Even worse shoved into an entertainment box. Many flat screens are designed o be on a wall. Some tvs will have forward facing speakers, but low frequency output is what a stereo or home theater is about.
Greg
CJ:
Make sure any "virtual surround" or other enhancements are off in the audio menu. Sound leveler should be ok - cures the common LOUD commercial. :)
Mine is a Denon AVR 3300.
I don't have a center, or LFE (don't need an LFE).
But my front speakers are Paradigm Studio 100v.2 and rear are Studio
60's.
Hmmm, Tone control? Really good amp/speakers needs only volume control. If you want to have good sound system, sky is the limit for the cost. Also real good pro level Tv does not have audio amp inside or speakers. It is just a display panel fed by amps. and video/audio processor.
Easy cheap way to check if the speakers are poor. Plug in a set of headphones and see how it sounds.
BTW I use several sets with no cable box. I have only one cable box on my main flatscreen (200+ channels), but my other 6 TVs in other rooms are plugged directly into the cable line, no box. I'm fortunate in that Cox here provides 70+ analog channels and all the local channels (in both analog and HD). I know in other areas they have removed that capability and require a box for each set. I'm sure it will happen here eventually but am keeping my fingers crossed.
Surprised they keep the analog channels because they eat up so much bandwidth. The holy grail for cable companies was being able to dump analog to avoid building out new higher bandwidth systems. We have comcast and they have maybe a dozen channels in clear QAM. They removed all analog at least a year ago.
They probably will go away some time in the near future. As was pointed out, they want to use the bandwidth for other things like PPV, where they make money. Where I live, in western NC, there are over the air channels from repeaters. These were all analog. The FCC digital decree did not apply to low power repeaters. But, suddenly and quietly, they all became digital a few months ago. They don't even need to recover bandwidth, but they converted anyway. Funny thing is that the repeaters get their signal from DirectTV. I'm not really sure why they even bother as most people have cable, Dish or Direct.
I didn't read the entire thread yet but does this 22" have the ability to connect external speakers? I'm thinking that might improve the sound to some degree. Of course if he's on a budget, this is an added expense perhaps.
Not even the same companies. They sold the names for the consumer electronics market years ago.
Those TV providers have been hemorrhaging TV customers for some time. OTA will give most people a dozen channels and then say add in a netflix account and that is all some people want. Ask anyone today about hbo or showtime etc and all you will get is a big yawn.
just bought a pair of pc speakers for 12 bucks out the door. sound quality is much better...thanks for the input gang
CJ
Yes I'm surprised that my analog channels are still available too. Awhile back Cox (here) advertised this analog capability. Something like subscribe with one cable box and get basic cable in all your other rooms free. But I haven't seen that ad for awhile. Currently Cox only has the 2 satellite companies for competition and satellite can't offer free TV in as many rooms as you want so that may be an incentive to keep it. But still, as I said I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Well in the past years Cox has added lots of HD channels. I think I now have around 75 or so. They moved them from the 700s to the 1000s. I don't understand all I know about this, but do they need to send all those digital channels to me at once or does my cable box tell them what channel I want and they only need to send that one? That would cut down on the bandwidth a lot.
Yes I have a modern flatscreen *without* a box in one room and I get those 70 analog cable based channels, plus all the local channels in both digital HD and digital SD. Also a smattering of digital SD cable based channels like military, wgn, cspan ect. It totals 126 channels if I remember right. Course my older sets only see the analog channels.
Ah. So I imagine that one stream uses lots less bandwidth than all those analog channels they now supply me with. When they finally do eliminate them, what will they use the extra space for? More channels? Geeze, I hardly watch 10% of the available channels I have now. :)
What didn't you like? Where did you go? Here they're my only cable TV choice, and my only cable ISP (non-DSL) choice. I have been with Cox for TV for around 15 years and only recently for landline and ISP. Really no complaints, very few outages. The cable box failed once and they came to the house to replace it the next day. Since going with Cox for landline and ISP there have been no problems. But then my old landline/ISP company Century Link was equally reliable. Cost was the main reason for my change.
So I've read. But the HD picture as supplied is quite acceptable to me. But not being a sports fan I'm perhaps more forgiving for most of the standard TV programs/movies.
Yes, I can receive over-the-air local HD channels here with an indoor antenna and there is a noticeable difference. Do the satellite companies provide a better HD picture than Cox or are they as compressed?
All HDTV is compressed. I have seen some of the more compressed versions. I'm pretty sure I see a better picture on comcast vs direct tv. I have seen ultra compresed versions too.
Greg
You can get pretty good sound for the buck with pc speakers, which should also include subwoofer. Really good sound requires at least a couple hundred bucks just for mini monitors. Plus sub, plus Amp/ decoder Lowest cost around $700 but not surround. Figure another $600 for surround. A minimal cost system that would be quality sound. The price only goes up for better system.
Then there are used systems, and if you know how to make speakers, it Still costs a bunch.
I had a visio. Had cheap subwoofer hooked up. Was ok. Had front firing speakers. Then I got a coby. No audio output except digital. Not currently using that sub. It also has those speakers that bounce off wall, except the tv is not mounted flat on wall. Currently using cardboard reflectors under tv so I get some kind of decent sound.
Greg
The cable company is not streaming the typical cable channels. They would stream pay on demand type channels or similar where you select the actual SHOW. But that is very small amount of what people are watching.
If they were streaming the typical 99% of what people watch, then the TV the guy has working would not be working. The TV only has a QAM tuner, which is a receive only device. It justs tunes to the channel like any tuner does. If it were a streaming settup, the TV would have to send the requested channel to the cable system, which it clearly does not.
They get all those digital channels on the cable by compressing it.
I don't know of any plans to do that, at least not in the forseable future.
Typically the best you can get as a user is the OTA version. Both the satellite and cable companies are known to further compress that. That is one of the reasons cable companies want to get analog channels off of their systems. There was a noticeable difference in Comcasts clear QAM retransmission of the locals a few weeks after they removed all of the analog channels.
We both approximately doubled our speed then. I went from 7 to 15Mbs. For most of my internet use I did not notice a big difference. I think waiting for pages to load was more a function of the queried server than my local setup. I notice most of the difference when downloading songs. But the difference is in seconds. Remember when it took 30 minutes to download one song on dialup? Good old days. :)
Since even a cheap wireless router (50 Mbs) is so fast compared to my ISP connection (7 or 15 Mbs) I wouldn't think that would make a big difference in the overall system speed.
I'm getting 200+ channels, HD/DVR cable box, landline phone, and 15 Mbps ISP for an average $110/mo (total after fees & taxes). I say average because it's on a 2 year contract with the first year $100/mo and second $120/mo. It's kinda like your price lock except I'm the one locked. :)
Yes it's nice to have a choice. I also switched because of money.
BTW I did feel a little sad when leaving my Century Link wired telephone service (POTS) because I have been using them (previously as Qwest and before that Mountain Bell) since I first came to this area in 1947. But then I felt sad for only about 15 seconds. :)
If I posted "the sky is blue" you'd argue with me.
Get over yourself, already.
That's not an argument, Sparky. You obviously have no method of learning most of what you purport to know.
Your kill file is broken. Again. -----
- gpsman
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