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CableTVboxes: info??on Voyager/Explorer?

I just aquired the Sony 36XBR400 and find my antennas do not do the set justice. So I am going back to cable ( I live in an apt and dishes are not to easy here) The Warner cable here has the Jerrold which I will not accept, or the "voyager" decoder box or the "explorer" box. When I had cable 10 years ago the box to have was the Pioneer which had a clean/clear signal. So I am asking anyone here if they use one of these and what is the difference in the two? the cable people in the heart of town aren't very helpful and only If I scream a LOT can I get the better box... But it would be helpful to know which would give me the cleanest "digital" descrambling? Thanks in advance for any info!
elizabeth
swampwalker's avatar
swampwalker
5,132 posts
 
Cornfed- any thoughts on quality of s-video enabled DSS vs. digital cable? Just bought a Loewe TV and not that thrilled with the quality of the sat picture, altho it looked great with my old Panasonic. Its not that much better than the analog cable fed straight to the TV (no box) via f connector.
cornfedboy
1,645 posts
 
swampwalker: i've not tried the s-video enabled dss sysem, tho i've seen it demoed. i have also seen a number of demos of other products, such as real highend overhead projectors, at ces. i have never seen real world results measure up to the highly-tweaked hardware and specially-designed software at these shows. suspect the same may be true of dss. FWIW, i did get to see broadcast hdtv at goodwin's highend last month (hbo has a demo channel on direct tv). it is staggeringly good, especially on "live" events such as football and boxing. that's where i'm going next.
mi3491
36 posts
 
I use DSS with a S-video cable into a Hitachi Ultravision and am not impressed. I have checked out DSS news groups and the problem is that Sat. companies are compressing data to gain more channels so it is effecting picture quality. I may change to digital cable.
swampwalker's avatar
swampwalker
5,132 posts
 
Mi- please post your results, as I pulled the digital cable before I installed the DSS (sigh). Cornfed- I too saw the HBO HDTV at a dealer and was very impressed. Since the DTV I bought is 30", 16:9, prog scan w/doubler, didn't think there would be any significant advantage to going all the way to HDTV (with such limited software). But as always, garbage in..... May have to be content with only realizing potential of the set with prog. scan DVD. Any thoughts on decent quality used unit at moderate cost?
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