High Definition Television On A Budget…

There have been a lot of queries on how the new high definition channels can be viewed, and if people are in the same situation as myself they want to be able to view them in a cost effective way. The way I see it there are two distinctive groups of people when it comes to home entertainment equipment, the first being the perfectionists who want the up most best quality and are willing to pay for it, and the people who whish to be in that category who are cheapskates like myself who need to be on a budget.

The most popular post on this site is the one addressing concerns and some help on how to receive digital television most notably the high definition channels. Because of its popularity I thought I would write about how I go about viewing these channels with the shoe string student budget I have and in doing so can hopefully answer any more questions that anyone might have.

One of the common myths is that in order to watch high definition television you need to purchase a television capable of receiving and viewing high definition. Quite the opposite and as I am about to demonstrate with the images below, an old crappy television set will do just fine. Please excuse my many knick-knacks around the place but as you can see the television set is a 51cm TEAC CRT television which would have to be about 8 to 10 years old now, and in keeping with a theme I also have a TEAC DVD player with surround sound and a TEAC high definition set top box.

The above images is showing Channel Nine through the set top box which is a standard definition channel, the next image will show the TV viewing 7HD and you will see that the image quality is practically the same. The only time you may notice a difference is when a sporting event is on and you look at the watermark on screen. In particular when comparing Ten and Ten HD you can see that the Ten Sport watermark looks pixelated around the edges, but when it comes down to it so what, its a watermark the actual image we are concerned with is perfect.

People’s experiences may be different to mine so I’m not sure if this is something that will happen to everyone, but with my set top box if I relied on the speakers on the TV I would never hear anything. Luckily I have a surround sound system so I use the speakers from this to hear what is going on. The way in which I have it set up is that the set top box runs through the DVD player via the a/v connection (those red, white and yellow plugs). The signal then runs from the DVD player into the television via the a/v connection and because the TV is mono even if the sound worked only the left side would be heard.

This means that I get to watch television in surround sound, but in order to watch TV I need to use three remote controls to start it up, after that I just need to rely on the set top box remote, of course this can be eliminated with a universal remote control (if you can be bothered).

So how much does all of this cost? Well just like with anything shop around and compare prices, many of the high definition set top boxes with budget prices are from unknown brands and when I’m talking budget prices I’m talking under $200. The best place to look in my opinion is JB HI FI, there is usually a selection of boxes at high prices, however look at where they have the cheap DVD players stacked up on boxes. From what I have seen there are three high definition boxes to choose from in the low price category.

The first is the Digitel High Definition set top box which will set you back $148 which supports 5.1 surround sound. The next one is from Dgtec and will cost $178 its feature include a HDMI output (this is for connecting the box to a TV which has a HDMI input and gives you high definition quality television on your high definition supported TV), 7 Day Electronic Program Guide and a Parental Rating Setting. The final one is from TEAC and is the one I purchased for $188, it also includes a HDMI output, Electronic Program Guide as well as the ability to update the software used on the box.

I hope this adds some additional help and by all means comment on your experiences that may help out others, or if you have any questions.

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