Yes it's similar to how you cannot connect an analog television to cable and expect it to work. You have to get a cable-compatible TV.
Likewise these boxes are only setup to receive over-the-air 8-VSB. The FCC specified 16-VSB for cable which would work with these coupon boxes, but the companies chose to ignore the FCC and use their own standard.
>>>Using a digital converter, that number has jumped to about 20 or 30
That's an awfully wide range. Is it 20 or 30? No matter. If you are like me, you probably have 7 duplicated weather channels, so effectively you're only getting 10-to-20 useful channels.;-)
- No DTV stations are increasing power on February 18. At leaat none in the DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, or Harrisburg markets.
- Being at a higher frequency is a disadvantage because they break-up more easily, and can be blocked by trees or sheds. Lower frequencies pass right through the tree/shed as if it wasn't there.
Not quite true. The human brain does it, and the human brain has millions of years extracting images from noise. It does this far more effectively than does a DTV receiver, which is why my "watchable" analog stations outnumber my digital stations 20-to-10 (approximately).
>>>The channel error rate has to get quite bad before you start seeing uncorrectable errors
False.
I see them all the time. I see them on long-distance stations with lots of breakups or blocking, which is expected, but I also see them on close stations. I'm seeing blocking right now on a very strong NBC station only 20 miles away. It's not as frequent, perhaps once every 5 minutes, but still annoying because it sounds like the actor hiccuped:
"Hello my name is Michael Knight and this is my car KITT...... my car KITT like to go out for dinner?"
or early today: "President Barack Obama signed his first executive..... first executive wearing an attractive siphon dress."
>>>A snowy analog signal provides a lot more information
Plus the human brain is analog. Over millions of yeard it has learned to extract images from noise whereas the DTV computer just goes "huh" and gives up. That's why many stations further away than 40 miles are watchable via analog, but on digital display nothing.
>>This is, of course, bullshit, at least in my experience.
Please keep your shit to yourself, or dispose of it properly. As I posted in another message in MY experience I've lost a significant number of analog stations that simply can't be received with digital, because they do not have as wide a reach.
>>>My HDTV picks up both analog and digital transmissions with the same set of cheap rabbit ears perched on top
Lucky you. My rabbit ears/loop combination gets ~20 analog stations but only 4 digital. The DTV receiver simply doesn';t see anything beyond 30 miles whereas the analog can "see" stations upto 60 miles away. ----- Even with the rooftop upgrade, I'm still not getting as many analog stations as I used to get (~20 analog versus ~10 digital). I've lived in this area almost 40 years and it's annoying to see my favorite stations disappear. I'll miss them. There's less variety now.
>>>you'll be getting the SD sub-channel, which has the advantage over analog of zero static. There is nowhere that anyone who watches analog TV can claim that.
(1) I can. The stations within 20 miles of my house, NBC8, FOX43, CW15, and ION49 all appear without static. In fact, they look *better* than their digital counterparts (which are artifacted).
(2) I had to spend $200 on a new rooftop antenna since the old settop rabbit ears/loop antenna got next-to-nothing.
(3) Stations beyond 50 miles admittedly look like crap, but at least they're watchable in analog format. DTV displays nothing. I've lost channels 10,11,12,13,21,27,29,45,48,51. I used to be able to watch Ravens and Orioles games but no more. I lost my PBS station and my ABC station and a few independents that played movies or scifi shows.
Remind me again about how DTV is "superior" when I've lost more than I had before?
Since the airwaves are owned by the People, any attempt to block access would be considered a violation of the People's rights. TV stations better not piss-off the landlords.
>>>analog capture cards REALLY really cheap, $5-15 depending on where you get it
Like where? I did a quick search on google and found nothing. I could certainly use a cheap card to capture S-video off my Super VHS camcorder or DTV box.
Use of the broadcast flag or any other kind of DRM has been declared illegal by the U.S. Supreme Court, based upon their previous ruling that consumers have a right to use DVRs, VCRs, or similar devices to record & timeshift the programs.
This morning Channel 6 in Philadelphia debunked the 2 million estimate. They demonstrated with a newspaper that in order to squeeze that many people, the citizens would have to be standing close enough to have sex with one another (i.e. 8 people per newspaper sheet).
A more-realistic estimate, based upon video of the scene, indicates 3-4 people per newspaper sheet, which yields 750,000-1 million total.
Also if you look at the satellite, you'll notice that not the whole mall was filled. People were clustered towards the center while the edges remained relatively open.
>>>Do you really want to expose a person who is still in the "girls are icky" phase to an S&M site involving tying up and whipping someone, or how about the highly illegal sites involving bestiality?
(1) Let's be honest. These sites are hard-to-find. It's not something you just stumble upon.
(2) Someone in the "girls are icky" stage will probably handle it better than the "girls make me hard" stage. The former will just think it's funny, whereas the latter might feel embarrassed & try to avoid the topic. I find children easier to communicate with than self-conscious teenagers.
>>>I would like to remind you that not everyone in their 20s fell victim to that thought process.
I know. If you re-read my post, you'll see I was only talking about the students who earned low grades. Our government has done a brilliant job of teaching these students that "just showing up" is enough to earna diploma, and they do the same with their child-rearing. They might be there, but they're not putting in any effort.
I swear I read that paragraph on the Libertarian Party website.
(shrug).
Although I cannot lay my hand upon any sentence that says, "Congress shall have power to extract money from the people and give it to other people", most people who support the welfare state point to the sentence about common welfare, and they think that ends the argument. Except as James Madison pointed out, if that were a true power of Congress, then there'd be no need to enumerate the rest of the powers, because "provide for common welfare" would give Congress power over everything, and that was not his intent when he crafted the document.
The sad part is that they are probably right. If they keep passing the same law, eventually they'll get a Supreme Court to let it slide. It might take 30 years but eventually it will slip through, and freedom will be curtailed.
The Congress and the President have sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution, and yet they break that oath constantly. If only there were some kind of punishment for the Congress & President when a law they passed is declared unconstitutional. Like removal from office. Maybe it could be a three strike deal where any Congressman or President who has 3 laws under their belt which were declared unconstitutional, they are immediately ejected from office for violating their U.S. Constitutional oath.
It would turn the oath from a toothless, meaningless string of words into something that has real effect & real consequences.
What part of, "Can you read the WHOLE posting before replying?" do you not comprehend? QUOTE: "Tell someone who has spent eleven years in jail..... For example, those persons who were jailed by the D.C Anti-gun Onership Law."
>>>If not considered as commerce then it's equivalent to speech, and would violate the First Amendment.
When I was in Utah I tried to buy the just-released copy of Playboy's College Girls. None of the stores sold it, and when I asked why they said it's illegal to sell such things in stores. So I ordered it via the mail. POINT: The first amendment applies in most situations, but not all. States still have a lot of power to regulate what happens within their borders.
And of course gambling is forbidden. If I wanted to gamble I had to drive an hour to the Nevada border (where prostitution is also legal). Kinda ironic. Utah is the most conservative state, but it's sitting directly next to one of the most liberal states. Nice balance there.
This isn't interstate commerce. Telling a company, "You can't create a website at www.gambling.state.ky" is no different than telling a company they can't build a gambling house in Louisville.
Go visit Utah sometime. If you want gambling or porn, you have to drive to Nevada. Within the state, those activities are banned. (You can buy a copy of Playboy through the mail, but not in stores.)
>>>Oh these cute Americans. I love how each state thinks it is pretty much the only thing in existence and the rest of the world can play by it's rules.
Oh these cute Europeans. I love how each state in the EU thinks it is pretty much the only thing in existence and the rest of the world can play by it's rules.;-)
If Kentucky wants to ban gambling within its border, its certainly within its right to do so, just the same as Spain can ban gambling insides its border. The two are analogous situations. When I was in Utah, I thought it was amusing how Salt Lake residents drove an hour to gamble in Wendover Nevada. It seems silly to me that Utah bans gambling but that's what they desire, so that's what the Legislature gives them. It's democracy in action.
In California they require emissions tests. In Nebraska they don't. Different states; different rules.
The difference being that 64 was NOT recommended. It was clearly stated that ZP would not work properly.
128 was the recommended RAM size, and is equivalent to when Microsoft claimed a PC was "Vista capable" at only 512. No wonder customers were dismayed their shiny-new 512 meg PCs were NOT Vista capable.
The reason Madoff's scheme lasted so long was because, like Jobs, he had developed a "can do no wrong" persona wall street. Perhaps if the SEC of 2004 (overly trusting) had been more like the SEC of 2009 (skeptical and quick to investigate), Madoff would have been stopped earlier when his scheme was only Millions of dollars in size instead of billions.
I don't see any harm in the SEC at least *looking* at the situation. Better to be cautious than to say five years later, "Ooops, we dropped the ball."
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Yes it's similar to how you cannot connect an analog television to cable and expect it to work. You have to get a cable-compatible TV.
Likewise these boxes are only setup to receive over-the-air 8-VSB. The FCC specified 16-VSB for cable which would work with these coupon boxes, but the companies chose to ignore the FCC and use their own standard.
Buy a Super VHS VCR which ignores broadcast flags and produces DVD-quality recordings.
Oh wait. The companies conveniently stopped making S-VHS VCRs. No doubt they planned it that way, so as to close the analog hole.
>>>Using a digital converter, that number has jumped to about 20 or 30
That's an awfully wide range. Is it 20 or 30? No matter. If you are like me, you probably have 7 duplicated weather channels, so effectively you're only getting 10-to-20 useful channels. ;-)
P.S. You made two mistakes:
- No DTV stations are increasing power on February 18. At leaat none in the DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, or Harrisburg markets.
- Being at a higher frequency is a disadvantage because they break-up more easily, and can be blocked by trees or sheds. Lower frequencies pass right through the tree/shed as if it wasn't there.
>>>Analog TV lacks that option.
Not quite true. The human brain does it, and the human brain has millions of years extracting images from noise. It does this far more effectively than does a DTV receiver, which is why my "watchable" analog stations outnumber my digital stations 20-to-10 (approximately).
>>>The channel error rate has to get quite bad before you start seeing uncorrectable errors
False.
I see them all the time. I see them on long-distance stations with lots of breakups or blocking, which is expected, but I also see them on close stations. I'm seeing blocking right now on a very strong NBC station only 20 miles away. It's not as frequent, perhaps once every 5 minutes, but still annoying because it sounds like the actor hiccuped:
"Hello my name is Michael Knight and this is my car KITT...... my car KITT like to go out for dinner?"
or early today: "President Barack Obama signed his first executive..... first executive wearing an attractive siphon dress."
Definitely annoying.
>>>A snowy analog signal provides a lot more information
Plus the human brain is analog. Over millions of yeard it has learned to extract images from noise whereas the DTV computer just goes "huh" and gives up. That's why many stations further away than 40 miles are watchable via analog, but on digital display nothing.
>>>>>analog has a far wider reach,
>>This is, of course, bullshit, at least in my experience.
Please keep your shit to yourself, or dispose of it properly. As I posted in another message in MY experience I've lost a significant number of analog stations that simply can't be received with digital, because they do not have as wide a reach.
>>>My HDTV picks up both analog and digital transmissions with the same set of cheap rabbit ears perched on top
Lucky you. My rabbit ears/loop combination gets ~20 analog stations but only 4 digital. The DTV receiver simply doesn';t see anything beyond 30 miles whereas the analog can "see" stations upto 60 miles away. ----- Even with the rooftop upgrade, I'm still not getting as many analog stations as I used to get (~20 analog versus ~10 digital). I've lived in this area almost 40 years and it's annoying to see my favorite stations disappear. I'll miss them. There's less variety now.
>>>you'll be getting the SD sub-channel, which has the advantage over analog of zero static. There is nowhere that anyone who watches analog TV can claim that.
(1) I can. The stations within 20 miles of my house, NBC8, FOX43, CW15, and ION49 all appear without static. In fact, they look *better* than their digital counterparts (which are artifacted).
(2) I had to spend $200 on a new rooftop antenna since the old settop rabbit ears/loop antenna got next-to-nothing.
(3) Stations beyond 50 miles admittedly look like crap, but at least they're watchable in analog format. DTV displays nothing. I've lost channels 10,11,12,13,21,27,29,45,48,51. I used to be able to watch Ravens and Orioles games but no more. I lost my PBS station and my ABC station and a few independents that played movies or scifi shows.
Remind me again about how DTV is "superior" when I've lost more than I had before?
>>>At the time, I was recording from Comcast.......So, yea, the broadcast flag is alive and well, an
Comcast is not broadcast you twit. It's narrowcasting via a cable, and has nothing to do with what we're discussing (over the air broadcast).
My "old-fashioned" analog Super VHS laughs at broadcast flags and records DVD-quality video to boot.
Since the airwaves are owned by the People, any attempt to block access would be considered a violation of the People's rights. TV stations better not piss-off the landlords.
>>>analog capture cards REALLY really cheap, $5-15 depending on where you get it
Like where? I did a quick search on google and found nothing. I could certainly use a cheap card to capture S-video off my Super VHS camcorder or DTV box.
Use of the broadcast flag or any other kind of DRM has been declared illegal by the U.S. Supreme Court, based upon their previous ruling that consumers have a right to use DVRs, VCRs, or similar devices to record & timeshift the programs.
This morning Channel 6 in Philadelphia debunked the 2 million estimate. They demonstrated with a newspaper that in order to squeeze that many people, the citizens would have to be standing close enough to have sex with one another (i.e. 8 people per newspaper sheet).
A more-realistic estimate, based upon video of the scene, indicates 3-4 people per newspaper sheet, which yields 750,000-1 million total.
Also if you look at the satellite, you'll notice that not the whole mall was filled. People were clustered towards the center while the edges remained relatively open.
>>>Do you really want to expose a person who is still in the "girls are icky" phase to an S&M site involving tying up and whipping someone, or how about the highly illegal sites involving bestiality?
(1) Let's be honest. These sites are hard-to-find. It's not something you just stumble upon.
(2) Someone in the "girls are icky" stage will probably handle it better than the "girls make me hard" stage. The former will just think it's funny, whereas the latter might feel embarrassed & try to avoid the topic. I find children easier to communicate with than self-conscious teenagers.
>>>I would like to remind you that not everyone in their 20s fell victim to that thought process.
I know. If you re-read my post, you'll see I was only talking about the students who earned low grades. Our government has done a brilliant job of teaching these students that "just showing up" is enough to earna diploma, and they do the same with their child-rearing. They might be there, but they're not putting in any effort.
I swear I read that paragraph on the Libertarian Party website.
(shrug).
Although I cannot lay my hand upon any sentence that says, "Congress shall have power to extract money from the people and give it to other people", most people who support the welfare state point to the sentence about common welfare, and they think that ends the argument. Except as James Madison pointed out, if that were a true power of Congress, then there'd be no need to enumerate the rest of the powers, because "provide for common welfare" would give Congress power over everything, and that was not his intent when he crafted the document.
The sad part is that they are probably right. If they keep passing the same law, eventually they'll get a Supreme Court to let it slide. It might take 30 years but eventually it will slip through, and freedom will be curtailed.
The Congress and the President have sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution, and yet they break that oath constantly. If only there were some kind of punishment for the Congress & President when a law they passed is declared unconstitutional. Like removal from office. Maybe it could be a three strike deal where any Congressman or President who has 3 laws under their belt which were declared unconstitutional, they are immediately ejected from office for violating their U.S. Constitutional oath.
It would turn the oath from a toothless, meaningless string of words into something that has real effect & real consequences.
What part of, "Can you read the WHOLE posting before replying?" do you not comprehend? QUOTE: "Tell someone who has spent eleven years in jail..... For example, those persons who were jailed by the D.C Anti-gun Onership Law."
>>>If not considered as commerce then it's equivalent to speech, and would violate the First Amendment.
When I was in Utah I tried to buy the just-released copy of Playboy's College Girls. None of the stores sold it, and when I asked why they said it's illegal to sell such things in stores. So I ordered it via the mail. POINT: The first amendment applies in most situations, but not all. States still have a lot of power to regulate what happens within their borders.
And of course gambling is forbidden. If I wanted to gamble I had to drive an hour to the Nevada border (where prostitution is also legal). Kinda ironic. Utah is the most conservative state, but it's sitting directly next to one of the most liberal states. Nice balance there.
This isn't interstate commerce. Telling a company, "You can't create a website at www.gambling.state.ky" is no different than telling a company they can't build a gambling house in Louisville.
Go visit Utah sometime. If you want gambling or porn, you have to drive to Nevada. Within the state, those activities are banned. (You can buy a copy of Playboy through the mail, but not in stores.)
>>>Oh these cute Americans. I love how each state thinks it is pretty much the only thing in existence and the rest of the world can play by it's rules.
Oh these cute Europeans. I love how each state in the EU thinks it is pretty much the only thing in existence and the rest of the world can play by it's rules. ;-)
If Kentucky wants to ban gambling within its border, its certainly within its right to do so, just the same as Spain can ban gambling insides its border. The two are analogous situations. When I was in Utah, I thought it was amusing how Salt Lake residents drove an hour to gamble in Wendover Nevada. It seems silly to me that Utah bans gambling but that's what they desire, so that's what the Legislature gives them. It's democracy in action.
In California they require emissions tests. In Nebraska they don't. Different states; different rules.
The difference being that 64 was NOT recommended. It was clearly stated that ZP would not work properly.
128 was the recommended RAM size, and is equivalent to when Microsoft claimed a PC was "Vista capable" at only 512. No wonder customers were dismayed their shiny-new 512 meg PCs were NOT Vista capable.
The reason Madoff's scheme lasted so long was because, like Jobs, he had developed a "can do no wrong" persona wall street. Perhaps if the SEC of 2004 (overly trusting) had been more like the SEC of 2009 (skeptical and quick to investigate), Madoff would have been stopped earlier when his scheme was only Millions of dollars in size instead of billions.
I don't see any harm in the SEC at least *looking* at the situation. Better to be cautious than to say five years later, "Ooops, we dropped the ball."