Hi-tech-tv.com: Television technology news & answers

Just bought the Panasonic TH50PX60U plasma TV and got DirecTV with HD receivers. The picture is stunning. I have the settings on low now until the burn-in period is over, but I would love to watch something other than DiscoveryHD during the burn-in period (like Sunday Ticket HD). Does anyone with a plasma TV have image retention problems (like scoreboards) after viewing a football game?

Answer #1: Unless you’re watching 4:3 content unstretched for 8 hours a day, you’re fine. And honestly, the stretching on these things is usually so good, that you’re better off just watching it stretched out and not having to worry about the black bar retention.

Answer #2: I Have TH-42PX60U and I was careful but not paranoid during the first 100 hours and never had a problem. Get the display off the factory-set “vivid” setting, turn down picture and sharpness a bit and you should be good to go. These Panasonics produce a great picture and football and sports in HD are terrific. Btw, the AV Forum has a separate thread on settings for the Panasonic plasmas. You can find all you need to know–and probably more.

Answer #3: You have to be in very severe cases to actually get uncorrectable burn-in. There’s a difference between image retention (which you get on either a plasma or CRT TV, if the same image is displayed for awhile, it will remain for a few minutes until it’s rewritten by changing pixels) and burn-in, which these days you’ll only get when spending many hours viewing static images that don’t change much, if at all (usually a stock ticker or closed captioning will do this, but only after a really long time and without watching much else in between).

Is Slingbox worth purchasing? No not Slingblade… I was wondering if any of you have the Slingbox that enables you to watch your television anywhere you have an internet connection. This would be great for watching programs when you are out of town. I am thinking of purchasing one, but wanted to see if anyone here had one, and what they thought of it.

Answer #1: I do not have one, but I have heard alot of positive info on it. I believe it can also control your TiVo too (I know it can control replayTV) so you can also stream recorded shows to yourself. I was thinking of splitting the cost with my brother for one, for when I was away on business & so he could watch the New York Giants (he lives in Oregon and doesn’t get Giants games there).

Answer #2: I have one. And I have to tell you that I was absolutely shocked at how well it works when I first got it. I was thinking along the same lines as you – if you happen to be out of town and need to catch a game. I will tell you this – there is some confusion in the reviews/media about it regarding the issue of changing the channel over the broadband connection. Let me tell you that this is NOT an issue and you can easily change channels with the sling media player.

I honestly don’t own stock in the company or anything but it’s an amazing product- the quality is amazing and I have NEVER experienced any skipping, etc. even on a medium range broadband/dsl connection.

Answer #3: It also controls the TIVO/Replay TV. Get one, and the slingbox can do whatever you need to do tomorrow night.

Answer #4: Think of it like this – your TV pops up in a broadband window on your cpu – when you change the channel, the info comes up – it is exactly like sitting in front of your TV except you control the channels with your mouse instead of a remote control. It doesn’t filter out any information, etc. For example if you wanted to you could order a pay per view and then watch it on your computer. One FYI is that there is about a 2-3 second delay between the actual television and the broadband viewer but that is to be expected. It is completely streamed – no hiccups, no skipping, no audio problems- honestly it was probably the best Christmas present I ever got.

Answer #5: That is it would work with HBO if your television has HBO – it just transmits YOUR television data- so if you left in the morning and were watching ESPN, ESPN would be on when you turned on the box. If someone in your house changed the channel, then the channel would be changed on your computer.

Answer #6: For people who have a pocket PC the people at Slingbox are in betatesting a mobile sling player, amazing I was sitting in class the other day watching the Yankees spring training game on mute…. I thank the Lord for this device every day.

Answer #7: If you have regular old cable, put a spliter on the line. Then the person at the TV can watch one thing while the person at the computer watches another. If you have a cable box you both can watch the same channel togethter but can’t be on 2 differnet channels.

If you really want to get fancy, you can use your bluetooth connection from your pocket pc to connect to your cell phone and use your slingbox in the middle of church - you need a bluetooth enabled phone.

I am looking at several HDTVs and so far they either come with DVI or HDMI, but not both. Is one better than the other? Should I buy an HDTV with DVI or HDMI?

Answer #1: DVI is Digital Video Interface, HDMI is High Definition Multimedia Interface. DVI and HDMI are both the same, meaning they both can handle 1080P. They both transmit video in same manner. The difference is HDMI also carry audio while DVI is strictly video. BUT, if you have a high def set up with a surround sound system, then it makes no difference. You wouldn’t be using HDMI for sound anyway.

Answer #2: You can drive yourself nuts but don’t go crazy, they are the same encoding (hence the reason you can connect one to the other via a simple HDMI/DVI cable). Both work. HDMI and DVI are both exactly the same quality wise. They use different connectors, and an HDMI can carry audio across the connection.

Pick the TV you like best. Don’t sweat it too much, a DVI source can be connected to a HDMI monitor and Vice Versa with a DVI/HDMI cable.

Answer #3: Get HDMI because support for DVI televisions is dwindling as HDMI is the popular interface for High-Def components like DVD players, game consoles, etc. Like it or not, HDMI is where the industry is headed.

For those of you who have TiVo, I know you can go to their website and pick programs to record, but can you cancel scheduled programs or anything that it recommends? I want to make sure my TiVo records the office tonight, but it’s on at the same time as The Wire. I’m trying to find a way that I can cancel the wire and get The Office and My Name is Earl. I want to make sure this is TiVoed and I’m not home so I ahve to do this through the TiVo website.

Answer#1: On your season pass option if you put The Office and My Name is Earl higher than the Wire then it will record those instead.

Answer #2: Do you have TiVo via DirecTV or is it a stand alone unit? Because I have it via DTV and can record two things at once (in addition to watching a 3rd recorded program); don’t know how the stand alone units operate…

Answer #3: I have two TIVOs, one in the family room and one in the master bedroom. The family room unit can record two shows at once. The one in the bedroom can only do one. I know it had something to do with how I had them installed as opposed to what kind of units they were.

Anyway, this will work: set a manual recording for The Office and My Name is Earl on the TiVo website. When you set it up to record you will be asked what to do if there are conflicts.
 
Answer #4: Whether you can record two programs at once depends on what model Tivo you have. Newer models have dual tuners (DT models). Older models (which they still sell) have a single tuner and can only record one program at a time.