set top box

[inter]

Just a questions, i have a non digital tv ( picture tube about 3 years old)
can i buy just any set top box to get extra channels?????

[brchi17]

yes you can, but you need to decide if you want a Standard def or HD box, there is a difference.

On the std digital you can get ABC2 and a couple of SBS channels & the rest of the regular free to air stations.

If you choose to get a HD box, then you will be able to watch the new HD channels that 7,10 & eventually 9 will be running & at times these will have different programing to the regular channels.

I am lead to believe that regardless of what sort of tv you currently have it can be connected to either type of set top box, it's just the picture will not be as good as it would be on a brand new 1080HD tv, that said it should still be dvd quality, which for the greater majority is better than what we've currently got ;)

[Oh Five]

I wish i had of got my set top months ago. Our reception on one of our TVs was crap, I bought a cheap sd set top and havnt looked back. Clear reception and sound brilliant. We then bought a 102cm Hd lcd and, quite simply....WOW!

[brchi17]

Yes, I've just been reading up on stb's as I want to make sure I can watch the live F1 races if ch.10 follow through and show them live on their HD channel like what is currently rumored.

Years ago I bought a cheap stb & I couldn't believe the picture quality of even on my old crappy tv (but it's not HD). As for buying a whole new tv, I'd rather prefer just to purchase a HD stb, as I don't want to replace my crt Loewe as I really like it's picture quality...:(

[hobby]

I love this forum,

when you have a question ask

only yesterday i started looking at set top boxes and a home entertainment system
[ not high end stuff]
at JB but left because of the loud thumping music
want to connect it to my 68cm sony tv.
can any one tell me what to look for regarding connections and will i have problems trying to mate all units together?
about 3 years back you could buy a home entertainment unit that also contained a set top box are these still available and are / were they any good ?

[brchi17]

So hobby what sort of components are you looking to connect ?

Most equipment will have your std RGB connections (the 3 single plugs Red / Yellow / White one each for sounds L&R & picture)

There is S-Video (small round plug with about 6 pins IIRC)

Stuff from Europe may have Scart connection which is a single cartage type connection, but you get an adapter (to use RGB or S-Video).

A little while ago Optical was the next big thing which put the 3 connections (sound L&R / picture) into the one cable & currently the latest & greatest is a USB looking connection called HDMI.

[Road Runner 72]

Yes, I've just been reading up on stb's as I want to make sure I can watch the live F1 races if ch.10 follow through and show them live on their HD channel like what is currently rumored.

Years ago I bought a cheap stb & I couldn't believe the picture quality of even on my old crappy tv (but it's not HD). As for buying a whole new tv, I'd rather prefer just to purchase a HD stb, as I don't want to replace my crt Loewe as I really like it's picture quality...:(

I have a non HD set top box with 80gig hard drive, as my Plasma has a built in HD Tuna, I also have a Pioneer DVD recorder with built in Hard drive, but I can't record to the DVDburner from my TV, so I need the nonHD box so I can record stuff, it bugs me that!

Also I hate the CLICKING/CRACKING sound Diggy T.V. makes sometimes!! my cat's go crazy if they are near a speaker"

Also if I watch diggy TV & the phone rings & the people who rang "Mmm I hope its a girl who rings ;)" are watching TV with out a box, you can hear the delay, so it delays live TV!

But all in all they are great!

[wayno]

The delay is annoying. Especially when there is another tv in the house that isn't running off aSTB on the same channel.
Interesting that some channels are worse than others though. Channel 10, for example, is on the same timing but the rest have a delay.

[brchi17]

This for me is another motivation for getting a HD set top box :D

Seven said Harvey Norman and Universal Music had already signed on as major advertisers on 7HD. Seven, unlike Ten, is not expected to buy the rights to new sports to show on its HD channel - Ten-HD is showing Nascar, NFL and golf - but Seven will feature extended broadcasts of the V8 Supercars and the Australian Open tennis.


full article here (http://business.theage.com.au/sevens-new-channel-a-tv-test-lab/20071209-1fyw.html)

Hopefully this will see the end of the 3pm deadline during the footy season....

[Oh Five]

wow, so we can see nascar?? is that just in metro or all area's??
Nascar is something i have wanted to follow, but not gunna pay for paytv just to see that

[brchi17]

Bruce I'm lead to believe that it will only be the Busch (or what ever they call it now) series that ch.10 will be showing in full & that the Nascar races will be more a 1hr highlights shown that the entire race

[wayno]

Bruce I'm lead to believe that it will only be the Busch (or what ever they call it now) series that ch.10 will be showing in full & that the Nascar races will be more a 1hr highlights shown that the entire race

How bloody pointless is that? Would be like 7 showing the reserves games in full and 1hr hilites of the AFL. :rolleyes:

[brchi17]

agreed, I think it's more they're able to grab the Busch series due to Marcos racing in it & I am not sure whether it will be live or on slight delay, I'm thinking more the latter as I had thought Foxtel has exclusive rights to it as no one had originally wanted it...

[hobby]

So hobby what sort of components are you looking to connect ?

Most equipment will have your std RGB connections (the 3 single plugs Red / Yellow / White one each for sounds L&R & picture)

There is S-Video (small round plug with about 6 pins IIRC)

Stuff from Europe may have Scart connection which is a single cartage type connection, but you get an adapter (to use RGB or S-Video).

A little while ago Optical was the next big thing which put the 3 connections (sound L&R / picture) into the one cable & currently the latest & greatest is a USB looking connection called HDMI.

Thanks for your input brchi17 you are helping many.

haven't had time to look but from memory the tv has the basic 6 RGB connectors at the back and 3 RBG at the front possible S- video will check when time permits.

with these basic connections will i have problems mating up to the basic home theatre systems that are currently available DVD / DIVX/ mpeg / am fm radio/etc.

and in the papers yesterday Warner Bros reportedly are choosing the Blue ray format over HD DVD will this have any impact on the type of DVD players we all have ?

[malscar]

>and in the papers yesterday Warner Bros reportedly are choosing the Blue ray format over HD DVD will this have any impact on the type of DVD players we all have ?

Gives you a good excuse to buy a Playstation 3. ;)

[hobby]

Gives you a good excuse to buy a Playstation 3. ;)

funny ,my son keeps telling me this

[wayno]

HDMI if available is definately the way to go, followed by component video, s-video and composite video (standard yellow, red and white).
Depends on the tv and the componentry you're hooking up and what connections and formats are supported as to the best way to go.
Also look at connectivity between the set top box and the DVD recorder if you are using one as you want to be sure you can record off the tv to keep.
You should have no problems mating things together with a bit of planning and research before you buy mate. ;)

[BATHURSTFAN]

I have a problem with connecting my DVD recorder to my LCD TV. The Recorder is about three years old and the LCD TV is new. Currently I have connected the Yellow/white/red cables between both.

When I got the TV the salesman gave me a set of the Blue/Green/Red cables. The problem is that I cannot get audio. I put the Recorder on Progressive Scan and the video is ok but has no sound.

I don't know why.

In the quick start guide for the TV it shows a black cable which I don't have. Is this the problem?. Do I need an extra audio cable?.

[rayman]

The Blue/Green/Red cables are only for the picture. The black cable is probably the S-video and is for picture as well. You need to find the audio out on the recorder and the audio in on the TV and match and connect them. They may be composite red and white.

[rayman]

The Blue/Green/Red cables are only for the picture. The black cable is probably the S-video and is for picture as well.

[rayman]

Have a look in the TV and recorders menus to see if the input[TV] and output[Recorder]match. If you have The Blue/Green/Red cables and the Yellow/Red/White cables hooked up at the same time disconnect The Blue/Green/Red cables.

[brchi17]

....As for buying a whole new tv, I'd rather prefer just to purchase a HD stb, as I don't want to replace my crt Loewe as I really like it's picture quality...:(

well one would have to want to try difficult challenges.....

I spoke to Encel today (Loewe Aust. distributor) & they told me that my model would be compatible with a HD box, except it would look the same as SD, not a problem I say lets get it going....well they don't like selling over the phone, so off I go to where I bought the set.

Well a little while later I found out why the store didn't originally take my call (no not because they've remembered me), but they've closed down, so I decided to look in another home Hi-Fi store who then tells me that my 18 month old set can't possibly run HD & then started sprouting some crap about different numbers of lines & how one does work with the other & that I should get a SD box....yeah good one, don't know how that will work :rolleyes:

So here I am back to square 1. I've tried to shop locally & all it did was make them look like the backwards hicks I always thought they were.

I really don't want chuck my 18 month old set (plus I don't think I need to) so it looks like tomorrow I hit the phones again....

Who would of thought something so simple, could be so hard, the good thing I guess is that it's only January & the start of the F1 season is still a little while away.....

[Donny05]

Try this forum Brad, they would have it on there somewhere, or ask the question on there.

http://www.dtvforum.info/

Cheers, Jase

[brchi17]

thanks for the link Jase, some interesting reading there....I suppose I was a little jaded as I went to see an expert hoping they would help solve my problem & all they turned out to be was something that used to drip......

[brchi17]

I've been out window shopping this afternoon & I've think I've found the ultimate set top box....

Strong 5490 (http://www.strong-technologies.com/frmProdDetails.aspx?id=141)

What a weapon, 250GB HD recorder (30 hours of HD / 125 hours of SD), a usb port to download recorded movies to the pc for dvd backup & highly compatible with my Loewe :D

What I like about this receiver is that it will down scale the 1080HD to a resolution that will be acceptable to work on a regular tv set, the only thing is that as my tv is only SD, I will see the HD signal in the same resolution as SD, which is still better than analogue so who really cares....:)

Now all I need to do is get the $900 price tag around the wife & I'm all set for live F1 :eek: !!!

[HRT 1-2]

I can vouch for the brand Brad, I've had an Strong SD box for 3 or 4 years with no dramas! The only downside I've found with it is the remote seems to conflict with some cheap Chinese devices. I noticed an even better feature than the USB port, the LAN port which would make it even more flexible!! The only thing that I didn't see which would be a big plus was twin tuners, do you know if it has them?

I don't know much about NEC STB's but, check out the link below for some on Grays at the moment!! Only 3 mths warranty though!!

http://www.graysonline.com.au/catalogue.asp?SALE_I D=110376&SALE_TYPE=THUMB

[brchi17]

Yeah the 5490 has the twin tuners, plus what I liked about it was that it's remote is fully compatible with Loewe, so I wouldn't have to use a heap of different remotes to watch tv.....apparently it has all the connections available at the rear of to plug into a amp for 5.1 sound on the HD channels

[Holden2003]

Just another question about the boxes. at my house we have an aerial on the roof but its not properly adjusted, so the picture is not always the best. Do u need to have a proper aerial installed to get clear picture through the set top box? Also, how important is the brand of the box? Is a cheaper dodgy brand as good as a high quality brand ie sony, lg etc..?

[HRT 1-2]

Just another question about the boxes. at my house we have an aerial on the roof but its not properly adjusted, so the picture is not always the best. Do u need to have a proper aerial installed to get clear picture through the set top box? Also, how important is the brand of the box? Is a cheaper dodgy brand as good as a high quality brand ie sony, lg etc..?

The STB "may" and in most cases will overcome a lot of the deficiencies of poor analogue reception, really depends on how bad it is!!

We've had the Strong SD box for about 3 - 4 years as I mentioned without any issues. We also have a Sony HD box which is less than 12mths old and has intermittent lockup issues which I believe is fairly common for the model we have:(. We also have a cheap Aldi unit which so far appears to be pretty good but, it can be luck of the draw with the cheapies!!

[brchi17]

Trev, I'm told the Strong stb's have a larger buffer in them, which is why they don't drop out as much as some of the other brands ;)

[Leigh]

Just another question about the boxes. at my house we have an aerial on the roof but its not properly adjusted, so the picture is not always the best. Do u need to have a proper aerial installed to get clear picture through the set top box? Also, how important is the brand of the box? Is a cheaper dodgy brand as good as a high quality brand ie sony, lg etc..?

Don't get suckered into buying a "digital" aerial, my brother installs aerials and says there is absolutely no difference!

A properly "tuned" aerial will give a better result, but it won't be the end of the world...

[Road Runner 72]

Don't get suckered into buying a "digital" aerial, my brother installs aerials and says there is absolutely no difference!

A properly "tuned" aerial will give a better result, but it won't be the end of the world...

How tru as I ran a coat hanger for a few days & with the settop box had clear picture, but I would stick to your old aerial ;) as the boxs do improve the picture!

Cheers

[kts350]

I'm a total nuffy when it comes to this my question is should I buy a STB or just save up and buy a HD plasma.. Wife asked me to check things out as the whole HD has her interested which is good for me she doesnt know about 10 showing nascar yet.. :)

[brchi17]

I'm a total nuffy when it comes to this my question is should I buy a STB or just save up and buy a HD plasma.. Wife asked me to check things out as the whole HD has her interested which is good for me she doesnt know about 10 showing nascar yet.. :)

decisions, decisions......

The way I look at is a bit like this, if you're recently purchased a good tv then, simply go the box option, but if it's an older set, then it may be a good time to upgrade.

From my little bit of time wasting looking into this subject, I have found that it appears that in the short term straight HD receivers may soon become rarer & rarer due to their every increasing appearance in HD tv's. Meaning that down the track to watch HD tv we'll be left with one of two options, purchasing a HDTV or the dearer twin tuner/hard drive HD box.

So I suppose then, what you need to work out is what you're prepared to spent & then choose the best option within that price range.