I went to Fry's this weekend, they only have one 5674 left and 74 are discontinued. The saleperson tell me that is because by August every biscreen HD TV shall have HD decoder. Anyone has more information on this? Thanks.
FYI
Unregistered guest
Posted on
It's true!
The 77 series is taking it's place. It's the same set with CableCard.
Actually the FCC reg stipulates that all TV's manufactured to be sold in the US after July 1st, 2005:
Over 30" in diagonal screen size shall have tuners capable of receiving a digital signal.
Not HD just digital. This is in conjunction with the analog spectrum being returned to the US government. It has been used for free by TV stations for many years. Remember, someday fairly soon all those millions of analog TV's will stop working without an external digital tuner box.
Again the salesman knew just enough to be dangerous!
the unfortunate thing abou the 77 series is that they dropped the DVI and PC inputs in lieu fo the cablecard and off-air hd tuner. for those of us who use a dvr box for satellite/cable, the 74 series is actually preferable due to the additional inputs.
HenryCA
Unregistered guest
Posted on
Thank you guys. I looked at both 77 spec: the contrast is now 2000:1?! not 2500, not 3000 as claimed for 74. And this DCR card is not HD tuner, at all, in this case Andy is right.
i wouldn't worry too much about stated contrast ratios. both the 74 series and the 77 series have a 2000:1 contrast ratio (same 6-segment color wheel hd2+ light engine).
the built in tuner on the 77 series is an off-air hd tuner (unlike the tuner in the 74 series). plus the 77 series has a cable card slot. the downside, like i mentioned before, is that you lose some inputs on the 77 series.
HenryCA
Unregistered guest
Posted on
Thanks, Andy. But I am confused. So 77 does have an HD tuner build in? You last post said only digital not HD? The price for 77 doesn't look like HD build-in, and not in the specs. So if I use Cox digital cable, do I need HD decoder box?
FYI
Unregistered guest
Posted on
The difference between digital and HD is the format sent by the broadcaster.
If you're watching the digital ABC network, for instance, most programming is in 4:3 (black sidebars), but some primetime shows will actually be full screen as they are sent in the true HD format of either 720P or 1080I. So, digital tuners are actually HD tuners.
Your last question is open for speculation.
Try to refrain from calling it digital cable. Otherwise, you will confuse true digital broadcasts with what cable companies call digital cable. Digital cable is actually a large group of analog NTSC channels that have been converted to digital signal for the trip to either your neighborhood or set top box, where they are converted back to analog. In with this group is a very few actual digital HD capable channels. The need for a decoder box for these select few channels is true with satelite and most cable set top boxes. However, I have heard a few say that they can bypass a cable set top box and let the digital ready tuner auto program some true digital HD capable channels in channels spaces different from the intended spots. Very cool if it works for you!
