4 years ago I was standing at WHD@CBS (the testing grounds for the ATSC Grand Alliance) in Washington, demo'ing datacasting over ATSC.
Not so interesting, except for the fact that Panasonic had two engineers from Japan with a demonstration of HD-DVD. Their prototype demo with two black boxes and a (at that time) prototype 50"+ plasma display used existing DVD discs, and it worked.
On the other side, professional MPEG2 encoders are no longer required to use 14-16Mbits CBR to encode HD. A lot of optimization has taken place in the last 5 years. VBR and optimized motion estimation have squeezed the bitrate all the way down to 1Mbit on still scenes.
Food for thought. Ask yourselves why we need new discs, players, and compression. CSS was a screw-up, and they are looking for any way possible to make this new delivery platform as hard to pirate as possible, with bullshit reasons as an excuse.
It is also a known fact that many people (standards body members) would prefer to use MPEG4 (pt10, whatever) to carry HD-DVD, since with this it can fit on existing discs, albeit requiring a new hardware dvd decoder that supports the codec. I'm sure that will not happen, for reasons we all know.
After all, these are the same people who cry because terrorists are living in harsh conditions in Cuba. The same idiots who were enchanted by communism in the 40's (and then later reniged when it wasn't 'cool to be commie' anymore). The same morons who whined because airports were not recruiting arabs to handle baggage screening after Sep.11.
I honestly don't think we should be taking these clowns seriously.
On a sidenote (after having looked at said site) -
This revolutionary technology (sarcasm off) is already included in open standards for DTV - its called triggering.
Big deal.
Another f@ckedcompany.com ?
The windows version is not Java. You cannot play Divx though java via JMF since JMF does not support the windows codecs, so it would be impossible w/o say C/C++ media wrappers.
It uses C/C++ ActiveX for the core with wrapper apps. The Linux version is though. And this is so it can be tested on a JavaOS settopbox. If you work in the settopbox field then you will know that Java for interactive services is coming along nicely and could be big, especially for ATVEF et al.
My hopes are that by the time it is finalized JMF will include MPEG4, or platform-dependent codec wrappers.
You need a Celeron 500, not a P3-600. And lets face it, for $60 why complain. Thats bottom of the barrel now. MPEG4 decoding @ post 1-Mbit takes CPU time, you know. And you'll notice CPU time is around 0.1% when not playing video.
Can the ppl who have built this like mr bubbles please post their links? I'd like to check them out - only one I could find besides mine was the DiVX Project, which is progressing nicely.
It has a range of 90cm. At 20cm it has a accuracy discrepancy of 1mm. At 90cm it is probably close to 1cm. It can't take pictures of areas larger than 90cm distance.
The screenshots neatly show reconstruction of a simple piece of pottery. Jesus, but if that isn't the simplest 3d object then I must be smoking something.
You'll get better stereoscopic results taping two $14 disposable cameras together! (I've done it, it works, just get the focal distance right).
Another example of useless technology. And I cringe at all the thousands of useless vertices this solution will create in 3d models. No thanks!
Oh, and note the accuracy discrepancy of 1mm is from a photo of a ping pong ball. Like we all need pictures of perfect round circles:P
"The study finds that the Sinclair demonstration has provided useful insight into certain indoor reception conditions, particularly with regard to strong multipath conditions, and possible deficiencies of some early DTV receiver designs. However, the study concludes that the multipath reception problems identified by Sinclair are solvable with improved adaptive equalizer performance and that a well-designed 8-VSB receiver should be able to provide satisfactory reception at the Sinclair locations. It further notes that signal strength and immunity to interference from impulse noise are also important factors in successful indoor reception and that 8-VSB may have some advantage over COFDM with regard to these factors."
From the FCC mouth right after Sinclair demonstrated the shortcomings of early 8VSB.
COFDM will probably stay in the mobile distribution arena I would bet.
And 8VSB is pretty well close to the reception of NTSC.
Get AOL and you get chatrooms filled with freaks and an endless barrage of spam and porn directed to your email account. Not to mention a KLUDGY gui.
As far as Time Warner goes - the service is ok but the quality and price is not (compared to other such services). Here in LA they have been promising cable modems for the last year and guess what, nothing yet.
And think about it - for AOL to get themselves into your livingroom they have to totally rethink their entire GUI system, because NOTHING about it fits the TV paradigm in any way. And we all know that this is the way they want to go - AOL-TV.
No thanks, count me out. Someone break this soon-to-be monopoly up already;-)
This is why you wait for the standards to be finalized before blowing your cash and paying a premium for technology that wont be used. But don't worry, its not final that firewire will be used. And I bet your HD set only supports resolutions and not EPG/etc. So you will probably need a external box anyway to tune the signal and put out RGB to your set.
"Right now only microwave satillite has the capacity to stream 19Mbps per channel to everyone on your block." First, what the heck is microwave satellite? And since when is satellite restricted to 19.2Mbit? 19.2Mbit is the limit for ATSC digital terrestrial. Anyway - Wrong. Terrestrial ATSC digital is being tested in a lot of areas. Thats 19.2Mbits to your BUNNY antenna that cost $5 at Radio Shack. Sure you will need a new converter box but hey you have a cable box, don't you? Same box, different innards, premium price of a few $ more after the usual inception of new technology hike.
"Oh yeah, broadcasters CAN as an option broadcast NTSC...does that seem like a bullshit plan to anyone else?" Hello, do you think there is infinite space in the spectrum to carry all NTSC and DTV signals? The space has to be reappropriated. This is not some way to screw you over. Please.
"Digital broadcasting needs entirely new equipment and that equipment costs money." Bunny antenna to your tv. Cost: $5. Set top box with conversion for display on SD tv. Cost: Probably a few $ more on rental per month over your cable box. Sure, you won't get the resolution (you'll need a new TV) but PLEASE don't tell me you are whining about the cost of higher resolution on your TV, Mr. Linux Computer Freak who must have 1600x1200 desktops and the latest hardware.
"So, if you think you are going to be seeing a better TV picture any time soon, think again. Except to spend lots of money to upgrade your equipment, but with zero reward." Bullshit. Let's take ATSC. 1 channel, 19.2Mbits. Expect to see two standard def signals in this space during the day, and 1 HDTV signal during premium hours. Expect the remaining Mbit of space to be used for high-speed data services. Stick a PCI card in your PC, and get webcasts and other cool stuff which blows VBI datacasts like Intel Intercast away. I know this, since I work on this. And NEWS flash, the quality over NTSC will definitely be better. Compare 1080i signals to a 525 line resolution NTSC signal. You seem to confuse the issues of MPEG compression and resolution. There IS a limit to which you can drop the MPEG encoding on HD or SD signals before it falls apart.
In short I haven't seen such a lot of misguided drivel in a long time on slashdot. You guys really need to pony up your knowledge before just screaming bloody murder.
People don't seem to realize that this kind of thing is an infancy stage for bigger things to come
Streaming video is actually improving. It's easy to sit and say 'well, right now it sucks'. Stand back for a second and compare it to what was available 2 or 3 years ago.
It's a great avenue for anyone with a camcorder and some editing software to be able to produce low budget and push their movies out to the masses with no overheads. That just can't be beat.
Venues like this and ifilm.com are bound to produce a lot of budding movie enthusiasts who have more the reason to produce something NOW, whereas before they were stuck with budget constraints and the impossibility of dealing with Big Brother publishing organizations!
Slashdot Mirror
4 years ago I was standing at WHD@CBS (the testing grounds for the ATSC Grand Alliance) in Washington, demo'ing datacasting over ATSC.
Not so interesting, except for the fact that Panasonic had two engineers from Japan with a demonstration of HD-DVD. Their prototype demo with two black boxes and a (at that time) prototype 50"+ plasma display used existing DVD discs, and it worked.
On the other side, professional MPEG2 encoders are no longer required to use 14-16Mbits CBR to encode HD. A lot of optimization has taken place in the last 5 years. VBR and optimized motion estimation have squeezed the bitrate all the way down to 1Mbit on still scenes.
Food for thought. Ask yourselves why we need new discs, players, and compression. CSS was a screw-up, and they are looking for any way possible to make this new delivery platform as hard to pirate as possible, with bullshit reasons as an excuse.
It is also a known fact that many people (standards body members) would prefer to use MPEG4 (pt10, whatever) to carry HD-DVD, since with this it can fit on existing discs, albeit requiring a new hardware dvd decoder that supports the codec. I'm sure that will not happen, for reasons we all know.
No-one takes the ACLU seriously.
After all, these are the same people who cry because terrorists are living in harsh conditions in Cuba. The same idiots who were enchanted by communism in the 40's (and then later reniged when it wasn't 'cool to be commie' anymore). The same morons who whined because airports were not recruiting arabs to handle baggage screening after Sep.11.
I honestly don't think we should be taking these clowns seriously.
On a sidenote (after having looked at said site) - This revolutionary technology (sarcasm off) is already included in open standards for DTV - its called triggering. Big deal. Another f@ckedcompany.com ?
The windows version is not Java. You cannot play Divx though java via JMF since JMF does not support the windows codecs, so it would be impossible w/o say C/C++ media wrappers.
It uses C/C++ ActiveX for the core with wrapper apps. The Linux version is though. And this is so it can be tested on a JavaOS settopbox. If you work in the settopbox field then you will know that Java for interactive services is coming along nicely and could be big, especially for ATVEF et al.
My hopes are that by the time it is finalized JMF will include MPEG4, or platform-dependent codec wrappers.
You need a Celeron 500, not a P3-600. And lets face it, for $60 why complain. Thats bottom of the barrel now. MPEG4 decoding @ post 1-Mbit takes CPU time, you know. And you'll notice CPU time is around 0.1% when not playing video.
Can the ppl who have built this like mr bubbles please post their links? I'd like to check them out - only one I could find besides mine was the DiVX Project, which is progressing nicely.
It has a range of 90cm. At 20cm it has a accuracy discrepancy of 1mm. At 90cm it is probably close to 1cm. It can't take pictures of areas larger than 90cm distance.
:P
The screenshots neatly show reconstruction of a simple piece of pottery. Jesus, but if that isn't the simplest 3d object then I must be smoking something.
You'll get better stereoscopic results taping two $14 disposable cameras together! (I've done it, it works, just get the focal distance right).
Another example of useless technology. And I cringe at all the thousands of useless vertices this solution will create in 3d models. No thanks!
Oh, and note the accuracy discrepancy of 1mm is from a photo of a ping pong ball. Like we all need pictures of perfect round circles
"The study finds that the Sinclair demonstration has provided useful insight into certain indoor reception conditions, particularly with regard to strong multipath conditions, and possible deficiencies of some early DTV receiver designs. However, the study concludes that the multipath reception problems identified by Sinclair are solvable with improved adaptive equalizer performance and that a well-designed 8-VSB receiver should be able to provide satisfactory reception at the Sinclair locations. It further notes that signal strength and immunity to interference from impulse noise are also important factors in successful indoor reception and that 8-VSB may have some advantage over COFDM with regard to these factors."
From the FCC mouth right after Sinclair demonstrated the shortcomings of early 8VSB.
COFDM will probably stay in the mobile distribution arena I would bet.
And 8VSB is pretty well close to the reception of NTSC.
Get AOL and you get chatrooms filled with freaks and an endless barrage of spam and porn directed to your email account. Not to mention a KLUDGY gui.
;-)
As far as Time Warner goes - the service is ok but the quality and price is not (compared to other such services). Here in LA they have been promising cable modems for the last year and guess what, nothing yet.
And think about it - for AOL to get themselves into your livingroom they have to totally rethink their entire GUI system, because NOTHING about it fits the TV paradigm in any way. And we all know that this is the way they want to go - AOL-TV.
No thanks, count me out. Someone break this soon-to-be monopoly up already
This is why you wait for the standards to be finalized before blowing your cash and paying a premium for technology that wont be used. But don't worry, its not final that firewire will be used. And I bet your HD set only supports resolutions and not EPG/etc. So you will probably need a external box anyway to tune the signal and put out RGB to your set.
Some comments:
"Right now only microwave satillite has the capacity to stream 19Mbps per channel to everyone on your block."
First, what the heck is microwave satellite? And since when is satellite restricted to 19.2Mbit? 19.2Mbit is the limit for ATSC digital terrestrial. Anyway - Wrong. Terrestrial ATSC digital is being tested in a lot of areas. Thats 19.2Mbits to your BUNNY antenna that cost $5 at Radio Shack. Sure you will need a new converter box but hey you have a cable box, don't you? Same box, different innards, premium price of a few $ more after the usual inception of new technology hike.
"Oh yeah, broadcasters CAN as an option broadcast NTSC...does that seem like a bullshit plan to anyone else?"
Hello, do you think there is infinite space in the spectrum to carry all NTSC and DTV signals? The space has to be reappropriated. This is not some way to screw you over. Please.
"Digital broadcasting needs entirely new equipment and that equipment costs money."
Bunny antenna to your tv. Cost: $5. Set top box with conversion for display on SD tv. Cost: Probably a few $ more on rental per month over your cable box. Sure, you won't get the resolution (you'll need a new TV) but PLEASE don't tell me you are whining about the cost of higher resolution on your TV, Mr. Linux Computer Freak who must have 1600x1200 desktops and the latest hardware.
"So, if you think you are going to be seeing a better TV picture any time soon, think again. Except to spend lots of money to upgrade your equipment, but with zero reward."
Bullshit. Let's take ATSC. 1 channel, 19.2Mbits. Expect to see two standard def signals in this space during the day, and 1 HDTV signal during premium hours. Expect the remaining Mbit of space to be used for high-speed data services. Stick a PCI card in your PC, and get webcasts and other cool stuff which blows VBI datacasts like Intel Intercast away. I know this, since I work on this.
And NEWS flash, the quality over NTSC will definitely be better. Compare 1080i signals to a 525 line resolution NTSC signal. You seem to confuse the issues of MPEG compression and resolution.
There IS a limit to which you can drop the MPEG encoding on HD or SD signals before it falls apart.
In short I haven't seen such a lot of misguided drivel in a long time on slashdot. You guys really need to pony up your knowledge before just screaming bloody murder.
People don't seem to realize that this kind of thing is an infancy stage for bigger things to come
Streaming video is actually improving. It's easy to sit and say 'well, right now it sucks'. Stand back for a second and compare it to what was available 2 or 3 years ago.
It's a great avenue for anyone with a camcorder and some editing software to be able to produce low budget and push their movies out to the masses with no overheads. That just can't be beat.
Venues like this and ifilm.com are bound to produce a lot of budding movie enthusiasts who have more the reason to produce something NOW, whereas before they were stuck with budget constraints and the impossibility of dealing with Big Brother publishing organizations!