Dude, I'm fully aware that the setup you suggest with a device with a HDMI output will work, but we are talking about DVB digital Terrestrial here and the soon to be implamented switchon thereof later this year.
When I say "digital tv" i'm using the term loosely that the common man-in-the-street would interpret as referring to digital vs analog “signal”, not the components therein.
Anything with a chip comprising a couple of gates and a few flip-flops can be said to be digital, so that would encompass any TV from 1980 or before, onwards! Very few valve jobs around still.
But I think the public are been duped into thinking that if they buy a 20 grand HD TV, it will not require an additional decoder, and retailers are even telling them this is so, and that is BS. There is nothing wrong with a cheaper CRT (tube type tv) with a digital tuner which should come in at under R1000. (of course you'll miss the HD transmissions from the soccor WC - if they ever get to get that right).
And if you heard the utter rubbish on SAfm just before 6pm (PM live)today on the topic….you would know what I’m talking about! Utter confusion out there, and the media is simply compounding to it! From that they promoting the fact that only HD tv's can receive digital signals. (which most around here cann't)
Their question was something like: "Should the shops make it clear which tv's would still require a set top box " - (ie not digital)
Someone should have said :
YES, Hi-Fi corp, PnP hypermarket, Game, Hyperama, various furnishers, you name it, all the ones I tried, should have a big fat sign saying...
"EVERY SINGLE TV IN THIS JOINT THAT YOU BUY NOW YOU WILL ALSO HAVE TO BUY A SET TOP BOX BECAUSE WE RIPPING YOU FOR ANALOG RUBBISH THE REST OF THE WORLD IS DUMPING HERE BUT IT'S LEKKER CHEAP AND WE CAN FLOGG IT TO YOU FOR THE SAME PRICE AS A DIGITAL JOB, COMPLETLEY SCREW YOU, AND YOU'RE SO DOFF YOU WON'T EVEN REALISE IT TILL NOVEMBER OR EVEN MAYBE CUTOFF IN 2011"!
I think you should realise that just because a TV has some form of electronic circuit in it, it doesn't make it digital. For example, the old CRT TVs received analog signal (waveform) which was fed directly into the electron gun which shoots the electron at the screen, which under the influence of the electric/magnetic field in the tube would produce the picture on the screen. In digital TV you actually have a full digital signal coming across the cable/HDMI/DVI/ to the TV which may or may not process the signal and then accordingly light up
the corresponding LCD pixels. So you can differentiate TV with DIGITAL INPUT and wholly digital methods of projecting the picture (plasma,LCD) as
digital.
Now I realise that digital tuners built in to TVs seem important to you, and rest assured many of us are aware of them and of the upcoming analog to digital conversion but we're not alone in that boat. The conversion is happening everywhere even in the US, where they're actually giving everyone a $40 coupon to help them buy a DVB-T receiver. It's cool if a TV has that but if a TV offers more than one HDMI input you can always connect a more
featured receiver that way instead of using the generic receiver built in.
Many people watch DSTV, that is even if they watch TV. These new 1080HD tvs which are now appearing currently only show picture which can originate only from a BD or a source like AppleTV/MediaCentre PC. Just by that reckoning you can realise that those people get their content somewhere else, so a lack of a DVB-T receiver is not such a terribly big deal, there are worse jokes going on with HD ready/full HD plasma/LCD nomenclature and
even this thing called HDCP.