Recently a friend, who works construction laying cement, got called up for jury duty. This was actually and really a hardship for him; while his nice union dues cover him in many areas, they do not for jury duty. Losing tons of money every day, he was doing everything he could to get out of there.
He says he saw the best thing he could of done was get his old Metallica "Ride the Lightning" concert T-shirt. He says the guy that already knew to wear it, got out of there in record time.
Almost everybody doesn't know what the SUPER smart guys, that think about CRAZY stuff, and have no option to hypothesize things... up until someone builds new tools to answer questions that they asked.
These guys are going to get it WRONG a fair amount of the time. Wrong is just as good as right, with questions as whacked out far out as these are.
The Science you are thinking of is in how it is applicable. That is totally not really the job of these other guys.
Dreamers, if it makes it easier. Thank GOD there are still some out there asking, and getting answered, some crazy fun stuff.
Give me a break. You know why there are still so many IE 6 users out there? Big corporations with web apps that will not run on anything newer. It is hardly Microsoft's fault that GE still uses IE 6 as default because of the numerous applications, that they have paid millions of dollars for, REQUIRE IE 6.
Get off it. You can compare the multitudes of personal users (like myself) that use FF3, only use FF when possible, but trying to say that translates into MS being worried?
Get a clue. MS is still untouchable with IE 6 in corporate areas... perhaps Mozilla should be worried?
Yes, let us not do something just because the payoff is at a future date. Nothing is worth doing, if we do not reap the benefits while "I" am in office.
Inexperience ringing as truth to the inexperienced; Obama for prez.
AT&T: Unlimited personal data for $20- On my BB anyway. It would be $35 if I wanted to connect to a BES server, but I don't want to be THAT available for work.
It is a little worse than the parent describes actually.
If Windows fails to load, decrypting is rarely the solution. The reason Windows typically fails to load, is because the hard drive is failing with bad blocks all over the place. Guess what happens when you try to decrypt such a drive? Of course it dies completely before you ever get the chance to slave it for the data. Thank goodness On-Track has a deal with Safeboot that they can unencrylt drives as well as recover failed drives. $3,000 not included.
Then imagine if you will, the Safeboot console. Think 486SX33 without the Turbo button pushed. Seriously, the server is SO slow to work with, it takes literally MINUTES to locate a machine via a search in a large environment. Push the damn turbo button already.
Now picture the offshored IT people, crated into the country by the bushel, doing the jobs that no American is qualified for (for the price). Imagine the server DB needing to be restored to a previous state (during rollout still) that causes the entire leadership team to suddenly not be able to login to their laptops while on a working weekend to Vale. The server DB seems to go corrupt a lot, which always causes a percentage of problems depending on the length of the rollback. Any machines that updated during that time, get hosed inside of 30 days.
The support structure is simply too stupid to handle software like this correctly.
Safeboot, it makes your data so safe, even YOU cannot access it.
The vast majority of today's games suck, it's just that most people haven't realized it 'cause they're shiny and new.
Exactly. There have been few good games in the last several years. Plenty of pretty ones, but if it only holds your interest for a few months, then it was NOT a good game.
Not sure if it is funny, or sad, that if a game holds interest for a few months, it is considered good by today's players?
CRT does not necessarily mean a "tube" TV. Standard, old school rear projection TV (RPTV) sets use CRT guns for the picture. And thus, are probably still the standard for quality, despite its other deficiencies.
Those deficiencies being possible burn-in, unless you take steps to avoid it (not hard), simple MASS of the unit (My 65" is not a small piece), somewhat fragile when it comes to moves (don't bang it around too much or the guns get misaligned), vulnerability to bright ambient light, and the projection screen itself is expensive if it gets damaged for some reason.
LCD, plasma, and projectors (Non-CRT projectors) are great in that they get rid of some or all of the above. But they are NOT as good of picture quality.
DLP on the other hand, gets you somewhat the best of both worlds. It is still CRT driven (quality) and makes headways into burn-in and size, as well as ambient lighting.
DLP is the way to go, if you can afford it. RPTV if you have the space and can deal with the light, and cannot afford DLP.
It is illegal according to the 401B visa. According to that, only jobs that cannot be filled by citizens can be filled by people coming in on technical Visa. You have to post locally, and only if you cannot find a local employee, do you import someone to do it.
IANAL so I don't know how everyone gets around this, and more to the point, I don't care.
Why do people continue to post as if we are truly in a world economy? Go try and get a job in India, and see what happens.
A common retort by "them" when faced with the reality that offshoring causes the US to lose jobs overseas, is that jobs are created in the US to support and/or augment those jobs that went overseas.
I call BS on that, and here is the question to ask if someone trys to use that line on you:
"What jobs, specifically, are created by sending other jobs overseas? Wouldn't those jobs have to exist anyway, if the parent job in question were not sent overseas?"
And finally, lets get some specifics here. Those that try to rebut the facts of offshoring never speak in specifics. Here is a specific for you:
At my company, about 50 helpdesk style jobs, level 1 class, were sent to Hydrabad India. How do those jobs leaving create jobs here? Level 2 does exist here, but if the level 1 jobs were here, you know what? The level 2 would still have to be here.
Here is another question:
"Why isn't it illegal to import people from India on 12 month visa to fill positions that get 400-500 resumes from local people, when they are posted according to US law? You cannot tell me that there isn't qualified NT admins in ANY local area, and yet these positions have imported labor."
And here is another specific: My company has over 150 imported Indians that fill all sorts of mundane IT jobs. After 12 months, they go away and are replaced by another cog in the offshoring machine. How is this creating jobs here? The managers/architects that supervise these people? Guess what, the supervisors/architects would have to exist anyway if Americans had these jobs.
And that is the part that seems totally illegal... importing people on visa to fill positions so the company doesn't have to pay local pay. Offshoring is one thing, but seemingly breaking the spirit of the visa rules for techincal people to fill positions that local people would LOVE to have. I know so many out of work, or working other random jobs they COULD get, that are more than qualified.
And this is the largest company in the world I am talking about here, not some fly-by-night gig.
And I went with cable. Part of my choice was because I prefer cable to DSL, but I would have gotten cable anyway, and here is why I chose that way-
1. I have an HDTV. I want to watch HD. I can either get DirecTV and get HDnet and HBO/Showtime, or get DISH and get CBS/HBO/Showtime. If I go Comcast, I get all the locals except for ABC, now in HD (Fox, CBS, NBC) and ABC will likely follow soon for me. As well as HBO and all that. Cable has Sat beat right now for HD content, at least in the case of Comcast, and at least in the case of the networks. I don't care much about PPV HD.
2. Cable does not require me to install anything on the outside of my house (townhouse), which I have to get approval for WHERE the dish goes and whatever. They can't REFUSE me, but I do have a hassle.
3. Dish would have been cheaper. That is true. Would have to pay extra for the local channels. I also would have had to install either multiple dishes (E*) or one larger than normal oval monstrosity (D*). HD requirements again, multiple satellites, etc.
4. HD equipment costs a ton for Sat TV. You are talking ~$500 for a receiver, cheapo one, not counting the nifty newer ones. I get an HD cable box from Comcast for free... well, $5/month. Upgrade whenever I want too, if they come out with a new one.
5. WAF (Wife Approval Factor) considerations. It is hard enough with a receiver remote, TV remote, cable remote, for the wife to know which channel to turn to for what. "Flip it to channel 113 for the Superbowl honey... we want to watch that in HD, not channel 4." That would only get worse with the HD receiver/DirecTivo setup I would have had with Sat. Switching input options on the TV also would have been too much for her to deal with, and I don't care to have that conversation. Again.
Bottom line is, cable is less hassle, Sat gives more options. If you can get Comcast or Time Warner cable though, then you are better off with cable if you want HD. Soon though, that may change with Sat and new sattelites, but I doubt getting all the local channels in HD will happen in Sat... you will get one for your timezone at best.
HD is starting to look bad for Sat now that the big cable guys have passed them up.
1. Any time. Starting this Friday of course, along with SG1.
2. Couldn't tell you. Contrary to popular anti-digital TV rhetoric, I don't watch everything in HD. However, there are some very nice clips of CSI I have recorded... (yes, you CAN record and timeshift HD, its just not as easy as my Tivo).
Hmm, I have one (65" 16x9 Mitsubishi). My parents have one (56" 16x9 Mits). A friend of mine has one (65" 16x9 Pioneer). A co-worker has one (56" 16x9 Mits).
And if you think the only benefit to DIGITAL TV (This is not the same thing as HD BTW) is being able to see what breand of cereal Raymond eats... well, I'm not sure how to respond to that actually.
Digital TV can allow for easier upscaling of the picture. When viewing a digital broadcast pulled in via antennae into my HTPC's Digital TV card (Hipix), the picture is vastly superior to my digital cable (digital cable sucks in my area). Part of the reason is, the Hipix card upscales normal digital broadcasts, and does so quite well.
In my experience, and all those mentioned above got their TV's AFTER seeing mine, those who deride the benfot of Digital TV (real digital) and/or HD... either have not actually watched it, or simply don't watch enough TV to make it worth while.
If you don't watch much TV... more power to you. If you haven't actually watched it (seeing it at the store doesn't count), them quit pontificating qbout what you know NOTHING about.
Agreed. The only part that makes this stink is how the website was actually touting the $200 savings. THAT, to a reasonable person, would imply that they knew the card was worth at least $329, which is still a good price for it currently.
I really don't know where people get this "Advertised price = binding contract" crap. It never was and never will be. What you DO get, is customer dis-satisfaction by making "mistakes" like this. That does indeed have a price tag attached, and the company would have to evaluate the financial impact of that dis-satisfaction against paying out for the pre-orders.
I think BB may have underestimated the internet (shock) on this issue. Factor in some store managers caving in, and now they have a huge problem.
They should have just kept up the stonewall from the beginning, and it would have been no different than errors in their print ads. Now that they have caved a little, they probably need to go all the way.
what on earth is the trigger going to be for this "backlash" that I keep hearing about?
Hopefully the difference here is the 2 million people that have already bought HDTV's, spending somwhere in the neighborhood of $2000-10000 or more on them. You are talking about a few billion dollars consumers have already spent in order to get this extra quality. And now, you have the MPAA and company threatening to take this quality away... and at the same time, for all of those who have not bought an HDTV yet, take away your fair use rights to timeshift, etc.
I see the distinction between this situation and the region coding of DVD's as night and day. The region coding has not changed since it was released. The only way it could be similar, is if all of a sudden, the MPAA could somehow prevent me from watching the DVD's I have already purchased.
I have already bought an HDTV, and I already today watch HDTV. If the MPAA gets their way, tomorrow (metaphorically speaking) I will no longer be able to use my set to watch HDTV. I will only be able to watch downconverted material, if that.
This HDTV/DTV issue incorporates the similar fair use rights as the DVD region issue, but also adds significant financial hardship to those that have already purchased a set. I hope this additional financial weight can make a difference so I don't get screwed.
So far from the truth... Do you receive digital OTA to make that comparison? I have analog cable, digital cable, and OTA digital all going into a TV where the difference is not even close. I am not talking the difference between 480i and 480p either... I am talking night and day for even my wife.
What interference do tell? A digital OTA signal is either on or off. You either get it in full, or not at all.
Please don't post comments on topics you know nothing about.
The keyword in my original comment was MOST. MOST people do not have a progressive scan DVD player, or a TV that even has the component-in to actually display a 480p signal.
I spent $399 on my Hipix for my HTPC. Not cheap, but no more than many of us spend on a video card.
Ok, you are right... they are Mpeg2. However, cable and satellite broadcasters, compress beyond this to fit more channels on their spectrums/cables. I should have clarified that they were not compressed beyond what is done for Mpeg2.
While I am happy to see some attention being bandied about concerning HDTV, I wish it were a little more accurate. It is a complicated subject though, so it is a comming thing in the articles that have been written to not be 100% factually correct.
For example, you do not NEED two dishes for DirecTV... only the one oval dish. Two would also work though. For Dish, you do need two.
Fox digital broadcasts are not simply "480 lines". They are 480p, like a progressive scan DVD player. While a FAR cry from CBS's 1080i, or from ABC's 720p, it is still much better than what most people see even on their DVD's. Fox has other problems in their presentation though. For example, they "zoom" the picture so it fills a 16x9 TV. This effectively cuts off an inch on the top and bottom of the picture. Why they don't just send it through standard, like ALL the other networks do, and leave it to the viewer to decide on how they want to view it (standard, stretched, zoomed, etc), is beyond me.
Another little known fact, is that the OTA (over the air) broadcasts that are available to most, comes in a better picture quality than analog cable, digital cable, or digital sattelite. It is a very noticeable difference too. The digital broadcasts done OTA are not compressed in any way... great 480i picture (usually better since many/most HDTV's use a line doubler of some sort). Broadcasts done over cable or satellite are all compressed to certain degrees, resulting in pixelation and downright nastiness. Some are better than others, but OTA is better than all of them.
If you like to watch TV, I think it is worth it. Check out www.antennaweb.org to see what digital channels are available in your area, and what antenna you would need to receive them... I guess there is a place to check.
Check out www.avsforum.com to learn all you could ever want to know about anything to do with Home Theater, HDTV, HTPC, and more.
The information is out there; the problem is that you have to go look for it. I agree... the sales people should know more about this stuff so consumers don't get screwed. But really, is sale person's lack of knowledge about a product they are selling something new?
Slashdot Mirror
Funny story time.
Recently a friend, who works construction laying cement, got called up for jury duty. This was actually and really a hardship for him; while his nice union dues cover him in many areas, they do not for jury duty. Losing tons of money every day, he was doing everything he could to get out of there.
He says he saw the best thing he could of done was get his old Metallica "Ride the Lightning" concert T-shirt. He says the guy that already knew to wear it, got out of there in record time.
http://www.80stees.com/prodImageDisplay.asp?prodid=METAL001&image=METAL001_SM3.jpg&lgimage=METAL001_LG3.jpg&gender=Mens
Almost everybody doesn't know what the SUPER smart guys, that think about CRAZY stuff, and have no option to hypothesize things... up until someone builds new tools to answer questions that they asked.
These guys are going to get it WRONG a fair amount of the time. Wrong is just as good as right, with questions as whacked out far out as these are.
The Science you are thinking of is in how it is applicable. That is totally not really the job of these other guys.
Dreamers, if it makes it easier. Thank GOD there are still some out there asking, and getting answered, some crazy fun stuff.
It is a form of art to make many of those pictures look good.
It may piss you off, just a little, but there is this thing called "dibs".
For sure someone has shotgun too.
And you know guys that can call those are BUSY.
Give me a break. You know why there are still so many IE 6 users out there? Big corporations with web apps that will not run on anything newer. It is hardly Microsoft's fault that GE still uses IE 6 as default because of the numerous applications, that they have paid millions of dollars for, REQUIRE IE 6.
Get off it. You can compare the multitudes of personal users (like myself) that use FF3, only use FF when possible, but trying to say that translates into MS being worried?
Get a clue. MS is still untouchable with IE 6 in corporate areas... perhaps Mozilla should be worried?
What crap.
Yes, let us not do something just because the payoff is at a future date. Nothing is worth doing, if we do not reap the benefits while "I" am in office.
Inexperience ringing as truth to the inexperienced; Obama for prez.
AT&T: Unlimited personal data for $20- On my BB anyway. It would be $35 if I wanted to connect to a BES server, but I don't want to be THAT available for work.
Other issues with Safeboot-
It is a little worse than the parent describes actually.
If Windows fails to load, decrypting is rarely the solution. The reason Windows typically fails to load, is because the hard drive is failing with bad blocks all over the place. Guess what happens when you try to decrypt such a drive? Of course it dies completely before you ever get the chance to slave it for the data. Thank goodness On-Track has a deal with Safeboot that they can unencrylt drives as well as recover failed drives. $3,000 not included.
Then imagine if you will, the Safeboot console. Think 486SX33 without the Turbo button pushed. Seriously, the server is SO slow to work with, it takes literally MINUTES to locate a machine via a search in a large environment. Push the damn turbo button already.
Now picture the offshored IT people, crated into the country by the bushel, doing the jobs that no American is qualified for (for the price). Imagine the server DB needing to be restored to a previous state (during rollout still) that causes the entire leadership team to suddenly not be able to login to their laptops while on a working weekend to Vale. The server DB seems to go corrupt a lot, which always causes a percentage of problems depending on the length of the rollback. Any machines that updated during that time, get hosed inside of 30 days.
The support structure is simply too stupid to handle software like this correctly.
Safeboot, it makes your data so safe, even YOU cannot access it.
The vast majority of today's games suck, it's just that most people haven't realized it 'cause they're shiny and new.
Exactly. There have been few good games in the last several years. Plenty of pretty ones, but if it only holds your interest for a few months, then it was NOT a good game.
Not sure if it is funny, or sad, that if a game holds interest for a few months, it is considered good by today's players?
CRT does not necessarily mean a "tube" TV. Standard, old school rear projection TV (RPTV) sets use CRT guns for the picture. And thus, are probably still the standard for quality, despite its other deficiencies.
Those deficiencies being possible burn-in, unless you take steps to avoid it (not hard), simple MASS of the unit (My 65" is not a small piece), somewhat fragile when it comes to moves (don't bang it around too much or the guns get misaligned), vulnerability to bright ambient light, and the projection screen itself is expensive if it gets damaged for some reason.
LCD, plasma, and projectors (Non-CRT projectors) are great in that they get rid of some or all of the above. But they are NOT as good of picture quality.
DLP on the other hand, gets you somewhat the best of both worlds. It is still CRT driven (quality) and makes headways into burn-in and size, as well as ambient lighting.
DLP is the way to go, if you can afford it. RPTV if you have the space and can deal with the light, and cannot afford DLP.
"NASA should push inward and delve deep into Earth's oceans."
Dirk Pitt should get out of Africa and into this great unknown.
Call NUMA.
It is illegal according to the 401B visa. According to that, only jobs that cannot be filled by citizens can be filled by people coming in on technical Visa. You have to post locally, and only if you cannot find a local employee, do you import someone to do it.
IANAL so I don't know how everyone gets around this, and more to the point, I don't care.
Why do people continue to post as if we are truly in a world economy? Go try and get a job in India, and see what happens.
Odd... my Camry was built by Americans in Kentucky, while my wife's GMC was built in Mexico.
Buy American just doesn't mean the same thing as it used to, does it?
A common retort by "them" when faced with the reality that offshoring causes the US to lose jobs overseas, is that jobs are created in the US to support and/or augment those jobs that went overseas.
I call BS on that, and here is the question to ask if someone trys to use that line on you:
"What jobs, specifically, are created by sending other jobs overseas? Wouldn't those jobs have to exist anyway, if the parent job in question were not sent overseas?"
And finally, lets get some specifics here. Those that try to rebut the facts of offshoring never speak in specifics. Here is a specific for you:
At my company, about 50 helpdesk style jobs, level 1 class, were sent to Hydrabad India. How do those jobs leaving create jobs here? Level 2 does exist here, but if the level 1 jobs were here, you know what? The level 2 would still have to be here.
Here is another question:
"Why isn't it illegal to import people from India on 12 month visa to fill positions that get 400-500 resumes from local people, when they are posted according to US law? You cannot tell me that there isn't qualified NT admins in ANY local area, and yet these positions have imported labor."
And here is another specific:
My company has over 150 imported Indians that fill all sorts of mundane IT jobs. After 12 months, they go away and are replaced by another cog in the offshoring machine. How is this creating jobs here? The managers/architects that supervise these people? Guess what, the supervisors/architects would have to exist anyway if Americans had these jobs.
And that is the part that seems totally illegal... importing people on visa to fill positions so the company doesn't have to pay local pay. Offshoring is one thing, but seemingly breaking the spirit of the visa rules for techincal people to fill positions that local people would LOVE to have. I know so many out of work, or working other random jobs they COULD get, that are more than qualified.
And this is the largest company in the world I am talking about here, not some fly-by-night gig.
We need to examine what we have done to the asteroids to make them hate us so much. Ultimately, that's the only way to stop asteroid attacks.
Sadly, I think your irony is lost on the typical reader around here.
And I went with cable. Part of my choice was because I prefer cable to DSL, but I would have gotten cable anyway, and here is why I chose that way-
1. I have an HDTV. I want to watch HD. I can either get DirecTV and get HDnet and HBO/Showtime, or get DISH and get CBS/HBO/Showtime. If I go Comcast, I get all the locals except for ABC, now in HD (Fox, CBS, NBC) and ABC will likely follow soon for me. As well as HBO and all that. Cable has Sat beat right now for HD content, at least in the case of Comcast, and at least in the case of the networks. I don't care much about PPV HD.
2. Cable does not require me to install anything on the outside of my house (townhouse), which I have to get approval for WHERE the dish goes and whatever. They can't REFUSE me, but I do have a hassle.
3. Dish would have been cheaper. That is true. Would have to pay extra for the local channels. I also would have had to install either multiple dishes (E*) or one larger than normal oval monstrosity (D*). HD requirements again, multiple satellites, etc.
4. HD equipment costs a ton for Sat TV. You are talking ~$500 for a receiver, cheapo one, not counting the nifty newer ones. I get an HD cable box from Comcast for free... well, $5/month. Upgrade whenever I want too, if they come out with a new one.
5. WAF (Wife Approval Factor) considerations. It is hard enough with a receiver remote, TV remote, cable remote, for the wife to know which channel to turn to for what. "Flip it to channel 113 for the Superbowl honey... we want to watch that in HD, not channel 4." That would only get worse with the HD receiver/DirecTivo setup I would have had with Sat. Switching input options on the TV also would have been too much for her to deal with, and I don't care to have that conversation. Again.
Bottom line is, cable is less hassle, Sat gives more options. If you can get Comcast or Time Warner cable though, then you are better off with cable if you want HD. Soon though, that may change with Sat and new sattelites, but I doubt getting all the local channels in HD will happen in Sat... you will get one for your timezone at best.
HD is starting to look bad for Sat now that the big cable guys have passed them up.
What everyone fails to realize here, is that HR stands for Heinous Rape-age.
I just wish they would call that department what its real function is-
CCA- Cover Corporate Asses Department
LTE- Lie To Employees Department
PTH- Pretend to be Helpful Department
1. Any time. Starting this Friday of course, along with SG1.
2. Couldn't tell you. Contrary to popular anti-digital TV rhetoric, I don't watch everything in HD. However, there are some very nice clips of CSI I have recorded... (yes, you CAN record and timeshift HD, its just not as easy as my Tivo).
Remember the honey seen in CSI Miami? Mmm, honey.
Hmm, I have one (65" 16x9 Mitsubishi). My parents have one (56" 16x9 Mits). A friend of mine has one (65" 16x9 Pioneer). A co-worker has one (56" 16x9 Mits).
And if you think the only benefit to DIGITAL TV (This is not the same thing as HD BTW) is being able to see what breand of cereal Raymond eats... well, I'm not sure how to respond to that actually.
Digital TV can allow for easier upscaling of the picture. When viewing a digital broadcast pulled in via antennae into my HTPC's Digital TV card (Hipix), the picture is vastly superior to my digital cable (digital cable sucks in my area). Part of the reason is, the Hipix card upscales normal digital broadcasts, and does so quite well.
In my experience, and all those mentioned above got their TV's AFTER seeing mine, those who deride the benfot of Digital TV (real digital) and/or HD... either have not actually watched it, or simply don't watch enough TV to make it worth while.
If you don't watch much TV... more power to you. If you haven't actually watched it (seeing it at the store doesn't count), them quit pontificating qbout what you know NOTHING about.
Jeff
Agreed. The only part that makes this stink is how the website was actually touting the $200 savings. THAT, to a reasonable person, would imply that they knew the card was worth at least $329, which is still a good price for it currently.
I really don't know where people get this "Advertised price = binding contract" crap. It never was and never will be. What you DO get, is customer dis-satisfaction by making "mistakes" like this. That does indeed have a price tag attached, and the company would have to evaluate the financial impact of that dis-satisfaction against paying out for the pre-orders.
I think BB may have underestimated the internet (shock) on this issue. Factor in some store managers caving in, and now they have a huge problem.
They should have just kept up the stonewall from the beginning, and it would have been no different than errors in their print ads. Now that they have caved a little, they probably need to go all the way.
what on earth is the trigger going to be for this "backlash" that I keep hearing about?
Hopefully the difference here is the 2 million people that have already bought HDTV's, spending somwhere in the neighborhood of $2000-10000 or more on them. You are talking about a few billion dollars consumers have already spent in order to get this extra quality. And now, you have the MPAA and company threatening to take this quality away... and at the same time, for all of those who have not bought an HDTV yet, take away your fair use rights to timeshift, etc.
I see the distinction between this situation and the region coding of DVD's as night and day. The region coding has not changed since it was released. The only way it could be similar, is if all of a sudden, the MPAA could somehow prevent me from watching the DVD's I have already purchased.
I have already bought an HDTV, and I already today watch HDTV. If the MPAA gets their way, tomorrow (metaphorically speaking) I will no longer be able to use my set to watch HDTV. I will only be able to watch downconverted material, if that.
This HDTV/DTV issue incorporates the similar fair use rights as the DVD region issue, but also adds significant financial hardship to those that have already purchased a set. I hope this additional financial weight can make a difference so I don't get screwed.
Yes, I mispoke. I meant compressed beyond the original Mpeg2, like satellite and cable does. I thought it was 17Mbit, but heck, I could be wrong!
>
So far from the truth... Do you receive digital OTA to make that comparison? I have analog cable, digital cable, and OTA digital all going into a TV where the difference is not even close. I am not talking the difference between 480i and 480p either... I am talking night and day for even my wife.
What interference do tell? A digital OTA signal is either on or off. You either get it in full, or not at all.
Please don't post comments on topics you know nothing about.
>
The keyword in my original comment was MOST. MOST people do not have a progressive scan DVD player, or a TV that even has the component-in to actually display a 480p signal.
I spent $399 on my Hipix for my HTPC. Not cheap, but no more than many of us spend on a video card.
Ok, you are right... they are Mpeg2. However, cable and satellite broadcasters, compress beyond this to fit more channels on their spectrums/cables. I should have clarified that they were not compressed beyond what is done for Mpeg2.
While I am happy to see some attention being bandied about concerning HDTV, I wish it were a little more accurate. It is a complicated subject though, so it is a comming thing in the articles that have been written to not be 100% factually correct.
For example, you do not NEED two dishes for DirecTV... only the one oval dish. Two would also work though. For Dish, you do need two.
Fox digital broadcasts are not simply "480 lines". They are 480p, like a progressive scan DVD player. While a FAR cry from CBS's 1080i, or from ABC's 720p, it is still much better than what most people see even on their DVD's. Fox has other problems in their presentation though. For example, they "zoom" the picture so it fills a 16x9 TV. This effectively cuts off an inch on the top and bottom of the picture. Why they don't just send it through standard, like ALL the other networks do, and leave it to the viewer to decide on how they want to view it (standard, stretched, zoomed, etc), is beyond me.
Another little known fact, is that the OTA (over the air) broadcasts that are available to most, comes in a better picture quality than analog cable, digital cable, or digital sattelite. It is a very noticeable difference too. The digital broadcasts done OTA are not compressed in any way... great 480i picture (usually better since many/most HDTV's use a line doubler of some sort). Broadcasts done over cable or satellite are all compressed to certain degrees, resulting in pixelation and downright nastiness. Some are better than others, but OTA is better than all of them.
If you like to watch TV, I think it is worth it. Check out www.antennaweb.org to see what digital channels are available in your area, and what antenna you would need to receive them... I guess there is a place to check.
Check out www.avsforum.com to learn all you could ever want to know about anything to do with Home Theater, HDTV, HTPC, and more.
The information is out there; the problem is that you have to go look for it. I agree... the sales people should know more about this stuff so consumers don't get screwed. But really, is sale person's lack of knowledge about a product they are selling something new?
Jeff