^^^ Please excuse the Ad. I can thank Shaw for that. ^^^
Ramblings of a Technology Nut |
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A techno-weenie based in Victoria BC, Canada reveals how he wastes all his time on computers and electronic entertainment.
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High Definition Television (HDTV)Earlier this month I took the plunge and added HDTV to my list of technology toys. It was a natural addition to my recent Home Theatre setup.I needed another Shaw digital cable terminal for the theatre room anyway. But even just last month my only choice would have been to buy another Motorola DCT 2000. However, I was aware that some HDTV channels had just been added to the cable lineup (ch. 130, 136, 137, 138, 139) even though Shaw had not announced HDTV's availability in Victoria yet. Those same channels had previously been introduced by Shaw in Calgary and Vancouver and HDTV was officially available in those areas. It seemed like all I needed was to get the HDTV digital cable terminal (the Motorola DCT 5100) and I'd be set!  But when I called the Victoria Shaw office they said they were still just testing HDTV here. However, I discovered that a retailer in town actually had some of the new DCT 5100's in stock. I knew it would just be a matter of time until I could get it activated, so I bought one. Well after I brought it into the Shaw office they agreed to activate it for me, but warned me that they really were still just testing. The only other 5100's in town were in the homes of four Shaw managers and one unhappy customer who had picked up his box the day before. Shaw asked that if I experienced any trouble with it would I please be patient. Since I've been a beta guinea pig many times before, I had no problem agreeing to their terms. As it turns out, after just one evening of difficulties getting Shaw to add the HDTV channels to my account, it has actually been relatively trouble free. There are a few dropouts, particularly audio dropouts with some of the demo channel material. And there still isn't a whole lot of content in true HD format yet. But when you see some of the programs that are in HD... well the clarity and resolution is nothing less than astounding! It looks even better than a DVD when projected to a 7 foot image, and really it has the potential to be much better but my projector resolution becomes the limiting factor. I won't go into a long explanation of what HDTV is in this post (maybe I'll get back to it in a future post), but here's a link to a bit of an HDTV overview from Motorola. If you are interested in more information about the Motorola DCT 5100, there are the usual guides and manuals but the best (most technical) document is rather well hidden. It used to be at that site for a little while, but for some reason Motorola took the link down. However, they didn't actually remove the document from the server and I know the URL for it. And you don't! ahahahah! OK, ok... I'll stop stringing you along. What you want is the Guide to HD and SD Video Processing on the DCT-5100 (and I suggest you right-click on that link and do a "Save Target As..." to keep a local copy in case Motorola decides to actually remove the document and not just the link). Believe me, if you are at all interested in the technical side of the DCT 5100, you want that document. I wish more products had technical documentation like this available to the public. Edit June 21/2003: For some reason, Google has this post very high in the search results for the DCT 5100 and is sending me quite a few hits. I highly recommend that anybody looking for more info about the DCT 5100 also look at the Motorola DCT5100 FAQ. Edit Dec 6/2003: See my updated post for new information. There is another DCT available on Shaw now, the DCT6200. The bottom line is that I'm now one of the few people that actually has HDTV, I'm certainly one of the very few that can project it to a 7 foot or larger picture, and I love it!
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