SD STBs attached. They give beaut pictures, not squashed or distorted in any way but obviously as mentioned in a previous post the picture probably loses a bit on the sides but I really hadn't noticed.

Also TruthSeeker. with digital reception you can access a lot more stuff for instance digital radio and in addition to your normal ABC (now called ABC1) you can tune into ABC2. You also get EPG (electronic program guide) at your finger tips so you don't have to get off your bum and reach for the TV Week. Although having said that, both the EPG and the paper one are probably not worth much these days as the TV stations are constantly changing their minds about what programs to transmit.

Hope this helps.

PP.

And don't forget you get subtitles as well

Hi guys - new member here and coming to the whole DTV issue from a point of profound ignorance. I'm thinking of buying my first box soon, having previously had Foxtel (standard, not HD) but now getting that disconnected.

I have a couple of questions that I would be very grateful for some basic steers on.

1) I have a CRT tv, that is widescreen, and has a 100mhz refresh - my understanding from reading up briefly (and understanding little jargon) is that there is no point for me in buying a true HD set top box, as opposed to a SD set top box - as my tv won't be able to display anything more than SD anyhow. Is this accurate? Or is there some reason why I should pay the extra for an HD box now? (unfortunately I don't have the money to buy a new HD-capable tv)

2) I'm wanting this unit to be something I can plug in and then largely forget about, so simplicity and reliability are probably the two key values for me. What are the top boxes in the approx $100 and approx $150 price ranges for these values.

3) A PVR sounds cool, is there a SD box that is a self contained PVR that meets that simplicity/reliability test, and how much might that roughly cost.

Sorry, I know from a few forums where I'm not a noob who knows nothing about the subject matter that these spoon-feeding questions are annoying sometimes, especially if I'm the hundredth person to ask this (I did have a look first and didn't notice any thread set up for this sort of thing, or recent answers to similar questions). Grateful for any guidance here, as I'd rather not just take the salesman's word for things.

Pinned: Digital Recorders Help: Stbs, Pvrs, Dvdrs, Hdd, Sd, Hd ....

Pinned: Pete's Pvr Post - Diving Into Digital Tv

All,
If you buy an SD STB when Freeview starts you will get a 10 different programs to pick from if you buy an HD STB will get 15 programs to pick from. Comisserations to those in regional WA & NT you will only 4 and 6 respectively until commercial DTV starts.Regional SA 6 and 8 respectively.

All STBs can provide signals to the old TVs.

AlanH

Thanks, obviously just didn't look in the right place. They're very helpful summaries.

Yes Penny, that helped a lot.

I bought a HD STB from Coles yesterday for $49.

Wow, what an amazing picture I now get on all channels, even the HD ones. I can now even watch ABC and SBS as before they were too static and ghosted to watch.

1. You will only see 576i I think, which still looks awesome on my 51cm CRT TV. Looks like watching a DVD.

2. I bought a HD STB from Coles for $49, so I can watch the extra channels that are available now and will come in the future. If you buy just a SD STB, you will not be able to watch the extra channels.

Not quite right.

The HD channels have been around for more than 12 months. It's another batch of SD channels that we will get to take the total to 15, but if you buy a SD STB, you won't get the HD channels.

Nor the 5.1 sound.

But you left out

His posts are very troll like, but reading a bit further into them, he really didn't have a clue, and wasn't getting a clue with the help over at whirlpool. It appears he is on the right track now, enjoying his Coles HD STB.
I think I found in one of his whirlpool (or was it here) posts that he only had that LCD temporarily, which explains that.
Next thing I think he doesn't understand is that the " symbol means inches, because he sometimes says 51" analogue and sometimes says 51cm analogue for presumably the same TV. But all is well that ends well.

Yep, all is good now :-) Love it.

SPAMMER reported

Of course, if your current signal has issues like ghosting and noise... these same issues are affecting the signal your digital set-top box is receiving (if the digital signal is coming from the same tower as the analog signal.)
You won't see the ghosting and noise but the receiver section in the STB has to work harder to pull the signal out of the crud. Just because ghosting (multipath reception) doesn't appear on your screen, doesn't mean it won't cause dropouts and digital artifacts.
Don't use a digital STB as a cure-all for poor TV reception...

But the digital transmission is designed to more resilient against these common problems.
Sure it cant magically solve terrible reception - but it will be good against problems like multipath that cause minor ghosting in analog.

Thank you, Peter - that's the succinct answer I've been looking for since they started all this stuff.

Maybe you can help me (I'm putting this in here as I cannot make a new thread for some reason).

I have AWA STB 237 (bought 18 months or so ago); Philips DVDR 3455H; Tevion T2195B 51cm Noraml Flat CRT TV.

Can they all be connected in any way? If I use the STB I cannot record. The TV has 2 inputs for the red/yellow/white and a YUV (green/red/blue). I had the antenna going into the DVDR and that connected to the Tv by the the YUV cable. This worked well but some channels were fuzzy. CAn the STB be integrated into this or does the antenna have top go into it (which is how it appears to me). Any assistance gratefully reecieved.

ATM I have the STB connected. The HD channels show 50% or better reception but there is no pic or sound. Why is this so?

Edited: I did it! I got them all connected. I had to go aerial cable (the black one) to STB, then to DVDR, then to TV.

And I have R/Y/W stb to DVDR then to TV plus a set of compnenet cables DVDR to TV. I found a button on the DVDR remote that said 'Source' and that was the key. I cannot beleive I am finally connected. Just have to test out recorduing.

The HD channels may not appear if the STB is only designed for Standard Definition (SD)