The Song Fight Bulletin Board

Billy's Little Trip wrote:I do have a wireless Sony blu-ray. So that gives me more.

A lot of people are getting the Apple box. One time charge of $99. I just don't know how that would help me since I have two wireless devices that pretty much cover everything.

Depends on what ya got and what ya want.

You need an updated version of this matrix. The biggest problem with matrix comparisons is that the UI on various devices works differently, so the Netflix interface on one might be really nice, but on another it sucks. This makes a huge difference on your viewing experience. Just getting to a search screen is a hassle sometimes. Many devices have mobile remote control apps that are far better than the remotes that come with them (Apple's, for instance).

Best thing to do is get yourself to a store that has a bunch of them up and running (here in NYC that's B&H) with knowledgeable salespeople (HAHAHAHAHAH just kidding...oh that would be funny if salespeople actually knew something).

roymond wrote:Early impressions of the SONY 23" Internet (Google) TV:

@BLT - the thing that maybe hasn't been mentioned here yet is that there are some channels that you get on cable TV that are just not available on internet TV. For example, I used to like Speed TV because I'd watch the Formula 1 races live from around the world. But it kinda came down to the fact that that was the one thing I watched on cable that wasn't available on internet TV that I really cared about, but we were spending $70 a month for just that.

We can see all the Phoenix TV towers from our front window, so antenna reception is pretty good for us. There were shows on USA and other cable channels that we liked, but most of those come available within a week or so on Hulu. And the ones that don't... well, they show up eventually on the internet, or some other show that's just as watchable does. Right now we're paying for Netflix (streaming and two DVDs at once so we can get through "True Blood" in a finite amount of time) and Hulu+, but we'd survive without those, too.

Charles (KA)

jb wrote:

roymond wrote:Early impressions of the SONY 23" Internet (Google) TV:

DAMN IT! Do as I say, not as I do!!!

Billy's Little Trip wrote:I do have a wireless Sony blu-ray. So that gives me more.

A lot of people are getting the Apple box. One time charge of $99. I just don't know how that would help me since I have two wireless devices that pretty much cover everything.

The only reason to get an Apple TV specifically is for streaming iTunes content to your TV.

roymond wrote:

fluffy wrote:

roymond wrote:If you're lucky, you can grab uncompressed HD over the air with a good antenna (if you're really lucky, a crappy antenna will do). That would give you all the networks, and possibly many additional digital channels (each "old" channel now supports up to 4 digital channels, so there's 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4 instead of just channel 4).

OTA HD is still compressed, it's just not compressed as much as cable.

Correct, but it's not compressed for transmission purposes. details, details...

What do you mean by that? OTA HD is still limited in how much bandwidth it has. It just has more bandwidth than cable generally provides (because cable is trying to cram more channels into the same amount of overall frequency). Each ATSC channel provides 6MHz of bandwidth, which they manage to squeeze around 18Mbps out of. Uncompressed 720p HD video would take about 1.3Gbps for the video alone, and another 3Mbps for stereo audio. 1080i video would be 1.4Gbps uncompressed, and 1080p (which ATSC doesn't support) would be twice that.

king_arthur wrote:@BLT - the thing that maybe hasn't been mentioned here yet is that there are some channels that you get on cable TV that are just not available on internet TV.

Yeah, I understand that now and that's holding me back. Now I have Palladia music channel on a lot, comedy central, food tv and my wife watches all of the animal shows. I'm not a gamer nor reader, so TV is a part of my routine to happiness. I just can't believe that between my cell phone and cable bill, I'm paying about $300 a month. That's a f**king car payment! I have become one of "those" people.

Who wants to join me for an occupy cell phone and cable company rally? Let me rephrase that. Who wants to do an occupy cell phone and cable company rally and call my cell and let me know how it's going? Fight the power!

fluffy wrote:What do you mean by that?

Yeah, youre right. my meaning was more about OTA being the best quality transmission you can get. And was very lazy in saying so.

As for BLT's wife...one thing we find with our kids and ourselves, is that when there's plenty to choose from, you can easily make the transition. The reality is, there's plenty of free programming on Internet TV, plus one of the boxes we've discussed for rental when needed. Between the two you can pretty much satisfy any genre thirst you might have. And expand this to things like TED talks and you even learn a bunch.

Thanks for the tip, Roy.

....and maybe TED will talk about OTA so YOU can learn more.

Billy's Little Trip wrote:Thanks for the tip, Roy.

....and maybe TED will talk about OTA so YOU can learn more.

That's how it works. How do you think I learn all the stuff I forget?