CCRider Posted January 24, 2007 Share Posted January 24, 2007 With the advent of integrated tuners with plasma's and lcd's I wonder what the future holds for the separate hd stb. I am a bit old fashioned and still shy away from integrated components. Just wonder if pq from inegrated tv is far superior than separate component Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pgdownload Posted January 24, 2007 Share Posted January 24, 2007 With the advent of integrated tuners with plasma's and lcd's I wonder what the future holds for the separate hd stb. I am a bit old fashioned and still shy away from integrated components. Just wonder if pq from inegrated tv is far superior than separate componentIn a word nope, there's pretty much ziltch difference between an internal and external tuner. With most brands offering models with this as optional its usually worth wacking in the extra $200 and get an inbuilt tuner. It is however a lot simpler to take your STB down to get repaired/replaced than it is to arrange your entire Tv to be carted away. Also the main drawback of integrated tuners is that they usually don't 'onsend' the digital image after the TV screen. Ie you can't record the digital signal to an external DVDR as you can with a STB.But most importantly (to me) is that watching live TV (via a tuner) is hoplessly painfull. If you get a PVR (a STB with a harddrive) you can record in digital quality, skip ads, pause live tv, etc, etc. Have a read about them here Regards Peter Gillespie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cooksta59 Posted January 24, 2007 Share Posted January 24, 2007 Perhaps 1 advantage of an integrated digital tuner is that it saves having to use one of those hdmi connections on your tv. I have 1 only hdmi connector on my tv and have 2 devices that have hdmi out being the stb and the dvd player. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wing Nut Posted January 24, 2007 Share Posted January 24, 2007 I am a bit old fashioned and still shy away from integrated components.Surely if you were really old fashioned you'd be quite accustomed to all-in-one stereos and TVs with built-in tuners? For instance, anything from a 1950 radiogram and right through most TVs until only very recently. I consider consumer STBs as an isolated local blip on the global uptake of digital TV. However, like component sound systems, there's a market for separate items for those happy to fiddle in the added complexity. IMHO the average consumer would prefer just a good TV and preferably in its simplest guise.I agree with PG - if you must add another remote to the coffee table, get a PVR instead. I'm not sure about cellphones or microwaves, but I'm pretty sure 'unfiltered' TV can rot your brain! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CCRider Posted January 24, 2007 Author Share Posted January 24, 2007 Surely if you were really old fashioned you'd be quite accustomed to all-in-one stereos and TVs with built-in tuners? For instance, anything from a 1950 radiogram and right through most TVs until only very recently. I consider consumer STBs as an isolated local blip on the global uptake of digital TV. However, like component sound systems, there's a market for separate items for those happy to fiddle in the added complexity. IMHO the average consumer would prefer just a good TV and preferably in its simplest guise.I agree with PG - if you must add another remote to the coffee table, get a PVR instead. I'm not sure about cellphones or microwaves, but I'm pretty sure 'unfiltered' TV can rot your brain! You made some good points. I am a child of the late 70's and mid 80's. The old fashioned relates to this era almost 30 years ago. Separate components for everything in those days were the go. With the advent of Integrated lcd and plasma's the separate set top box will suffer an accelarated death. However I suppose the saving grace will be in the near future when analogue tv is switched of. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VESTA Posted January 27, 2007 Share Posted January 27, 2007 In a word nope, there's pretty much ziltch difference between an internal and external tuner. With most brands offering models with this as optional its usually worth wacking in the extra $200 and get an inbuilt tuner. It is however a lot simpler to take your STB down to get repaired/replaced than it is to arrange your entire Tv to be carted away. Also the main drawback of integrated tuners is that they usually don't 'onsend' the digital image after the TV screen. Ie you can't record the digital signal to an external DVDR as you can with a STB.But most importantly (to me) is that watching live TV (via a tuner) is hoplessly painfull. If you get a PVR (a STB with a harddrive) you can record in digital quality, skip ads, pause live tv, etc, etc. Have a read about them here Regards Peter Gillespie Agree with you. Have just decided to go with STB as I feel that I can Upgrade it ( as long as TV can cope) rather than the in built. Not sure if this is a backwood step. However I will be able to upgrade to the PVR. Still one can get bogged down with too many decisions, J Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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