As the TV Turns…
Well, I had lunch today with Mary to discuss the TV situation. First off, thanks for the emails and comments about this entire ordeal. I appreciate you guys taking the time to give me your thoughts.
Mary is 100% against getting a small (26″) LCD HDTV for my office. Her stance is that she’d never see me (prolly true) and that she wouldn’t get much out of the deal (kinda true too). She did, however, greenlight the purchase of a new monitor for use with my PC and the Xbox 360. My buddy and evil twin Bill Harris sent me a link to a review by another buddy of mine, Jason Cross, of this lovely Dell 24″ LCD monitor. The Dell site is here. This retails for around $750 but Mary, being the Director of Tech Support of a large ad agency, can get the monitor through work, shipped, for around $635 - $640. This is an extremely tough deal to pass up. As luck would have it, there is a Dell store at the mall we had lunch at and they had this model on the floor. Freaking gorgeous.
Mary’s other concern has to do with the whole DirecTV/TiVO contract thing. As many of you know, DTV is coming out with their own HD DVRs (well it keeps getting delayed, but it’ll come out eventually.) When it does, the HD TiVO boxes will not work due to new MPEG-4 encryption (they say it’s due to bandwidth issues). I have been told this directly from DTV reps. Are they lying? I guess it’s possible but I have read this on more than one forum so I take it as true. There is also the notion that DTV will swap out HD TiVO boxes for the DTV HD DVRs, but until I see that in writing I’m not jumping in with both feet. I will not get an expensive HDTV without the ability to use TiVO on it (and pay $300 for a new HD TiVO) and with the fear that the box will be useless in 3 months. I’ll just wait. I doubt DTV would totally screw its customers like that, but assuming a company will do the right thing — well..
So, I think in the long run we’re going to get both: the Dell monitor for the office PC and the 360 (this is on order now actually) and then this winter (assuming the house sells) we finally invest in the 56″ Samsung DLP that I wanted to buy 6 months ago.
July 26th, 2006 at 6:18 pm
Bill -
Take information for 1st level DirecTV customer service reps with a grain of salt. Most of them haven’t a clue what mpeg4 is.
The HD Tivo boxes will continue to work fine, just as they do now (I own two). What they will not work with is any new mpeg4 HD channels. Right now, this means the four major broadcast networks in your local area (if they’re even active yet). In St. Louis, they went active in May. I have the H20 mpeg4 receiver in addition to the 2 HD Tivo’s, but I don’t even use the HD locals supplied via mpeg4. Why? Because they come in just fine OTA with my antenna. Also, DirecTV’s mpeg4 channels are only going to be the big 4 networks, which means that you still need your OTA antenna for UPN, WB, PBS, etc….
However, down the road DirecTV will begin adding additional HD national channels (ie. National Geographic HD, MTV HD, etc…) and those will likely be mpeg4. The mpeg2 versions will not be turned off in the near or distant future. If you’re happy with what you can get now with your HD Tivo, that’s not going to change.
I’ve seen their DTV software, and it blows chunks compared to Tivo. They could swap out all 3 of my Tivo’s today (2 HD, 1 SD) for free and throw in a $500 credit to my account and I would tell them no thank you. Tivo, as you know, is that superior. Should the time come (in 5+ yrs) where mpeg4 channels are coming out and I can’t resist them (or feel the need to record them), I would then consider swapping out my Tivo boxes, but right now there is no reason to do so (only four local mpeg4 channels from D* and no other’s in the pipeline).
Long story short, don’t worry about mpeg4 or their new HD DVR. You don’t need it (unless you can’t get OTA HD reception right now, in which case mpeg4 would be a big deal if/when it’s in your local area).
PS. If you’re looking to land another HD Tivo for free, check out this thread:
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=303111
I got my 2nd HD Tivo last month, absolutely free, no rebates or service credits to mess with. Just $0, $0 shipping, $0 installation.
Any additional questions, shoot me a PM over at DSP.
PSS. Have you read reviews of that Dell monitor?
http://www.pcworld.com/resource/article/0,aid,120996,00.asp
In my experience with LCD PC monitors, they do PC stuff great, but the analog inputs (component, VGA, etc) pretty much make everything look muddy. Since your 360 would be connected via VGA or component, this is a valid concern. Your eyes are right on top of the monitor, and anytime it’s getting a non-native resolution (such as anything non-PC related) it’s going to have some artifacting. I’d make sure that you have a return policy so that if you hook it up and it looks just so-so with the 360 and HDTV, you can take it back and get a dedicated HDTV instead.
July 26th, 2006 at 7:00 pm
Jon that is excellent information. I really appreciate it. It’s just what I was looking for. I will relay this to Mary. =)
As for the monitor review, that isn’t the same model. The one I am getting is the UltraSharp 2407WFP A02 revision model not the 2405FPW. There’s a big difference (based on what I read) The review I linked in the post was done by Jason Cross, a guy I know personally and a fella I trust compltely when it comes to tech stuff. I am very comfy with the purchase. (well, as comfy as a guy can be before getting it). If there are problems with it believe me..the blog will hear about it!
July 26th, 2006 at 11:33 pm
Should look great on that monitor:
http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1028548310&postcount=34
July 27th, 2006 at 8:50 am
Thanks Mean, I’m pretty excited about it and for the fact that I got for for the low 600s. Thanks for that pic. She’s a beaut.
July 27th, 2006 at 10:46 am
Don’t settle for that same Sammy you were looking at when you get the big TV. At lease look at the “they were new but expensive back then” Sammies that are going on blowout now.
In fact, you should start the search anew.
I’d stay away from the Toshibas, though. I really didn’t like the SD picture on last year’s model at all. I thought the Mits and the Sammy were really close, though.
And don’t rule out the “3-LCD” Sonys. I thought they were far better on SD than anything else.