Ok,
   [RANT]I've had a bad day...   (been fighting with engineers who can't get it straight on a large renovation for going on three months now).  And I just got my DVD-RAM via UPS today as my VCR gave up the ghost... my TV died just before Christmas so I picked up an HDTV flat sceen and mounted it on the wall.

   I don't waste money on cable TV as I bought and installed an antenna on the roof of my 2 story town home and get plenty of chanels, 99% are in HDTV as well as standard NTSC.

   Plugged in the new DVD-RAM and find its only got a NTSC tuner... it up converts 1080i but only NTSC!(thats standard TV tuner with HDTV capability in the output)
I got back online and see the specs from multiple sorces on this DVD-RAM say TV: Yes
Out put:  480i, 480p, 720i (HDTV) 1080i (HDTV).... so I guess I "assumed" it could tune what it could display...

 I get online and find the only designated ATSC tuners I can find in something that records are like $1000 (but they seem to be ATSC CABLE tuners).... and they are all DVR's

  So is there some conspiracy with Cable TV providers, or just not enought folks inthe digital world who don't like to throw money out the window for cable?

   Am I nuts here?  Have I missed something? Why doesn't anybody make a DVD-RAM that does HDTV?  [/rant]

Whoa...

"DVD-RAM"???

Do you mean DVD-ROM, or a regular ol' DVD player that you connect to your TV?

DVDs have nothing to do with NTSC or ATSC.  There is little to no chance that your DVD player has an NTSC tuner... there's no point.  Even if there is, you'd almost certainly be able to bypass it.

There are HD DVDs... BluRay and HD-DVD.  The players cost hundreds of dollars.  If you spent less than $700 or so, you have a regular DVD player.

In order to get a progressive or upconverted image to your TV, you must use either component cables (red, green, and blue with RCA connectors) or HDMI.  If you're using S-Video, composite (yellow for video, red & white for audio) or coax cable, you will never get a decent picture.

Also, a lot of DVD players just plain suck.  Check out Secrets of Home Theater DVD Shootout  Fnd your player and see how bad it is.  Then throw it out and buy one of the very few decent ones

Lastly, check out AVS Forum and Home Theater Spot for all of your AV needs!

Quoted: Ok,    [RANT]I've had a bad day...   (been fighting with engineers who can't get it straight on a large renovation for going on three months now).  And I just got my DVD-RAM via UPS today as my VCR gave up the ghost... my TV died just before Christmas so I picked up an HDTV flat sceen and mounted it on the wall.    I don't waste money on cable TV as I bought and installed an antenna on the roof of my 2 story town home and get plenty of chanels, 99% are in HDTV as well as standard NTSC.    Plugged in the new DVD-RAM and find its only got a NTSC tuner... it up converts 1080i but only NTSC!(thats standard TV tuner with HDTV capability in the output) I got back online and see the specs from multiple sorces on this DVD-RAM say TV: Yes Out put:  480i, 480p, 720i (HDTV) 1080i (HDTV).... so I guess I "assumed" it could tune what it could display...  I get online and find the only designated ATSC tuners I can find in something that records are like $1000 (but they seem to be ATSC CABLE tuners).... and they are all DVR's   So is there some conspiracy with Cable TV providers, or just not enought folks inthe digital world who don't like to throw money out the window for cable?    Am I nuts here?  Have I missed something? Why doesn't anybody make a DVD-RAM that does HDTV?  [/rant]

yup get cable and get over it.

Quoted: Whoa... "DVD-RAM"???

Yup DVD-RAM... google it.  Its basically a DVD based VCR so it does have a tuner... problem is the tuner is just NTSC.

Quoted: Quoted: <snip> Am I nuts here?  Have I missed something? Why doesn't anybody make a DVD-RAM that does HDTV?  [/rant] yup get cable and get over it.

I'll never surrender!  I get so many different over the air digital TV stations I don't need it...

Quoted: Quoted: Whoa... "DVD-RAM"??? Yup DVD-RAM... google it.  Its basically a DVD based VCR so it does have a tuner... problem is the tuner is just NTSC.

Huh!  I'd always referred to them as "DVD recorders".  RAM used to mean "Random Access Memory", which wouldn't be too useful for a physical media player format!

So, you want to be able to get ATSC signals OTA (over the air), right?  Again, I'd direct you to AVS Forum and Home Theater Spot.  Back when I was really into all that stuff, looking for my first HDTV, standalone ATSC tuners were like $1000  I cannot think of a reason in the world why they wouldn't have drastically dropped in price.  Heck, my brother was trying to get rid of a few he got along with some plasma TVs, and couldn't get any takers at like $75 a pop, because they were like 2 year old models.

I remember something about the cable companies being required to carry the HD signals for any locals that they carried.  I can't remember if you would need a cable box, or even a digital cable box, for that... it's possible that for the lowest tier of cable you could get at least the big three.  There's a heck of a lot of rust on the HD kung fu I picked up years ago

Quoted: Quoted: Whoa... "DVD-RAM"??? Yup DVD-RAM... google it.  Its basically a DVD based VCR so it does have a tuner... problem is the tuner is just NTSC. Quoted: Quoted: <snip> Am I nuts here?  Have I missed something? Why doesn't anybody make a DVD-RAM that does HDTV?  [/rant] yup get cable and get over it. I'll never surrender!  I get so many different over the air digital TV stations I don't need it...

resistance is futile