My prescription for the ailing economy: Cable A la Carte pricing!!!

Comcast encrypts most non-local channels in the Boston area, so QAM does you no good. And you can be sure that they will always encrypt the premium channels such as HBO.

I think it's an all-or-nothing proposition. If I can't get the channels I pay extra money for, QAM is a meaningless feature. I'd rather purchase a monitor and use a STB. If only they weren't such pieces of junk.

The current crop of STB's would never make it as commercial products. Because of the monopoly cable companies have, they don't have to make their products actually work well.

Lost- need that extra detail to figure out WTF is going on!

On the splitter: did a little more research and it sounds like the splitter "Y" cables only work if the other display is turned off. So in my case it would be a pain, because the project is always in standby mode.

The monoprice 5x4 switch/splitter might be the ticket when it comes out.

I am looking at replacing my tube TV with lcd/plasma and also have a front projector that I feed with HDMI. I'd also like to use HDMI on the new TV, so I understand the desire for two outputs.

Does anyone know how those cheapo HDMI splitters perform?

If all I have to do is put one of those on the single output of a decent switcher, no problem. But if they degrade the signal, I'd probably just use component for one, hdmi for the other.

Great post, very timely. I've been researching this a bit, and I'm wondering if anyone has experience with the Netgear RangeMax suite of wireless products. It purports to increase speed as well as provide very fast speeds at longer (+50') distances. What I've heard is that it is very difficult to stream full HD content over a wireless network, and that a wired network works much better. Your post seems to support this. Unfortunately, I cannot run a wire up to my office where the wap/net connection is, so I am stuck with wireless. Any thoughts? Thanks --J

My favorite post was the one about downloadable first-run movies in HD. I would think this is the holy grail of many of your readers. http://www.hdbeat.com/2005/10/26/one-hd-download-and-a-popcorn-please/ I would pay upwards of $20-30 to be able to download a first run movie and display it at home. Anyone who has spent over $3K to set up a home theater is not going to have a problem spending this kind of money as long as the quality (HD) is there. But I would guess the download price would be more like $40-50. Love the site! It is part of my morning ritual.