Advice for HD Rookie

[MrBlack]

I have searched several boards this evening and I am as confused as ever. I have a 30 inch Samsung HDTV with an integrated tuner, a DirecTV H10 receiver, and a DVD/VCR player/recorder. I was hoping that I could receive some advice on the following questions:
1) Should I buy a surge protector or a UPS or both? What about the coax?
2) Will I get a better HD local signal from the antenna going into the integrated tuner or into the H10?
Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[shugo77]

I would buy a surge protector with coax protection built in. As far as a UPS, that is really optional, a UPS does everyhting a surge protector does, plus it has a battery in it to provide power for only a few minutes. The more money you spend on a UPS, the more battery time you can get. (some advertise 100 minutes, for personal computers) An entry level UPS, won't give you much time with a 30" TV, maybe 5-10 minutes if you're lucky. A UPS might be a good idea if you have DVR and you have a lot of power outtages that last only a few minutes.

As far as which HD tuner will give you a better picture, just test for yourself, and see which one you think looks better, and which one is more convenient to switch to, that is your answer.

 

[Hogarth]

The OTA tuner will almost always look better than the DirecTV signal for HD.
DirecTV downresolutions and recompresses HD signals so they're not full 1920x1080.

They will have to do less of this when using MPEG-4 compression, but OTA is always uncompressed -- if you have a good antenna, it will always work out better.

H

 

[shugo77]

The OTA tuner will almost always look better than the DirecTV signal for HD.
DirecTV downresolutions and recompresses HD signals so they're not full 1920x1080.
H

I think what he was asking is should he plug his ota antenna into his tv's built-in digital tuner or the DirecTV receiver. Either way he is getting the signal ota.