DSTV HDTV

Jinx10 said:
sp ARF9999 can I just populate two of the imports (as thats all i have available as far as cables go) and be able to view and record one for now?
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I don't know. i think you can get a multisplitter with 2 in, 6 out tho'.
 
PeterCH said:
The picture is going to be 1280by720. However it will have compression
artifacts. Still in the beginning NoChoice may decide to provide
a lot of bandwidth to their pilot channel just to get people to buy
into the thing. Then when the real content arrives (Movie Magic
and most sports in HD) then we'll see degradation in signal
or massive subs price hikes to pay for the additional bandwidth.

You can enjoy almost double resolution already without
having to upgrade the LNB and the decoder just with
any PS3 and rental BD movies. Those are at 1920by1080.
Click to expand...

So Fsucking WHAT! You can upsacale any standard DSTV channel display to something better. Whats wrong, can you not afford the Upgrade? Shame.
 
Boocey said:
Its interesting that lots of people are willing to buy without having seen the product, i.e in store displays of the content, which I guess won't happen until 8th Aug(?). I'd like to see the picture quality first before parting with my R2500.
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If stores are currently showing off the PVR , it will be tuned to Channel 170 where they currently show the "HD Info" episode followed by about 7 HD clips varying from Wildlife to Sport to movie trailers and some Celine Dion concert clip . Must say that it looks damn impressive at the moment ( I was pretty blown away , compares to HD demos in some stores like mentioned a few post back) , will have to wait and see once they start adding more HD channels and bandwith demands grow
 
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UnoPanelvan said:
So Fsucking WHAT! You can upsacale any standard DSTV channel display to something better. Whats wrong, can you not afford the Upgrade? Shame.
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Upscaling artifacts from SD to HD, will still give you artifacts (although it will be in HD :p ).

I think the point is not that one can't afford to get the HD decoder, but that Multichoice does not have a great record for providing high quality pictures with the channels they have now. They did not see fit to invest in bandwidth for the channels they have now, and I don't think that many people see them increasing it in the long run to keep up with channels added.
 
noemfie said:
If stores are currently showing off the PVR , it will be tuned to Channel 170 where they currently show the "HD Info" episode followed by about 7 HD clips varying from Wildlife to Sport to movie trailers and some Celine Dion concert clip . Must say that it looks damn impressive at the moment , will have to wait and see once they start adding more HD channels and bandwith demands grow
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Indeed. This will be the true test. Will they invest in keeping visual quality high, or will they let it degrade for some channels in order to save money?
 
To be fair to Multichoice, one of their problems has been their rapid growth in channels (most of which are sh ite, granted) all broadcast using their aging MPEG-2 architecture.

Since the HD channel will be using far more modern MPEG-4 codecs, the efficiency will be far better. Over the next couple of years, i would not be surprised to see MChoice adding new channels only in MPEG-4, meaning that only the newer decoders will be capable of receiving them...
 
Nod said:
Upscaling artifacts from SD to HD, will still give you artifacts (although it will be in HD :p ).

I think the point is not that one can't afford to get the HD decoder, but that Multichoice does not have a great record for providing high quality pictures with the channels they have now. They did not see fit to invest in bandwidth for the channels they have now, and I don't think that many people see them increasing it in the long run to keep up with channels added.
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The point is that the bit of HD shown is great, The point is the decoder is a neat piece of hardware for a good price. Point is if even the current ""bad"" quality is up-scaled it is still better than what we have. Point is that it is a nice excuse to upgrade to a HD TV and acquire a HD payer that can play HD movies at the same time. Point is it is nice to have a SD PVR and an HD PVR to have three independent DSTV channels to watch in an extended family and also have the ability to record three channels independently.

Point is its a great advance in a single step. For those that want to afford it.

Point is if the Beachers buy one and the upgrade is not up to his standard. Let him beach with pleasure else let them shut up because they thumb suck something to beach about.
 
Question to those that have installed HD PVR:
Is only the HD test CH (170) displaying in 16:9 wide-screen format?
Do all the SD channels still only display 4:3 format?
 
UnoPanelvan said:
The point is that the bit of HD shown is great, The point is the decoder is a neat piece of hardware for a good price. Point is if even the current ""bad"" quality is up-scaled it is still better than what we have. Point is that it is a nice excuse to upgrade to a HD TV and acquire a HD payer that can play HD movies at the same time. Point is it is nice to have a SD PVR and an HD PVR to have three independent DSTV channels to watch in an extended family and also have the ability to record three channels independently.

Point is its a great advance in a single step. For those that want to afford it.

Point is if the Beachers buy one and the upgrade is not up to his standard. Let him beach with pleasure else let them shut up because they thumb suck something to beach about.
Click to expand...

There is 3 channels worth of content to record, after a week?
 
Nod said:
There is 3 channels worth of content to record, after a week?
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If you connect the HD PVR with the SD PVR you will have 3 concurrent viewing channels, HD or not, and can record three concurrent and separate channels of DSTV content, HD or not. So I do not see what the questions is but Yes as soon as the Olympics transmissions begin you will be able to record 2* the HD content too on the HD PVR and one time standard channel content on the SD PVR.
 
I think Nod is being sarcastic and saying that DSTV doesn't have enough worthwhile content to record 3 channels after a week...
 
ToxicBunny said:
I think Nod is being sarcastic and saying that DSTV doesn't have enough worthwhile content to record 3 channels after a week...
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Well depends on the mindset, with the Olympics and another sports channels occupying the current dual view channels there is always the odd soapy or movie the wife or one of the kids would want to record for later viewing. Not even considering that there would be lots of space to record those transmissions that cannot be watched. I just missed the last two days of the cricket, due to matric dances, and had to be satisfied in watching the highlights today to see what happened. I would have preferred to watch a recording instead rather
 
Nod said:
:) Somebody out there seems to understand me :o
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I do too, just worthwhile content is a broad spectrum. I see the PVR only as a device to record those programs you would otherwise miss. To record to keep the show...well that's another issue.
 
MrSmith said:
Question to those that have installed HD PVR:
Is only the HD test CH (170) displaying in 16:9 wide-screen format?
Do all the SD channels still only display 4:3 format?
Click to expand...

Yes and Yes
 
Well my friend got the HD PVR and he told me the installer and Multichoice tells him he can only watch one channel! :eek: Even if he has extra view and the SD PVR.

Can anyone confirm exactly how many channels will be available when you have the new HD PVR?
 
UnoPanelvan said:
I do too, just worthwhile content is a broad spectrum. I see the PVR only as a device to record those programs you would otherwise miss. To record to keep the show...well that's another issue.
Click to expand...

I record some movies as well. Although it has changed from once a week to once in 2 months because of all the repeats of old content. This weekend for instance, there was, except for sport, nothing that I haven't seen yet. If this is the quality of programming we can expect from their HD offering, they can keep it. I'll use my normal old decoder until they stop support for it, then I'll switch to downloading the shows I want to watch like everybody else.
 
kiepie said:
Well my friend got the HD PVR and he told me the installer and Multichoice tells him he can only watch one channel! :eek: Even if he has extra view and the SD PVR.

Can anyone confirm exactly how many channels will be available when you have the new HD PVR?
Click to expand...

He is talking cr@p, read the rest of this thread and others discussing the same topic and you will see for yourself. Maybe he means you can only see the one channel on the HD PVR, which is true, but you will soon be able to see another channel by adding a 1110 or two extra channels by adding the SD PVR by using extraview heartbeat if paying the extra R55.00.

Some kidiot that installer is.
 
I bought one of these decoders and rigged it up myself.

I must say, the SDTV content is slightly better (just by means of upscaling for HDMI). But, the HDTV channels (there is currently an ad channel live) are absolutely amazing. I can't wait for the rest to go up.

The decoder software isn't great at this point though but the first iteration seldom is.
 
So if you add an HD PVR to a SD PVR, do you get their combined memory for recording?
 
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