Hdtv

Like Bill said above, Slingbox does have a High Def box available....that could be a low cost temporary option until the Sat folks get their "stuff" together...
 
My understanding of Slingbox (I don't have one) is that it scales the resolution based on the available bandwidth. Even if it grabs an HD signal at home, it's not going to be anywhere near HD (720p or higher) playing on a remote TV or device. That's a laws of physics problem. I think Slingbox was really designed for a mobile phone screen or small window in a computer type of thing and not a full blown 24" TV.
 
Thanks for the suggestion. I have been using the Slingbox for the last couple years....and it works....not great though. Depending on the location, and the connection speed you can grab, it is marginal at best. On a laptop computer....you can watch a program with decent resolution....but grab the video output of the computer, and plug it into a TV and it is marginal at best....definately not what I would like to watch TV on.
 
I too have been using Slingbox for a couple of years. (Mainly to watch the Bears when visiting son in CT for his Sat football games.)
Even with a hardwired, at dock, high speed Comcast Internet connection the resolution and sound are marginal at best.
I have used DishTV with a dish purchased at a local RV dealer and placed it on the dock when travelling. You can download compass bearings and elevations by zip code (which I do and keep on a CD) so when you are visiting other marinas, DishTV is available. We used this a couple of years ago to supplement the dish on the rear hard top of our Gulfstar when doing the Loop and it work great.
 
Here is another option.

I have Comcast digital cable with HD. I also have the Motorola DCT6412 dual tuner HD DVR cable box. The box has a Firewire (1394) port. Video spills out that port when the unit is on. I've been fooling with Apple's firewire SDK. OK, actually I played with this about a year ago. Someday I might do something with it, but not really interested in doing so right now. Anyway using the SDK video capture is pretty easy. SD runs out of the 6412 at 4 mbps and HD at 19. So a half hour of SD is in the neighborhood of 500 MB on disk. The video runs out in MPEG2. MPEG2 is a wee bit piggy. It was a good standard a dozen years ago, but there are better HD codecs today.

So for anyone who knows a bit of C can whip up using the SDK an app that sets a channel and captures video at a specific time. Once captured, the app can recode MPEG2 to MPEG4, which takes less storage. You can then setup a web server or FTP server and download videos. A high speed connection would be imperative.If you select codecs carefully, you can get full resolution HD. Also, if you have a fast enough connection, you can get the Quicktime streamer from the Darwin site and setup HD streaming. Works OK inside the house on 100baseT. Never tried it over the WAN. Streaming HD is truly piggy. SD and HD over a slower 'net connection is doable if you don't try to stream it and you have lots of patience for the download time. Don't try this over your cellular modem unless you have an unlimited plan!

Best regards,
Frank
 
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Well, my "laws of physics" remark was based on the fact that most broadband connections in the home (or using a mobile phone) throttle the outbound bandwidth to something like 300kbs. That's the bottleneck in the Slingbox approach.
 
Polaroid has a rotten reputation for quality. It's not the same company it was in the 70s. The company started by the MIT guys to make instant developing cameras went bankrupt. Some low ballers bought the name and sell junk trading on the Polaroid name.

Best regards,
Frank
 
Guys, what will happen to our current TV's next season when the signals at switched to digital, from analog. If I purchased a HDTV with a digital tuner will the Glomex Antenna work. Currently I am on the South Shore of Long Island and get perhaps 4 to 5 english speaking stations 11, 9, 7, 13 or so, I have a 2004 34 Sundancer. What are your suggestions?
Steve 04
 
That issue has been covered in detail in a few different threads. Exercise the search function. Gary posted a lot of useful information.
 
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