$550 for a DVB-T box!!!

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allstarnz

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#19583 22-Feb-2008 15:40

I see in the latest Noel Leeming prices, the starting price for the new Freeview terrestrial is going to be about $550!! Is it just me or is that quite steep. How can something cost that much when a DVB-T card costs you less than $100

Anyone know what sort of boxes will turn up around mid March?

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Biddle Corp

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#112318 22-Feb-2008 15:54

I've had a brief play with one of the Zinwell boxes.

The price is maybe a little bit higher than expected, I was under the impression they were aiming for a price point around $450 for the first STB's.

The problem is the limited range of MPEG4 STB's that are available, do buy H.264 capable boxes in Norway you're looking at around 200 euros for a cheap model. This is an issue that won't change overnight but prices will come down. I believe both Sony and Panasonic plan on having TV's in the marketplace with built in tuners well before the end of the year, if not sooner.

openmedia

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#112325 22-Feb-2008 16:43

Yeah the Norway boxes are a bit cheaper than our expected pricing, but don't have any MHEG-5 support so no EPG.

Sony already have H.264 capable TVs in Norway so we should see them as soon as they have the MHEG-5 middleware sorted.

Steve

Generally known online as OpenMedia, now working for Red Hat APAC as a Technology Evangelist and Portfolio Architect. Still playing with MythTV and digital media on the side.

browned

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#112336 22-Feb-2008 17:32

Considering I got my last (cheap) UK freeview tuner for £14.95 on special I think NZ will just need a bit of time to get enough product on the market. Supply/demand will see prices drop quick if all the options are over priced and over stocked.

I will not be buying one of those units (even as a backup for computer outages) for a long time if those prices are the norm.

cheers
db

eXDee

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#112339 22-Feb-2008 17:45

sbiddle, can you give a little more info? Is it the 410 or the 420?

Thats really expensive, i assume its single tuner with no hard disk. I reckon i could upgrade to a hd capable HTPC for cheaper easily.

Batman

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#112374 22-Feb-2008 21:17

sounds like playstation3 is going to take off like a rocket if the pricing range is like this!

allstarnz

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#112395 22-Feb-2008 23:02

eXDee: I reckon i could upgrade to a hd capable HTPC for cheaper easily.

exactly my point. It's great being a nerd at times

geekiegeek

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#112423 23-Feb-2008 08:41

joker97: sounds like playstation3 is going to take off like a rocket if the pricing range is like this!

Totally agree - the PS3 is looking to be the ultimate all in one device now that Blu has won the format war. The PlayTV addon for DVB-T is rumoured for march 28 release in the UK http://www.playthree.net/2007/12/playstation-3-playtv-gets-uk-price.html

Once this is available here - or it is proven that the UK model works in NZ - I think it will be time for me to buy one.

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RustyGonad

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#112439 23-Feb-2008 10:08

geekiegeek:
joker97: sounds like playstation3 is going to take off like a rocket if the pricing range is like this!

Totally agree - the PS3 is looking to be the ultimate all in one device now that Blu has won the format war. The PlayTV addon for DVB-T is rumoured for march 28 release in the UK http://www.playthree.net/2007/12/playstation-3-playtv-gets-uk-price.html

Once this is available here - or it is proven that the UK model works in NZ - I think it will be time for me to buy one.

Except for its ridiculous price as well!!!

You'll be able to buy a complete media center, with 2 tuners, and a XBox 360 Arcade as an extender for about the price of the PS3 ($800 without accesorites) + TV Gadget ($2-400) + Sony harddisk ($2-400) (an 80 GB does'nt cut it in the Media Center world). And it will look like Spaghetti...

And don't forget funtionality ie Will Sony let you archive your DVD's onto the PS3 (without some serious hacking), what about Amazon US Region Coded Bluray titles, what about their browser which doesn't work on alot of sites... What do you do for extenders??? Buy one for every TV in the house? Sky TV Integration??? iPod Integration??? email? and thats just the stuff that doesn't break the law...

For the hard core Sony fans it makes a solution - but for everyone else its up there with Apple TV - looks nice on paper...

As for the Bluray bit - everything will have Bluray from here on in - its no longer Sony unique nor will it remain expensive in the short term.

lchiu7

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#112444 23-Feb-2008 10:56

RustyGonad: [..

And don't forget funtionality ie Will Sony let you archive your DVD's onto the PS3 (without some serious hacking), what about Amazon US Region Coded Bluray titles, what about their browser which doesn't work on alot of sites... What do you do for extenders??? Buy one for every TV in the house? Sky TV Integration??? iPod Integration??? email? and thats just the stuff that doesn't break the law...

..

I have a PS3. Putting DVD's onto a server is a 20 minute job for me (I have to do that sometimes since my PS3 is US and won't play PAL DVD's but can play ripped DVD's off a server - go figure).

As for BR region coding - that is a pain but I am sure folks will find a way around that soon and/or content providers will realise it makes no sense now given global releases of movies at the same time. In the meantime I source all my BR titles from Amazon.

PlayTV looks very good - much better in terms of usability and supportability than a PC with DVB-T card(which I also have) and all the other bits to make it work. Remember while we might be geeks or geek inclined, often we have other members in the household who just want plug and play solutions. And I don't want to be 24x7 tech support in the family!

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RustyGonad

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#112474 23-Feb-2008 13:51

lchiu7:
RustyGonad: [..

And don't forget funtionality ie Will Sony let you archive your DVD's onto the PS3 (without some serious hacking), what about Amazon US Region Coded Bluray titles, what about their browser which doesn't work on alot of sites... What do you do for extenders??? Buy one for every TV in the house? Sky TV Integration??? iPod Integration??? email? and thats just the stuff that doesn't break the law...

..

I have a PS3. Putting DVD's onto a server is a 20 minute job for me (I have to do that sometimes since my PS3 is US and won't play PAL DVD's but can play ripped DVD's off a server - go figure).

As for BR region coding - that is a pain but I am sure folks will find a way around that soon and/or content providers will realise it makes no sense now given global releases of movies at the same time. In the meantime I source all my BR titles from Amazon.

PlayTV looks very good - much better in terms of usability and supportability than a PC with DVB-T card(which I also have) and all the other bits to make it work. Remember while we might be geeks or geek inclined, often we have other members in the household who just want plug and play solutions. And I don't want to be 24x7 tech support in the family!

So can you rip the DVD's without ripping to the PC??? Without circumventing the copy protection you can't do it... Which needs a PC... Plug and Play? May as well use the PC in the first place.

Region Encoding removal means hacking - which also defeats the point that Mum/Dad/the family could do it. Sony will never support this - if they wanted it to happen they wouldn't have put Regional Encoding in the PS3 in the first place. They simply have too much licensing revenue at stake to want to support this. I wonder who invented this evil bit of anti-free trade technology in the first place... Let me think...

I still believe the PS3 is currently lost - its neither the best games platform in terms of sales (Nintendo), reviews and use (Xbox 360), or hardware (Xbox 360 is ateast as good). Sony are turning up late in the game, with an overpriced box, in an attempt to gain some revenue/market share back. IMO they will struggle against Microsoft, Apple and others who have much more experience in the online space. TV is no longer about DVB-T - thats just one of the many different ways of getting content.

Remember they are still losing money on every box sold - business don't run this way for very long. Didn't they used to make Walkman's until Apple came along...

My point was is that to start from scratch your still gong to be spending $2k to get one of these up anywhere near up to speed. I'll take a $2k media center over that any day of the week. With all due respect you could spend half that money and still get the same funtionality, including Bluray. Wasn't this forum all about overpriced DVB-T boxes?

lchiu7

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#112475 23-Feb-2008 13:57

If you have a PS3 then PlayTV looks good and much better than a $500 DVB-T box I would imagine (well we will have to wait and see).

No comment about the gaming platform - not much experience in this area except to say the games I have seen and played on the PS3 look way better than the Wii (despite its greater sales volume).

As for ripping DVD's - well I am sure many of us backup our DVD's to a server to preserve the discs from peanut butter, jam etc. I certainly do. And it makes them easier to find to play later.

As usual YMMV

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BarTender

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#112549 23-Feb-2008 20:37

My current punt on the DTT boxes is they will be around the $350-400 range.

Again and I can't repeat myself too many times, Kordia/Freeview/TVNZ/Canwest are extremely foolish not to beam MPEG2 SD and MPEG4 HD over DTT. That way the bulk of the population without HDMI capible TV's can get the PQ improvement of DTT by purchasing a cheap sub $50 box from the supermarket, and those who have already spent 2K+ on their big widescreen TV, spending an extra $400+ for a HD receiver seems ok.

Again, the proof will be in the pudding, and what hits the paper "post DTT" launch... hey it's an election year, we could make this an election topic :P

richms

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#112592 24-Feb-2008 04:25

I am so glad they didnt do the aussie way and send a SD and a HD signal of the same content. the hd boxes will be $50 by the time analog turnoff happens, up till that point the only people who will be wanting it will be those with a HDTV already, so the mpeg2 SD simulcast would only be used few people, and once they start transmitting it they cant really turn it off so it would be a good 4-5 megabits per channel wasted all for the sake of getting a few cheap boxes up and running now.

Richard rich.ms

lchiu7

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#112599 24-Feb-2008 08:03

BarTender: My current punt on the DTT boxes is they will be around the $350-400 range.
..

If that excludes a PVR then I would say that's a signficant barrier to entry. Those of us in the group who have PC's and/or are willing to go purchase a DVB-T card, we can laugh at that since we have made our investments in PC's already. For the average Kiwi who is probably not up to speed with HD, the purchase of a $400 box just to receive some HD is a hard sell I would imagine. What are the broadcasters/suppliers thinking about?

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walt12

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#112607 24-Feb-2008 09:34

Yes but Joe Public won't be upgrading right away anyway, so that barrier to entry is moot. PQ figures low on the list of most people, the general attitude is, why pay again for what I've already got (via analog terrestrial).

By the time analog is switched off, the great unwashed will have upgraded their main TV at least once, which will integrate the DTT tuner (so they won't even notice) and the concept of having to sell a STB will be moot. Plus by that time STBs will have come down considerably in price.

The high cost of STBs is more of an issue for the (minority) discerning viewer at present.

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