Clay Washington

Audiofn,

I currently live in an apartment complex and have Direct TV via SBC Home Entertainment. I want to replace my current satellite box (Sony SAT-A55), with an HDTV "box". I want to connect an antenna to receive the broadcasted signals, and I want to connect the "satellite cable" and continue to receive the "low-definition" Direct TV service.

I saw the Sony SAT-HD200, but it has DVI which I cannot use on my Mitsubishi, so I didn't want to "pay for it". That's why I was looking at the Hughes unit.

With all of that said... I want to buy a "TV-Top" antenna to receive the HDTV signals. Any suggestions?

gdfatha

What a great thread.. I too am in the mode of purchasing a HDTV.

How do I save this thread for furure reference?? I also want to share it with some friends..

This is taking me back more than a few years when I spent 51 weeks of schooling in Electronic Countermeasures (ECM) while in the Air Force..

Thanks guys..Keep the info coming...

mcollinstn

Audio,

We were typing at the same time. I defer all info to your worthiness.

Did not know that about the optical/coax difference. My receiver only has ONE coax in and my laserdisc is coax so I'm stuck with optical on the others, but at my level of hardware I'm fairly sure it doesn't make any difference I can hear.

M

Audiofn

If I showed you then you would be able to tell, so maybe I should not show ya, don't need ya going out and spending that blower money on a new DVD player and preamp

chrker

Damn mcollinstn, don’t give in so quickly. I was just about to agree with you (sorry Jon).

If I remember correctly, coax cable has a maximum bandwitdh of about 10 MB/s, while a single fiber line can easily carry in excess of 400 MB/s. In all controlled cases, the fiber cable will always reign supreme when it comes to data transmission speed, capacity and interference protection.

The bandwidth issue is neither here nor there because the bitstream for digital audio is minuscule when compared to the capacity potential of optical cable (really, either cable).

The question is: How can coaxial cable be superior to optical (in a digital application)?

-Chris

Clay Washington

I've done a little more research and it looks like the Mitsubishi SR-HD5 and the Hughes HIRD-E86 are the same unit (on the inside). Even their rear panels are exactly the same. But, the Hughes is almost half the price of the Mitsubishi.

Any thoughts?

Turbojack

Its all in the name. Mitsubishi is a high line product with a high line price. I would go with the Hughes. Hughes (Directv) wants more receivers out there so more people use DirecTV.

gdfatha

I don't know if it true, but the Sound Advice salesman told me Mitsubishi only makes TV set, NOTHING else. This included the DVD player that he said was really manufactured by Toshiba.

I have a DirecTV TIVO and its picture is 10,000 % better than my Time Warner Digital cable for the reasons Jon et al stated.

Maybe I'll forget the TV for a while and get the Nikon 5700 I was interested in..

nebulous

Hey Mcollinstn, We're with you. We keep looking at the 65" Mitsubishi, But we decided to wait untill ours died. It'd like the Energizer Bunny. Damn thing just keeps going & going. We opened it up one time to clean all the Mirrors & stuff & found a reciept that said '87 or '88. It is older than our daughter.
So I guess We'll just wait till it goes "tits up".
We have digital cable now so we will probably just get the set up from our cable co. no use spening extra money on a box when we'll still have to give them our money for 689 channels of $hit to choose from monthly.

Audiofn

You are only partly correct. Optical COULD carry more then coax, however in stereo equipment it is TOTALLY choked. SO we use the coax. When you go with DVD audio NEITHER one of them can carry the band width so you have to go with 7 channel analog out of the DVD player and into the Reciever. If you have not heard DVD audio all I can say is you do not know what you are missing

Jon