The PC World HDTV Answer Guide

[Jason Dunn]

http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,115054,pg,1,RSS,RSS,00.asp

"As high-definition television programming finally approaches critical mass and the prices of everything from smaller CRTs to big plasma displays continue to fall, millions of Americans are considering making the upgrade to HD's sharp, luscious picture and movie-quality sound. But if you visit your local consumer electronics store without doing a little research first, you may leave with more questions than you had when you went in. At the very least, you should know what HD programming you'll be able to get in your area, what equipment you'll need to get it, and whether you'll have to make compromises with your new set that you don't with your analog TV. Here's a good start on that research..."

I'm still reading through this article myself, but it's a great source of information for those of us (myself included) who are still learning about HDTV. Worth a read!

[Jason Dunn]

http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,115054,pg,1,RSS,RSS,00.asp

"As high-definition television programming finally approaches critical mass and the prices of everything from smaller CRTs to big plasma displays continue to fall, millions of Americans are considering making the upgrade to HD's sharp, luscious picture and movie-quality sound. But if you visit your local consumer electronics store without doing a little research first, you may leave with more questions than you had when you went in. At the very least, you should know what HD programming you'll be able to get in your area, what equipment you'll need to get it, and whether you'll have to make compromises with your new set that you don't with your analog TV. Here's a good start on that research..."

I'm still reading through this article myself, but it's a great source of information for those of us (myself included) who are still learning about HDTV. Worth a read!

[Suhit Gupta]

Good article, worth the read.

Suhit

[Raven]

oh boy, never knew there were so many hidden expenses involved. I always assumed when I upgraded from my 13" GE, it would be a DLP rear projection HDTV. :twisted:

sigh....guess I better wait a few more years... :cry:

[Suhit Gupta]

Originally Posted by raven

oh boy, never knew there were so many hidden expenses involved.

Yeah, I remember how much this was hated by early adopters of HDTV. My uncle decided to buy an HD 'ready' TV. But once he got home with the fairly expensive TV, he realized that he actually needed the HD tuner (also expensive) to go with his HD ready TV, since the 'ready' TVs did not actually come with them, and this was something not advertised in the store. Big pain! :evil:

Suhit

[Raven]

On a side note, here's a couple of screen caps from ATI's new HD TV tuner card. It's just beautiful. I wonder if HDTV reviews have examples like this...
Review

ATI is about to release HD versions of all their AIW cards soon.

[Suhit Gupta]

Drool. Although, I haven't heard any cost estimates yet, have you?

Suhit

[Raven]

Yup, where's the drool emoticon when you need it? :lol:

I read somewhere that standalone ATI HD PCI cards are supposed to cost between the $200 and $250 range.

I guess the AIW cards will add atleast $100 to current prices.

I don't know how many folks here use TV Tuner cards, but from my experience, the AIW cards take up too many CPU cycles when recording live tv. Its coz they use software to encode vs. the Happauge cards which have a dedicated chip bringing cpu utilization down to 2% max.

Any idea whether recording HD quality will require more or less cpu power?

[Suhit Gupta]

Originally Posted by raven

Yup, where's the drool emoticon when you need it? :lol:

Heh

Originally Posted by raven

Any idea whether recording HD quality will require more or less cpu power?

Are you asking about electrical power or MHz power? I am guessing the later. I don't think the CPU is going to have that much of an impact, especially with the AIW cards, the GPU should be able to handle a bunch of the encoding. I think the CPU requirements should be similar to those required with a regular AIW card. However the ATI website doesn't seem to give much information on this.

Suhit

[Raven]

Yup, I was indicating the Mhz power.

From my experience, the GPU doesn't do squat when it comes to live TV quality or while encoding. I tried out a AIW 9600 (non pro) and a AIW 9800 Pro for a month. My CPU utilization hovered around the 45% mark both times. I have an Athlon 1700+ with 512 MB and a 7200 RPM, 2MB cache HD.

I did use the VideoSoap (Comb Filter 1) option to remove some noise while encoding using the ATI medium setting to record. This definitely does use up CPU power. But it added just a 20% overhead IMO.

As for why I didn't stick with a TV tuner card. Watching TV in a small window was fine, but at full screen...yuck...too many defects visible. Though only if you sit at the computer, it wasn't too bad from the couch.