"HD Digital TV is Mind Control"

[defaultdotxbe]

Fire from an Iowa class is really, truly a new form of "message for you, sir".

I think that if you know your open position is about to be shelled by the Missouri, there's not a lot of room for options, if you can't skedaddle NOW.

to illustrate:

 

[WildCat]

I was only looking at the 1080p models. That's what I want to get. One of our customers is Discovery, they do HD right.

And any station with "Turner" in the name doesn't have the slightest clue as to how to broadcast an HD signal. I swear I would rip the moustache off Ted Turner's face if he was sitting next to me when one of his stations stretches out the picture so it fills the whole screen, and makes everyone look short and fat.

 

[WildCat]

I know of a bar that got all new HD plasma TVs a few years ago.

They never bothered to upgrade their cable/satellite package to get HD receivers, nor did they even bother to spend $9.99 for a rabit ear antenna, so they just have horrible looking standard def on their new TVs.

I refuse to go there to watch any sort of sporting event, such stupidity is physically painful to be around.

 

[sleeplessdwarf]

I know of a bar that got all new HD plasma TVs a few years ago.

They never bothered to upgrade their cable/satellite package to get HD receivers, nor did they even bother to spend $9.99 for a rabit ear antenna, so they just have horrible looking standard def on their new TVs.

I refuse to go there to watch any sort of sporting event, such stupidity is physically painful to be around.

Sad but true I guess. My inlaws got a nice 42" set after we bought our 60". They were over one night and loved the picture. They asked me what to do as for the type of set, etc, and I told them everything including upgrading their dish to HD. The day it was delivered, I went over and got it all set up. Next thing I know they were calling talking about how horrible the picture was(I left while the tivo was still programming) They actually blamed me for their let down. Not sure if that is due to the inlaw status or just ignorance.

 

[jaydeehess]

arrrgh, the thing that really burns me is to see someone with a new 16:9 TV who has set it to expand 4:3 SD signals to fill the screen. The reason is invariably " I don't like the black bars on the sides". Why would you spend hundreds or thousands of dollars only to program the TV to make it look like crap?

Sadly my parents won an HD TV a few years ago. They have never upgraded to an HD cable receiver, only recently gone to digital cable. Previously they were still on analog cable,,, and they have programmed the TV to expand the 4:3 to fill the screen.

 

[JoeyDonuts]

Yeah. I can't stand to see video displayed in anything but its native format. I can deal with black bars, and it's even better when a lot of the networks are filling the 4:3 negative space with nifty graphics and what-not.

 

[cwalner]

While I find the black bars a minor distraction, the stretch to fit is excrable.

Similarly before the widespread use of wide screen TV's, I was always an advocate of Letterboxing over Pan N' Scan.

 

[defaultdotxbe]

for some reason 4:3 stretched to 16:10 (all the widescreen tvs ive used have been 16:10, not 16:9) doesnt bother me, nor does 16:9 stretched to 16:10

however 4:3 stretched to 16:9 or 16:9 or16:10 stretched to 4:3 does bother me, go figure

 

[Sunstealer]

My pet hate is someone who buy a nice big flat screen telly (not necessarily HD), invites you over to have a look so you go. Then they brag about their screen except that the colours are all set up wrong and you either get really, really red reds or toxic greens and people's faces looking orange.

I just don't have the heart to tell them their picture looks crap and this is the way to sort it in 5 minutes because I know it will upset them and deflate their ego.

 

[jaydeehess]

My pet hate is someone who buy a nice big flat screen telly (not necessarily HD), invites you over to have a look so you go. Then they brag about their screen except that the colours are all set up wrong and you either get really, really red reds or toxic greens and people's faces looking orange.

I just don't have the heart to tell them their picture looks crap and this is the way to sort it in 5 minutes because I know it will upset them and deflate their ego.

Component cables can go anywhere right?

 

[sleeplessdwarf]

My pet hate is someone who buy a nice big flat screen telly (not necessarily HD), invites you over to have a look so you go. Then they brag about their screen except that the colours are all set up wrong and you either get really, really red reds or toxic greens and people's faces looking orange.

I just don't have the heart to tell them their picture looks crap and this is the way to sort it in 5 minutes because I know it will upset them and deflate their ego.

I can only imagine. I have spent the time using Sony's bluray that comes with HD setup help. I also used one I found on the net. No matter how much better the picture looks when I am done, I am always plagued by the idea that if I just spent the 350$ for a professional to come out and properly calibrate the set then I would be completely satisfied. It is my fear of not being satisfied that prevents me from doing just that.

 

[JoeyDonuts]

With a solid understanding of your cabling setup and the native modes and features of your particular set, you shouldn't need to spend 350 bucks for a professional set up. When I hear things like that I start thinking I'm in the wrong business - that maybe I should work out of the home doing HDTV setups.

 

[Horatius]

With a solid understanding of your cabling setup and the native modes and features of your particular set, you shouldn't need to spend 350 bucks for a professional set up. When I hear things like that I start thinking I'm in the wrong business - that maybe I should work out of the home doing HDTV setups.

Well, someone needs to do such setups, because there is some really weird **** involved.

For instance.

I recently upgraded my Xbox 360 console, so now I have an HDMI output. I've got HDMI from my HD cable box, and now from the Xbox as well. Now, both HDMI inputs can send the sound to the TV. The TV also has a digital audio output that can send the sound to my surround sound system.

Except.

The DAO only seems to work off the HDMI from the Cable box. The Xbox sound doesn't show up at all! WTF?

Then it gets weirder.

I took my Xbox over to a friends house, with the HDMI cable. His TV wouldn't play the audio at all. I know it's not the Xbox, since it puts out sound over the HDMI at home. We couldn't figure out what was going on.

It shouldn't be this hard to just get sound from one device to another!

 

[sleeplessdwarf]

Well, someone needs to do such setups, because there is some really weird **** involved.

For instance.

I recently upgraded my Xbox 360 console, so now I have an HDMI output. I've got HDMI from my HD cable box, and now from the Xbox as well. Now, both HDMI inputs can send the sound to the TV. The TV also has a digital audio output that can send the sound to my surround sound system.

Except.

The DAO only seems to work off the HDMI from the Cable box. The Xbox sound doesn't show up at all! WTF?

Then it gets weirder.

I took my Xbox over to a friends house, with the HDMI cable. His TV wouldn't play the audio at all. I know it's not the Xbox, since it puts out sound over the HDMI at home. We couldn't figure out what was going on.

It shouldn't be this hard to just get sound from one device to another!

I agree with all above. However, if you'll notice my strive to get the best, then you will understand why I consider it at times. I am not as smart as some of you guys here I'll admit upfront, but I do ok in the basics of cabling and your everyday electronics. I am an installer for directv so I deal with it often. Unlike the above, I am a ps3 guy P) but I always wonder if I am getting as good as the next guy. I may have a great picture compared to most, but the doubt is always there.

 

[JoeyDonuts]

It shouldn't be this hard to just get sound from one device to another!

Check your audio settings on the XBOX 360. If I'm not mistaken there should be options to adjust the output.

I don't think it's your cable or any faulty hardware at all. Given that you have audio issues on two televisions that says to me that it's something in the XBOX audio output configuration.

The only other option is that it's something in the audio settings for that particular HDMI external input source, but this is highly unlikely for two different televisions.

 

[Cuddles]

I wonder why the CT flock never said anything when NTSC was made manditory?

Maybe the NTSC mind control signal was more effective than HDTV.

Actually, this would explain why the NWO hasn't taken over the world yet. Obviously they started off in the US and took over with their NTSC mind control signal, but then failed to realise that all the sensible countries use PAL and couldn't get any further.

 

[Skeptic Guy]

Check your audio settings on the XBOX 360. If I'm not mistaken there should be options to adjust the output.

I don't think it's your cable or any faulty hardware at all. Given that you have audio issues on two televisions that says to me that it's something in the XBOX audio output configuration.

The only other option is that it's something in the audio settings for that particular HDMI external input source, but this is highly unlikely for two different televisions.

A friend of mine had a similar problem with his Blu-Ray player. The audio was not configured to use the HDMI output of the player. He went into the set-up and fixed it. I don't think it is a set-up problem on the TV given that the same issue occured on two different sets.

 

[jaydeehess]

Well, someone needs to do such setups, because there is some really weird **** involved.

For instance.

I recently upgraded my Xbox 360 console, so now I have an HDMI output. I've got HDMI from my HD cable box, and now from the Xbox as well. Now, both HDMI inputs can send the sound to the TV. The TV also has a digital audio output that can send the sound to my surround sound system.

Except.

The DAO only seems to work off the HDMI from the Cable box. The Xbox sound doesn't show up at all! WTF?

Then it gets weirder.

I took my Xbox over to a friends house, with the HDMI cable. His TV wouldn't play the audio at all. I know it's not the Xbox, since it puts out sound over the HDMI at home. We couldn't figure out what was going on.

It shouldn't be this hard to just get sound from one device to another!

his TV is expecting ,,, oh what's the term, not true HDMI,,
DVI or DVI-D which does not include an audio signal

 

[Horatius]

A friend of mine had a similar problem with his Blu-Ray player. The audio was not configured to use the HDMI output of the player. He went into the set-up and fixed it. I don't think it is a set-up problem on the TV given that the same issue occured on two different sets.

But that's just it - we had two different problems on the two sets. Maybe I wasn't clear enough.

My friend's TV - no sound at all.

My TV - Sound through the TV, but the TV won't then pass the sound to the Surround Sound System, even though it will do that for the cable box.

his TV is expecting ,,, oh what's the term, not true HDMI,,
DVI or DVI-D which does not include an audio signal

That might be it. It was a month ago, but I seem to recall seeing those terms in one of the setup menus.

Which again highlights the frustration - his was a brand new set, and it's not setup to automatically recognize the HDMI output?

 

[jaydeehess]

But that's just it - we had two different problems on the two sets. Maybe I wasn't clear enough.

My friend's TV - no sound at all.

My TV - Sound through the TV, but the TV won't then pass the sound to the Surround Sound System, even though it will do that for the cable box.

You might have to set up the audio separatly for each input. You have Surround sound selected for HDMI 1 (your cable box connection) but do you have SS selected for HDMI 2?

That might be it. It was a month ago, but I seem to recall seeing those terms in one of the setup menus.

Which again highlights the frustration - his was a brand new set, and it's not setup to automatically recognize the HDMI output?

It would be a fairly simple thing to have a bit of firmware that would recognize whether the signal coming in the HDMI port is HDMI or DVI but the engineer who designed the system knows the difference and barely even thinks about the common user's knowledge.

Programmers get the same way, they may design a program to do a task that they are not expert at.
for instance a video editing system
The programmer sets up the user interface and later on the users are cursing him "why did they put this function in this menu, its just so ackward?"

Our Final Cut system just craped out. The audio would lag the video (yes, not the other way around) by several seconds. Turns out that Final Cut does not 'like' a Sony DSR-1800 DVCAM tape deck and the communication between the computer and the VTR was corrupting the user preferences. Apple help line told us to create a new user, that fixed it but how stupid is that? So now we have a cheapo- DSR-11 VTR connected to Final Cut and we have the much more expensive DSR-1800 connected to our Pinnacle edit suite (which is high end consumer video editing whereas Final Cut is professional grade) Pinnacle is quite happy with the DSR-1800.

So are there any 'fixes' coming from Apple for this problem? Nope! Their solution is not to use a DSR 1800 since few production companies use DVCAM anyway. But how stupid is it that a VTR can corrupt settings in the editing software in the first place!!!

end rant........ Apple, bah!