the coose writes: "
Got an HDTV set yet? Wait before getting one; here's why ...
" Honestly this doesn't really bother me, except that I really want HDTV to start being a reality soon.
I haven't bought an HDTV set yet, and won't for at least the next little while, for one reason: I haven't heard the question yet to which HDTV is the answer. So what if the picture is twice as sharp? The source material simply doesn't take advantage of it, nor can my eyes. I use high resolutions on my computer screens because it allows me to put more stuff of the same pixel size on the screen, not to enjoy the nuances of every little photograph on the web - because the source detail isn't there. Neither is it in TV programs, or movies. --
--
Disinfect the GNU General Public Virus!
Re:White Paper on Haupage DTV cards
by
Cy+Guy
·
· Score: 3
This paper (pdf format) gives some technical info on the WinTV-D card and also on DTV data casting in general.
BTW, the Slashdot and ABC headlines are only helping to increase the confusion of DTV and HDTV. The spectrum is reserved for DTV which can include HDTV. If it were for HDTV only, then there shouldn't so much left over spectrum when broadcasting 1080i.
Here is the Digital TV Term Glossary from paper
by
Cy+Guy
·
· Score: 3
In case people don't want to load the pdf file, here is the Glossary:
GLOSSARY OF DTV TERMINOLOGY
AC-3: Also known as Dolby Digital, a coding and compression method for surround audio capable of driving 5 speakers and a sub-woofer.
Chroma, Chrominance: The signal in an S-Video circuit that carries the color overlay information.
DBS - Direct Broadcast Satellite: The generic term for the small-dish digital systems in popular use today.
Downsampling: Reducing the information content (detail) in an image in order to allow rendering to a lower resolution display.
DTV - Digital Television: The generic term for broadcasting of any of the approved digital formats.
DVD - Digital Versatile Disk: A data encoding standard for CD-ROM-like disks, capable of storing data at the higher densities needed for recording movies.
HDTV - High Definition Television: The term which refers to those approved digital formats with resolution higher than SDTV, namely those with 720 or 1,080 vertical lines of resolution.
IEEE 1394: Also known as Firewire, a high-speed serial interconnect capable of transferring up to 400 Megabits per second.
Luma, Luminance: The signal in an S-Video circuit that carries the black-and-white detail information.
MPEG-2: A "compression" method for reducing the bit rate needed to transmit a series of images.
MSO: Multiple Services Operator - a cable TV company.
PSIP - Program and System Information Protocol: The data stream within a DTV broadcast that describes the various video, audio and data streams that are present.
QAM - Quadrature Amplitude Modulation: A method of encoding bits using multiple analog levels to represent bit patterns - often used by the cable industry.
SDTV - Standard Definition Television: The term which refers to those of the approved digital formats with resolution comparable to today' s DBS and DVD systems, namely those with 480 vertical lines of resolution.
Transcoding: Converting from one modulation method to another, for example, from VSB to QAM.
USB - Universal Serial Bus: A medium-speed (12 Megabit per second) local communication bus.
VSB - Vestigal Side-Band: A method of encoding bits used primarily by the television broadcast industry.
The WinTV-d only support 480i, the lowest of the low HDTV resolutions, in fact, so low that that res it typically referred to as D(igital)TV, cuz the rez aint all that high. Hauppauge is going to have a full out, ahve you cake and eat it too, completely HDTV card within the year, but this sure aint it.
Movies (and even most high budget TV shows) areshot on film. It's a relatively simple matter to run an edited film print through a high definition Telecine. Bang, all of a sudden you have a HDTV film master for broadcasting. The effective resolution of film is greater than 2048x1920 so there's plenty of detail there for HDTV.
In fact ANY content that was shot on film could be turned into a high resolution HDTV master if the studio wanted too, even old tv series.
And yes when you see HDTV you will know the difference, remember the first time you saw a DVD versus a VHS tape?
Our dear government should never have started the great spectrum auctions.
Instead of selling it, they should have rented it out, and evect any renter who doesn't actually use it as indended.
The hidden dangers of HDTV
by
Greyfox
·
· Score: 3
Once they start broadcasting in digital, how long will it take them to insure that your VCR can't record anything? With the DMCA and the MPAA trying to encrypt everything, it won't surprise me when they start building something like CSS into the TV itself. Encrypt the signal right up to the point where it hits the TV and bang! The VCR suddenly becomes useless.
On the plus side, assuming you can munge the digital signal based on your own parameters, filtering/editing out commercials should become a lot easier. I'm sure they'll figure out how to prevent that too...
--
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
HDTV really isn't going to take off until it's affordable. I mean, come on, who is going to pay over $5000 just for a little better resolution. Only people with large sums of money to blow, really...
Until a good portion of the population can afford them, it won't really go anywhere, most likely.
-- Dr. Eldarion -- It's not what it is, it's something else.
10^12 channels and nothing's on...
by
Alien+Perspective
·
· Score: 3
So congress gives away all that HDTV bandwidth, a very valuable commodity, for free to the broadcasters, with the understanding that the broadcasters will convert to HDTV and release their old frequencies for other uses.
Naturally, the broadcasters reneg...going for $$$ using the HDTV bandwidth for other stuff while continuing to hold the old bandwidth too.
Does anyone else see this as a blatent spectrum theft? Of course, we can't expect our elected representitives to do anything about it; pissing off the broadcasters is electoral death.
When one industry gets a veto on who gets to be our government, you should be worried.
Personally, I was looking forward to everyone having to toss their old TVs...maybe it would wean people from sucking on the glass teat, and that would raise the collective IQ of the country.
HD is wonderful - if you haven't seen it, its like a great flat 21" monitor with resolution set to 1280x1024. (only in 16x9 ratio)
What little programming that is available so far really looks good. The superbowl was outstanding, except when the ntsc camerman walked right in front of the HD camera, so you got a really great picture of the back of the SD camera.
Waiting for the set is a toss up. If you do have the bucks, even regular tv looks really good on the set. The two most important things are native resolution and the set top box.
Do not get a set that is not native 1080. Otherwise, any 1080 signal will be downcoverted to whatever the native mode is - a cheap set might be 480 native, in which case you have a fancy regular tv.
do NOT get a set with an integrated box. The linked article is a perfect reason why. Until there is enough HD programming, broadcasters are looking to fill their pipe with some source of revenue. The new broadcast pipe can carry 5 SD signals and change or one HD, so sending 1 SD leave about 14 mb/s of available pipe.
There are a lot of revenue generating things you can do with 14mbs. Given the cost of going digital (1-1.5 Mil for a transmitter; a new antenna, tower space, microwave, etc can tack on another mil or so)(not to mention another 5-15k/month for electricity) broadcasters are in need of income asap.
There is a great opportunity for someone to come up with new business models to take advantage to this distribution medium. Any ideas? Any Takers?
-- The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.
Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 2, Act 4, Scene 2
Slashdot Mirror
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I haven't bought an HDTV set yet, and won't for at least the next little while, for one reason: I haven't heard the question yet to which HDTV is the answer. So what if the picture is twice as sharp? The source material simply doesn't take advantage of it, nor can my eyes. I use high resolutions on my computer screens because it allows me to put more stuff of the same pixel size on the screen, not to enjoy the nuances of every little photograph on the web - because the source detail isn't there. Neither is it in TV programs, or movies.
--
Disinfect the GNU General Public Virus!
This paper (pdf format) gives some technical info on the WinTV-D card and also on DTV data casting in general.
BTW, the Slashdot and ABC headlines are only helping to increase the confusion of DTV and HDTV. The spectrum is reserved for DTV which can include HDTV. If it were for HDTV only, then there shouldn't so much left over spectrum when broadcasting 1080i.
Work for Change & GET PAID!
In case people don't want to load the pdf file, here is the Glossary:
GLOSSARY OF DTV TERMINOLOGY
AC-3: Also known as Dolby Digital, a coding and compression method for surround audio capable
of driving 5 speakers and a sub-woofer.
Chroma, Chrominance: The signal in an S-Video circuit that carries the color overlay information.
DBS - Direct Broadcast Satellite: The generic term for the small-dish digital systems in popular
use today.
Downsampling: Reducing the information content (detail) in an image in order to allow rendering
to a lower resolution display.
DTV - Digital Television: The generic term for broadcasting of any of the approved digital
formats.
DVD - Digital Versatile Disk: A data encoding standard for CD-ROM-like disks, capable of storing
data at the higher densities needed for recording movies.
HDTV - High Definition Television: The term which refers to those approved digital formats with
resolution higher than SDTV, namely those with 720 or 1,080 vertical lines of resolution.
IEEE 1394: Also known as Firewire, a high-speed serial interconnect capable of transferring up to
400 Megabits per second.
Luma, Luminance: The signal in an S-Video circuit that carries the black-and-white detail
information.
MPEG-2: A "compression" method for reducing the bit rate needed to transmit a series of images.
MSO: Multiple Services Operator - a cable TV company.
PSIP - Program and System Information Protocol: The data stream within a DTV broadcast that
describes the various video, audio and data streams that are present.
QAM - Quadrature Amplitude Modulation: A method of encoding bits using multiple analog levels
to represent bit patterns - often used by the cable industry.
SDTV - Standard Definition Television: The term which refers to those of the approved digital
formats with resolution comparable to today' s DBS and DVD systems, namely those with 480
vertical lines of resolution.
Transcoding: Converting from one modulation method to another, for example, from VSB to
QAM.
USB - Universal Serial Bus: A medium-speed (12 Megabit per second) local communication bus.
VSB - Vestigal Side-Band: A method of encoding bits used primarily by the television broadcast
industry.
Work for Change & GET PAID!
The WinTV-d only support 480i, the lowest of the low HDTV resolutions, in fact, so low that that res it typically referred to as D(igital)TV, cuz the rez aint all that high. Hauppauge is going to have a full out, ahve you cake and eat it too, completely HDTV card within the year, but this sure aint it.
matt
Um, neither is movies? What sorry?
Movies (and even most high budget TV shows) areshot on film. It's a relatively simple matter to run an edited film print through a high definition Telecine. Bang, all of a sudden you have a HDTV film master for broadcasting. The effective resolution of film is greater than 2048x1920 so there's plenty of detail there for HDTV.
In fact ANY content that was shot on film could be turned into a high resolution HDTV master if the studio wanted too, even old tv series.
And yes when you see HDTV you will know the difference, remember the first time you saw a DVD versus a VHS tape?
Instead of selling it, they should have rented it out, and evect any renter who doesn't actually use it as indended.
On the plus side, assuming you can munge the digital signal based on your own parameters, filtering/editing out commercials should become a lot easier. I'm sure they'll figure out how to prevent that too...
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
HDTV really isn't going to take off until it's affordable. I mean, come on, who is going to pay over $5000 just for a little better resolution. Only people with large sums of money to blow, really...
Until a good portion of the population can afford them, it won't really go anywhere, most likely.
-- Dr. Eldarion --
It's not what it is, it's something else.
Naturally, the broadcasters reneg...going for $$$ using the HDTV bandwidth for other stuff while continuing to hold the old bandwidth too.
Does anyone else see this as a blatent spectrum theft? Of course, we can't expect our elected representitives to do anything about it; pissing off the broadcasters is electoral death.
When one industry gets a veto on who gets to be our government, you should be worried.
Personally, I was looking forward to everyone having to toss their old TVs...maybe it would wean people from sucking on the glass teat, and that would raise the collective IQ of the country.
HD is wonderful - if you haven't seen it, its like a great flat 21" monitor with resolution set to 1280x1024. (only in 16x9 ratio)
What little programming that is available so far really looks good. The superbowl was outstanding, except when the ntsc camerman walked right in front of the HD camera, so you got a really great picture of the back of the SD camera.
Waiting for the set is a toss up. If you do have the bucks, even regular tv looks really good on the set. The two most important things are native resolution and the set top box.
Do not get a set that is not native 1080. Otherwise, any 1080 signal will be downcoverted to whatever the native mode is - a cheap set might be 480 native, in which case you have a fancy regular tv.
do NOT get a set with an integrated box. The linked article is a perfect reason why. Until there is enough HD programming, broadcasters are looking to fill their pipe with some source of revenue. The new broadcast pipe can carry 5 SD signals and change or one HD, so sending 1 SD leave about 14 mb/s of available pipe.
There are a lot of revenue generating things you can do with 14mbs. Given the cost of going digital (1-1.5 Mil for a transmitter; a new antenna, tower space, microwave, etc can tack on another mil or so)(not to mention another 5-15k/month for electricity) broadcasters are in need of income asap.
There is a great opportunity for someone to come up with new business models to take advantage to this distribution medium. Any ideas? Any Takers?
The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers. Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 2, Act 4, Scene 2