I never knew gaming could look this beautiful

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by DanGarion

Of course both SA and Samsung should also be to blame as well...

Whoa, now. Leave me out of this.

[SteveMax58]

Originally Posted by DanGarion

Of course both SA and Samsung should also be to blame as well...

+1

I dont know what the actual issue is, but I do know that TW can only really pressure SA(now owned by Cisco) into resolving the issue and hoping it is just a "software" problem(as a hardware swap is costly on many levels). They can also "request" Samsung to look into their TV build.

Neither are likely to make any substantial progress, however, on a blind bet I'd bet that Samsung's TV is not the problem.

[SteveMax58]

Originally Posted by DanGarion

I wasn't 100% sure on the MPEG-2/MPEG-4 one, but I was pretty sure we were using MPEG-4 here, I could have swore I saw some projects saying we were implementing it.

Yeah, it depends on the context. The satellite broadcasters are moving to broadcast MPEG-4(slowly), but systems will have to transcode this at the Headend(some IRD's are being built with this capability right now). Depending on whether your system gets it's video lineup from HiTS, or directly from the broadcasters, may also have a slight difference.

But to the consumer, I'm not aware of MPEG-4 in any major CATV MSO as of yet. The primary factor in this...the costs of swapping out the settop box and the cost/benefit of waiting in general. More competitive markets will likely tend to be the first in order to compete with Verizon and/or AT&T(which is moving, but slowly).

[SteveMax58]

Trola.

I should have added that most of my statements are aimed at the linear video delivery(i.e. not Video on Demand, which is non-linear).

VoD(in CATV MSOs) is likely to migrate to MPEG-4 much sooner than the linear video delivery, but still not likely to be very soon. This is actually being tested in a few labs around the country, but not deployed to my knowledge(for similar cost reasons mentioned above).

[Raiders Army]

For some reason I missed this conversation yesterday. What I meant was that the picture looks clearer for us on Satellite than Cable. This is after living in two different places (upstate NY and El Paso) and having both DirecTV and Cable. The only difference was that the local channels looked the same.

Anyhow, where we live now we can't get cable so we had DirecTV petition our local cable channels so we could get NY and LA feeds. The interesting thing was that I had to talk to two different divisions within DirecTV to get it done in SD and HD. Our response came back on Saturday and we were approved for CBS, CW, and PBS in SD and none in HD.

Also, FWIW Dish network provides local channels.

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by DanGarion

Well I actually know and see the numbers, weekly. Cable companies aren't in the business of losing customers, trust me.

Well, I actually live in the real world and I just moved into a new neighborhood where on my street at least 50% of the houses have dishes. All of the neighbors that I've actually gotten to know are on DirecTV and switched because of the quality of cable.

*shurg*

[stevew]

If anyone wants a sweet TV, the Sony 46XBR4 is going for 1999 this week. There is also either a 10% off coupon, or 24 months financing w/ the store card. Yes, this is an older model, but the SD processing on this thing is freaking amazing. Plus 120hz as well. Should still be available new in box from most stores. Previous best price was around 2500ish.

[Mac Howard]

I'm another very satisfied Samsung user. There's not a lot of high def available yet here but the Olympics were transmitted in 1080p. Wow! I swear I saw every spark of every firework last night