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Pastimes : Hot Tubbers Anonymous -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: caly who wrote (7229)	12/14/2005 6:47:09 PM
From: Jeffrey Beckman	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 13724

Well, it definitely spoils me against my 2 year old analog SONY which I was perfectly happy with beforehand. I also bought an "upconversion DVD player" for around $220, which was definitely worth it. One thing to note, the HDTV is all picked up "off the air" up by a $39 Phillips digital-HDTV antenna. I don't have a cable or satellite connection. With my roof antenna, the SONY gives a clear picture, but nowhere near the sharpness. Now, for the new (Dell) TV, there's a distinction between the regular and HDTV broadcasts. The regular local broadcasts are on one set of channels (2-0(CBS), 4-0(NBC), 5-0(FOX), 7-0(ABC), 9-0 (UPN), 11-0 (WB), 13-0 (PBS), while the HDTV broadcasts are on sets of others (sometimes more than one per channel); CBS (2-1, 2-2), FOX (5-1,5-2), ABC (7-1,7-2), etc. The regular stations (2-0, etc.) have a much brighter picture than the SONY, but they suffer from lots of "snow". So, the regular channels are potentially much better (if I got cable), but it's a tossup in overall quality with the SONY at the moment. The HDTV channels are at a completely different level; very clear and sharp. Anyway, I don't think you need to pay Comcast for the HDTV from local stations. There should be an open port for an antenna (ATSC connector). You would just have to use the Menu to flip from cable to the antenna when you wanted the HDTV channels (The Superbowl or Dave). The only question is whether you are near enough to the HDTV channel broadcasts for the antenna in question. If it's 15-20 miles, the cheap ones should work. The Phillips antenna is available on the Dell site. It's not much to lose if you want to try <g>. I guess Comcast would give you some ESPN-High def and HBO-High Def channels, but they might not do the local broadcasts.