DTV Is Coming and I'm Not Ready

(arg!)Styopa writes "As an early adopter, I have an HDTV-ready set without an integrated tuner. Analog television ends next February. My suspicion is that the $40 set-top box at Walmart has the minimum functionality to get by — i.e. simply a D-to-A converter and not an HDTV receiver. Three years ago I bought a UHF super-antenna (I'm about 40 mi. from the towers: borderline fringe reception) and searched for an HDTV converter to pull down HDTV OTA broadcasts. These were extremely hard to find — none at Radio Shack, Best Buy, Circuit City, or Ultimate Electronics (all the local bigboxen). I ended up buying a SIRT150 from eBay, which never found a signal, despite confirmed reception (on the set's normal tuner) of both VHF and UHF channels. So — any advice on what to look for in a set-top box? Is it going to cost me an arm and a leg, or is it not too far from the $40 Walmart special? Can I use Uncle Sam's $40 coupon towards it? I'd like very much to be able to find a physical store where I could go see the signal, before I decide if HD is worth the up-charge (if any) over simple DTV."

Slashdot tech-support

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey, I bought this fancy setup last yer, but I hear next yer I can't use it no more. I bought Y and Z that's supposed to do semithng, and tried plugging them in, but it didn't help. Instead of actually learning something by asking knowledgeable folks at A forum or V forum, I'm going to post it on slashdot. Help. Oh, and modders, mod-up the good answers to the top, so I don't have to read too much. Thanks! XOXO

Re:Do what millions of others will do:

[pclminion]

Like hanging out on Slashdot all day?

Re:Do what millions of others will do:

[jorx]

Yes! Then you can turn into one of these [theonion.com] people!

Re:Do what millions of others will do:

[Anonymous Coward]

Which means Ralph doesn't watch Doctor Who, Torchwood, Star Trek, Stargate, Galactica, or even The Twilight Zone. Much less Mythbusters, Dirty Jobs, or anything else cool on stations like Discovery.

Someone revoke his geek card now.

Wait for the Phantom set-top box

[gc8005]

It's awesome! It doesn't require any sort of external antenna. It has a series of carbon nanotubes that resonate at the Tesla frequency to pull in all HDTV signals. It has a built in 2TB Seagate disk, dual quad-core Intel processors, and a laser keyboard. It runs a special version of Apple OS X developed by the NSA for the Church of Scientology. It even streams non-DRM content (in 4096x1920 HDTV gen-3 format) over the air - all for $99. Released date is mid to late summer. If I were you, I'd wait just a few more months. They're even accepting down payments to reserve your Phantom HDTV console at this time.

Re:I don't care

[SolidAltar]

Yeah, we'll put your suggestion up there with "Bike to work" and "be a good person".

Re:Put your money where your mouth is

[robably]

If you are unemployed you should be looking for a job, not watching TV.

Also, you should only be eating gruel. And you're forbidden to smile. Don't even THINK about having sex.