Projector + HDTV Question

[busia12]

I'm a college student who just got an Optoma HD65 projector for Christmas, I plan to hook it up to my college campus' cable network and use it for our HDTV offerings and DVDs.

I need an HDTV set-top tuner for watching television (including some HD channels).

My college campus' cable network uses QAM-64 and QAM-256 encoding on the HD channels we have.

Suggestions for a very cost-conscience HDTV tuner that i can use?

Link for projector: Optoma HD65

Link for Campus Cable Network info: Georgia Tech Cable Network

Thanks everyone.

--------------------------------------
Greg
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology

 

[manimal]

If you havent bought a dvd player yet the sony 355GX or whatever the model number I saw at BB the other day was on clearance and had a built in HD tuner not just sd so that would kill 2 birds with one stone. Otherwise the samsung hd tuner I saw at some B&M stores retails for 179ish.

Congrats on the HD65, there is a fab post on it over at AVS forum with some calibrated profiles that will make that thing look fantastic.

 

[busia12]

Thanks for the post.

I've been looking at the Samsungs... they are looking like a strong option, and $179 is pretty near perfect for my price range... I don't think i would go above $200. (Depends on the features)

Do these things give you an on-screen guide? Or are those just the proprietary ones provided by cable and satellite companies?

How about DVR? <-- Is there any point to DVR without an on-screen guide?

I'm kinda new to this, so I need a patient expert.

I'll check out the posts on the HD65, I'm really excited about it.

 

[vshah]

life size pr0n!

 

[sivart]

Be careful with the DVD recorders with built in tuners. Most only output SD. I haven't seen one yet to output HD and record to DVD

The only DVD player / HDTV tuner that I have seen is the LG LST-3510A (one of which sits in my closet unused) -- about 4 years old.

 

[busia12]

Okay, this is what I'm going to order, unless you guys can come up with something better. I'll also be grabbing a long HDMI cable and looking for 5.1 speaker system to top the whole thing off.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/ol...oduct&id=1161734592183

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Monoprice has affordable HDMI cables.

I have an intro guide on buying a sound system in the sticky thread.

 

[sivart]

Originally posted by: busia12
Okay, this is what I'm going to order, unless you guys can come up with something better. I'll also be grabbing a long HDMI cable and looking for 5.1 speaker system to top the whole thing off.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/ol...oduct&id=1161734592183

You might also want to look at the DTVPal DVR. It gives you two HD tuners and the ability to record programming for about $70 more. This is OTA only, but if you are on a major campus close to a major city, an indoor antenna may be all you need to get the locals in HD (which is probably all the cable company offers in HD anyway)

http://www.dishnetwork.com/dtvpal/dvr.shtml

I have one and so far so good.....there are even rumors that you may be able to pay and get a few cable networks via OTA in the future (ESPN, Discovery, etc)