Keeping it Digital? - The best solution

I have - following the advice of many of you in this forum bought a Sony HS10.

On reflection the choice was easy - it was the learning curve that took the time.

Now I need your advice as to the best way of 'Keeping it Digital'

I intend to use an HTPC with slot loading DVD. I do not mind going external DVD with SDI - In fact I will consider anything that keeps the whole 'process' digital. All I need now is the solution.

Other requirements - Sky and terrestilal/digital television input. Are there likely to be any digital Sky decoders coming out? I dont want to go Sky+.

Many thanks in anticipation

 

Take a deep breath and work your way through this thread - prepare for another learning curve.
The good news is for once it gets cheaper as you read on

 

Just remember that just bcause its all digital it doesn't mean the best picture quality. Its very easy to ruin the PQ while staying in th digital domain. PC's are pretty much useless at PVR, If you want PVR, a Tivo or Sky + is still the best route by far.

 

As a sidenote, I have a slot-loading DVD drive and it's noisy as you like. That said, it's not too bad when playing DVDs as they spin fairly slowly, but even so if noise is a factor it's worth thinking about. Looks cool though...

 

The Toshibas are the best DVD roms I've used, VERY quiet in DVD film watching mode and have very good error correction, so the film won't stop playing because of a thumb print on the DVD

 

Sky+ and Tivo score on interface but lose out on cost and flexibility.
If you go either sky+ or tivo you still need to digitise an anologue signal - unless you SDI the boxes - to scale it/deinterlace it for your sony. If youre watching on TV then I agree, the dedicated box wins - at a price.

In my experience (DTTV svideo into DScaler vs Nova-t DTTV card) on a Barco, and the all digital route is far preferable: cleaner and sharper but lacks the deinterlacing smoothness of DScaler. I only watch the Nova-t.

With DVrec and Digiguide I get an interface that I prefer to the Sky+ Interface, and starts to rival a Tivo, and they are getting cuter all the time ...

IMO stick to your digital guns!

 

I watch a lot of sports, especially football, good deinterlacing is a must. Nothing less than DScaler will do.