HDTV on your Mac. (and probably on PC's too)

[alfredo]

This is pretty neat. I will have to give it a try someday. Read the caveats and discussion before you run out and try it.

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20040426151111599

Want to enjoy HDTV, but haven't forked over the $21,999 for that 82'' LCOS Rear Projection HDTV yet? (Or even know what the heck that is!). Fear not, because with just about any Panther-capable Macintosh, you can enter the world of high definition recording and playback without breaking the bank... or buying a single new piece of hardware!

This 21st Century Holy Grail comes in the form of a recent FCC regulation requiring all cable companies to provide a Firewire-enabled Cable box to any customer who asks. (Yes, some government agencies are still on our side after all!) This law went into effect April 1st, and by now most Cable companies have complied.

Unlike regular TV, you cannot record HD with an analog VCR -- or even a standard issue Tivo. You must have a Firewire connection ... the very same Firewire that ships on every modern Mac. (bet you see where this is headed). You have the Mac, now all you need is the cable box and a pair of free programs: VirtualDVHS for recording, and VLC for playback!

[chenGOD]

1. But are most CRT monitors suitable for HDTV?

Yes the 23" cinema display from Apple is a beautiful piece of work, but it's slightly out of my price range...

What about a 17" CRT from Apple? Would that work?

be interested to try, since we do get a fair bit of HDTV over here

[alfredo]

2. They didn't specify CRT or LCD

so I guess it should work on all. I don't see where it would make a difference.

I still like CRT's better.

[chenGOD]

3. THe apple cinema displays are truly works of art.

If I could have a dual monitor setup with 2 of those 23" displays? Ohhh mama...

I'll see if I can't give it a try with my old G3...

[alfredo]

4. The only thing stopping me is the monthly cost for the box.

I can just move one of my puters near the TV.

[Kellanved]

5. of course

The interlaced resolutions, like 1080i, might be a problem, as displaying an interlaced picture on a computer is unusual.
But the progressive scan HDTV resolutions up to 720p should be no problem at all. The highest resolution, 1080p is probably too much for your 17" CRT, but I don't expect it to be used frequently.

I'd even say that a CRT is better than a LCD display, as LCDs have a native resolution. In the 23" display's case that is 1920 x 1200 - excellent for movies in 1080p, but all other resolutions will have to be zoomed, with a loss in picture quality.

The other thing that should be considered is that there is AFAIK no cheap way to compress the data on-the fly in good quality. A 100 minute movie in HDTV takes more than five Gigabyte of harddisk space (17MBit per second = 1.4MB/s = 85MB/min = 5100MB/h) .