[AccessD] HTPC Build - was Samsung 2 gb 5400 $80

jwcolby jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com
Tue Nov 30 12:48:53 CST 2010


Mike,

 > If you do not care about the HD movies then why do you have an HD TV?

Because that is what they sell?  I bought the plasma in the living room fir Christmas two years ago 
(I think) and 720P was what I could afford, plus at 42" everyone was saying that more pixels wasn't 
really useful at normal viewing range.

This year I was looking for a 32"-45" and it just happened that I got a smokin deal on a 40" that 
happened to have 1080p.  For that size I would just as happily bought another 720P.

 > Your TV card can not record from cable unless unencrypted.

True but they are there.  Most of them are not anything that anyone will pay money to get in true HD 
(1080P).  I can see them and do watch them when available and channel adjacent to the 480i 
alternative.  I was watching my football game in 720 the other day.

 > The HD-PVR can only record channels that you subscribe to--it just adds another recording 
dimension to your arsenal.

Exactly.  I am now recording the football games in HD where it offers me that.  I am quite sure that 
the storage requirements are much higher, so there is a cost.

Most of this is for my wife and kids.  I watch about 1/2 hour a week of TV, maybe not even that.  I 
will watch a movie occasionally, but I cannot sit through commercials so I have to record and watch 
later.

I have discovered that in a football game the time from the tackle to the quarterback set is almost 
exactly 30 seconds so I even 30 second fast forward through all of the guys milling around after the 
tackle.

A long time ago we paid for the movie channels and discovered that they only showed about 20-30 a 
month and none of them were anything I cared about.  A complete waste of my money, so we got rid of 
them.  I don't even have a cable box, I gave it back to the cable company and forced them to stop 
charging me $5 a month to rent the thing.

John W. Colby
www.ColbyConsulting.com

On 11/30/2010 12:40 PM, Michael Bahr wrote:
> Have a look at GBPVR
> http://www.gbpvr.com/
>
>> I don't care about the high def movies / movie channels and pay per view
>> stuff.  We just don't do
>> that stuff.
>
> If you do not care about the HD movies then why do you have an HD TV?
> Your TV card can not record from cable unless unencrypted.  Charter puts
> some unencrypted channels to tease you and can pull/change them at will.
> The HD-PVR can only record channels that you subscribe to--it just adds
> another recording dimension to your arsenal.  For example, I record SyFy
> channel HD and USA HD.  USA HD likes to show movies "uncut" and/or
> commercial free.  You can not beat that.  I also would like to record
> NatGeo and Discovery Channel (Dirty Jobs and MythBusters but these are
> additional fees).
>
> Mike...



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