Record over the air shows

[mike]

Every conversion loses something. The original shows from the '60's were CRAP by today's standards. They got converted to digital for broadcast. Then your converter turned them back into analog. Then your DVDR converted them back to digital and recorded them, likely with compression. Depending on how your player works, they may get converted back to analog again.

All my stuff is recorded in .wtv format by media center. There are multiple audio channels. When I play them back with VLC, the default audio channel varies by the TV channel, network, show or randomly. Changing the audio channel does affect how it sounds in some non-deterministic way. On some PBS recordings, the default audio channel deletes the dialog, but plays everything else. Other audio channel has everything. I had to write a program to let me change audio channels without a keyboard.

I don't know how the Philips device works. There may be some equalizer configuration that can compensate for frequency selective issues.

>

[gfretwell]

The problem with HDMI products is the inputs all exploit the DRM hardware built into the standard so you are not recording anything. I have 2 HDMI "TV in" cards for a PC and neither of them could see the output of my Dish box (even watching broadcast shows) or my Tivo looking at streams. The protected bit is on in the HDMI stream and it just goes away (green screen). There is a rumor that the card drivers from a number of years ago bypassed this but that seems to be unavailable everywhere I looked and it only worked with XP anyway.

[gfretwell]

Dish records them, there is no cloud, no a cable going back to the host. They are out there spinning on a hard drive but you can't get them off even if it is the "aux" USB connected drive. They are in some proprietary format. You have to watch them with the Dish box. A PC won't even see the drive and I haven't heard of a Linux guy who could actually get the shows off. OTOH Replay and Tivo will export a usable file.

[gfretwell]

NTSC is such low resolution, even a 480x recording will get it all.

[makolber]

sorry, no I do not have that particular converter.

I have another converter.

there are MANY of these ATSC converter that were very popular when TV was converting from analog to digital.

even new ones are not expensive.

mark

[Mark Lloyd]

[snip]

Note that the terms "digital" and "HD" don't really have anything to do with antennas.

The old antenna connections used 2 wires with the plastic maintaining a certain separation. The wires carry opposite signals, used to cancel any noise picked up. I suppose the modern coax (one wire surrounded by a grounded shield) actually blocks noise . I used to have a few baluns (balanced - unbalanced transformers) that came with TVs, in case you had the wrong kind of cable.

[snip]

[Mark Lloyd]

[snip]

You probably can, as long as you have a network connection (WiFi).

They really should tell you about such a requirement (smartphone), or better yet, make the device a web server so you can control it from any computer on your network.

[Mark Lloyd]

[snip]

Not nearly as bad as bup-bup-bup sound (where you hear just parts of some words, and none of others).

[gfretwell]

What digital did was make it so you don't get "snowy" pictures anymore. It is all or nothing so you do need a better antenna than you did with your old 1946 DuMont. I am 32 miles from the transmitter, with a "deep fringe" antenna, 27 feet off the ground and I still get picture break up now and then. This is Florida, flat as a pancake so I can't even blame hills. I think they are actually broadcasting lower power these days tho.

[Frank]

Interesting to know as I know nothing about Dish or Tivo. I did collect a bunch of VHS tapes over the years but do not find myself watching them.

[mike]

Isn't 32 miles beyond the horizon? I've had more problems with multipath than signal strength. If I look at the TV signals with a spectrum analyzer, they're all about the same strength, give or take, but the problem channels don't have a flat-topped Bart's Head display.

[gfretwell]

I suppose it would be if the tower wasn't 1500 feet high.

[Mark Lloyd]

Also, a 1946 antenna is likely to be VHF-only, and most of the stations use UHF.

A little snow is tolerable. What happens with a weak digital signal is worse.

[snip]

[Mark Lloyd]

[snip]

As to DVR, I wanted one in 1999 and looked at what was available. There was TiVo and ReplayTV (not advertised as much). I decided that Replay was better and have used them all the time since then (except for a year or so with Ultimate TV). Replay would probably still be better if they hadn't stopped making them had never had a HD model.

[micky]

What made the one you posted different is that it has the ability to record too, timed recording (which is the best kind). Other things that do that cost about 300 dollars.

I wonder where all the old ones are.

[micky]

We had a 1949 Dumont. With a magic eye tuning eye. It also had FM stations between channels 6 and 7, I think they were. But there were no FM transmitters in those days!

The cabinet was beautiful. AFter the TV stopped working well, I tried to convert the cabinet to a cabinet. The extra wood parts were glued verrry well to the inside, and I didn't have much in the way of tools to cut things that were in the way.

So YOU need a better antenna, but if you're 5 or 10 miles away and it's not a low-power station, you don't.

[micky]

I watched much of the OJSimpson trial on a station in Lancaster Pa. or maybe York Pa. with so much snow it was really bad. But the picture didn't change much anyhow and I could hear the testimony live. Now with digital, I couldnt' get it at all.

For some reason, no Baltimore or DC station carried the trial but that small station carried the whole thing live.

[gfretwell]

I still have a 4500 but it has a bad drive. I know I can image a drive, go on a web site somewhere to get my lifetime turned back on and go but I was really running out of things I could do with it when the guide that had Dish on it went away and I don't even have dish now. About all it is good for is copying NTSC movies to download to a PC. These days if I want a movie that bad I just buy a DVD at Goodwill (or some other cheap place) and rip it.

[Mark Lloyd]

[snip]

ATSC can transmit the name of the show, as well as the name of the next show. This should allow fully automatic recording. For example the device might be set to record "Smallville" at ANY TIME on ANY CHANNEL. If a device could do that, it's much easier than having to set times and channels.

[snip]

[Mark Lloyd]

[snip]

There is a big gap in frequencies between channel 6 and 7. The current FM band is just above 6. I remember when we had a channel 6, and some people would listen on their FM radios (low end of the dial). Of course, this was before digital.

There's enough space between the FM band and channel 7 that cable gets 9 channels (14-22) in that space. I have gotten 22 on an old (NOT cable ready) TV by setting it to 7 and misadjusting the fine tuning.

[snip]