Are HD tuners worthless?
We got a tip about this article and just gave it a read. Overall, the CNET piece is technically accurate and definitely worth a view. It explains why you may not need a true HDTV set, but instead why you can get away with an HD-Ready monitor. By and large, the article says, the tuning capability is wasted because your satellite or cable provider can supply your HD signal. For many folks, this is true and may not justify the added expense of a tuner.
Although we agree with a majority of the well written piece, we do take exception with the statement, "a built-in HDTV tuner is worthless." In fact, I downright disagree and here's why.
As a Dish Network
customer, I pay about $6 month to receive my local broadcast stations.
Now that my local stations send a digital signal, I can effectively drop the additional $72 a year in subscriber fees by using my HDTV
tuner.
Not only is the picture better, but it's free.
Sure, not everyone is within range of their local channel coverage area and for those folks, cable or satellite is clearly the answer. HD
tuners might not be as beneficial as the FCC and CEA would like us to think, but "worthless?" C'mon over to my house and see how worthwhile my tuner is; there are some nights that I don't even turn my satellite receiver on!
Even if you plan to use cable or satellite, don't expect the provider to deliver your locals in high-def just yet. The industry is still gearing up to provide your locals in HD. At the moment, the high bandwidth demands are limiting some cable providers and most satellite companies' ability to provide your locals in HD. Most of the bandwidth is focused on the standard channel packages, although this is expected to change once they migrate to more efficient MPEG-4 compression over the next year or two.
In fairness to CNET, they did run a story a few months ago explaining the benefits of free over-the-air
(OTA) high-definition. As you do your HDTV research, understand that there isn't a "one size fits" all solution and be certain to determine the best approach for you. OK, enough of my thoughts; I need to call Dish and cancel my locals while it's fresh in my mind.
Am I the only person gaining value from an HD tuner? Chime in with your thoughts and let us know.