Derrick
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High-definition (HD) television has finally arrived in SA. But to see the new channel, you’ll need to upgrade your decoder, which will set you back R2 500. Do you really need it?
High-definition (HD) television has finally arrived in SA. MultiChoice launched M-Net HD, a general-purpose entertainment channel broadcasting in much higher clarity than any of its existing DStv channels. But to see the new channel, you’ll need to upgrade your decoder, which will set you back R2 500. Do you really need it?
The answer is yes, provided you have an HDTV. Though the picture quality on older TVs looks better on M-Net HD, the difference is not enough to warrant the cost of the decoder. But anyone with a large LCD or plasma screen will find the difference astonishing.
We like the design of the new decoder, which is also a personal video recorder (PVR) with a 500 GB hard drive. The drive can store 50 hours of HD broadcasts and 150 hours of standard-definition content.
The new decoder, which is manufactured by Europe’s Pace Technologies, also runs much cooler than the first-generation PVR from MultiChoice. There are problems with the new machine’s software, though. We’d sometimes press a button on the remote and wait a second before anything happened on-screen.
Another problem we encountered was an error message that read “HDCP DCP”, related to the copy protection system built into the decoder — a requirement of content suppliers. We reseated the HDMI cable, which connects the TV to the decoder, and this solved the problem.
There are other bugs. The machine became unresponsive when it went into “hibernate” mode, so we were forced to cycle the power each time. We eventually just switched off the hibernate option.
A big bug fix, which will be applied automatically over the air, is due out soon — it may even have been released by the time you read this — so for now we’ll give MultiChoice the benefit of the doubt. The company has admitted it rushed the device to market in time for the Olympic Games. Fair enough.
High-definition (HD) television has finally arrived in SA. MultiChoice launched M-Net HD, a general-purpose entertainment channel broadcasting in much higher clarity than any of its existing DStv channels. But to see the new channel, you’ll need to upgrade your decoder, which will set you back R2 500. Do you really need it?
The answer is yes, provided you have an HDTV. Though the picture quality on older TVs looks better on M-Net HD, the difference is not enough to warrant the cost of the decoder. But anyone with a large LCD or plasma screen will find the difference astonishing.
We like the design of the new decoder, which is also a personal video recorder (PVR) with a 500 GB hard drive. The drive can store 50 hours of HD broadcasts and 150 hours of standard-definition content.
The new decoder, which is manufactured by Europe’s Pace Technologies, also runs much cooler than the first-generation PVR from MultiChoice. There are problems with the new machine’s software, though. We’d sometimes press a button on the remote and wait a second before anything happened on-screen.
Another problem we encountered was an error message that read “HDCP DCP”, related to the copy protection system built into the decoder — a requirement of content suppliers. We reseated the HDMI cable, which connects the TV to the decoder, and this solved the problem.
There are other bugs. The machine became unresponsive when it went into “hibernate” mode, so we were forced to cycle the power each time. We eventually just switched off the hibernate option.
A big bug fix, which will be applied automatically over the air, is due out soon — it may even have been released by the time you read this — so for now we’ll give MultiChoice the benefit of the doubt. The company has admitted it rushed the device to market in time for the Olympic Games. Fair enough.