ATSC requires less energy to transmit than DVB-T, due to the use of 8VSB modulation rather than OFDM; hence it is cheaper to use. If the USA were as densely packed as most of Europe, then DVB-T would probably be a slam dunk, but we have vast rural areas, and idiotically-built suburbs, and the TV signal needs to reach its audience at a cost that the broadcasters can sustain.
With DVB you can create a Single Frequency Network. This can either be used to span great distances, or to fill in blackspots in cities. Can't do that with ATSC....
you can do HD over DVB I have seen BBC trials... It's not just trials. In Australia we've had HDTV over DVB-T since the beginning of 2001. We even use MPEG2, whereas I believe the BBC trials are using MPEG4.
Australia also has a lot in common with the US (large rural areas), and did trials comparing the two systems (DVB-T and ATSC) but ultimately chose DVB-T. I'm sure the reasons are detailed somewhere.
"Hey...here's $200. Keep an eye on the place for a couple of months and water the plants." Turn the water off at the street and turn the heat down. They might find it hard to water the garden without any water....
There is a distinction between this and the great firewall. In this case Google has chosen to pre-emptively censor the results themselves, so the government doesn't need to censor it.
What the article's talking about is access being blocked to sites like the BBC.
SMP means the processors are similar (i.e. can run identical binary code). They do not need to run in lock-step synchonization to be SMP.
The Symmetric in SMP refers to the fact that each process can run the same tasks.In an assymmetric setup, there may be a processor dedicated to the kernel or other tasks.
Uh...you realize that here in the good ol' USofA, our computers do exactly the same thing? Because, uh, we already have daylight saving time. The "problem" is that they are changing the period of time that it covers.
Well do you realise that we here in Australia have also had changes to our daylight saving time? I remember it changed when Sydney had the Olympics. The world didn't end for us then, I'm sure it won't for you now either.
What's fair about that? Why the hell should I have to pay a 3% "Visa Tax" for everything I buy if I pay cash? Why should I be forced by a couple of large organizations (Visa, Mastercard, etc) to buy their services bundled with every purchase I make, regardless of whether I use them? Cash discounts should be the norm, and frankly I think the agreement banning passing that cost on should be considered an illegal abuse of a monopoly position.
A few years ago, here in Australia, credit card companies were prevented from stopping merchants from passing on charges. But as far as I can tell, what happened after this was that prices stayed the same, but some merchants now charged a surcharge on top of the existing price. They're now able to advertise something at a price less than what you'll probably end up paying.
As a consumer, I preferred the old system, where merchants just absorbed the cost of the CC service. I knew what I would pay for something, and I felt free to make use of all the benefits of paying by CC (interest free period, rewards, insurance,..)
A VCR is still easier to tape Angel with than some sort of digital system.
You really should give mythtv a go. There's a good screen scraper for the guide information, and support for DVB cards is excellent now. I don't know why anyone would bother using an analogue card to do the same thing. A digital card is less than a PVR-250. Angel is in widescreen, so you're missing out if you're using a VCR (nevermind the normal quality issues). And if they change the time one week, you don't have to worry, it'll still be there waiting for you when you go to watch it. It's also great being able to program it away from home - something you can't do with a VCR.
For recording under Windows, I hear webvcr is pretty good.
I disagree. Yes, sometimes the digital signal does show up problems in the production, such as composite video, or that sort of thing. But there's also a lot of shows with extremely good picture quality. I prefer to have the digital signal, and see the quality where it's available, rather than watching everything with the all the problems of composite video.
It's a pity that channel seven are still unable to show most of their sport or live shows in widescreen, while even the ABC manages to show local football matches with fantastic widescreen picture. It was also disappointing that this year's formula 1 race here in Melbourne wasn't widescreen, but that wasn't channel ten's fault, as the f1 guys have taken back control over the tv coverage.
It has been a bit disappointing lately, with the amount of HD programming seeming to drop off a little. It's hard to believe that a few years ago, the three original star wars movies were shown in HD with 5.1 sound on Nine. Now the only show with 5.1 sound is A Current Affair (and maybe Mcloud's daughters). But the picture quality on shows like The Panel make them an absolute treat to watch.
For anyone wanting to see what's available in HD and SD, there's a pretty complete and accurate guide at www.widescreentv.info.
Just ignore 7's "HD", which really shouldn't count as HD. They use the 576p format, yet most of their
content comes from 1080i sources (both internally (apparently), and externally). So while we will apparently get some of the Olympics in "HD", it's pretty disappointing that they won't just show it in the correct 1080i format it's produced in.
I agree. I needed a new DVD player, so I got one that also plays SACDs and DVD-A. It was about $130, so the price was fairly reasonable. So I also got an SACD (Dark Side of the Moon) and played it on my system. On the player, you can switch between the SACD and the CD layer. So I would play a track in one mode, then switch to the other. I don't have 5.1, so I just listened in stereo.
Pretty much all of the DVD players which claim to play SACDs do it by converting the DSD audio to PCM. This means that all the (alleged) problems of PCM are reintroduced, so you're really not doing the SACD format justice. A true SACD player outputs the signal directly, without conversion to PCM.
That said, the DSD format does have some problems, such as a high noise floor at higher frequencies (due to the noise shaping needed to make it work)
>With the ownership like that, the bandwidth is also spread something like that, and
>the owners of each particular portion are able
>to sell it to whoever wants it. So my guess for the slowdown, is that
>the Aussie ISP is not the 40% owner and hence can't use the
>new Sothern Cross bandwidth.
This is not the case. The ISP in question was quoted in an article today as saying they will be hooked up to it by Christmas. The companies owning the cable are NOT the only ones using it. This ISP isn't one of the owners.
I'm not sure if anyone at all is actually using the cable yet anyway, they seem to all be testing it.
Funny you should mention that, because a few weeks ago there were reports in newspapers (ie. people knew about it) about a website (with a.com.au address) that was able to escape the regulations simply by moving the server overseas. The ABA (the organisation that is supposed to manage the regulations) admitted there was nothing they could do about it.
Really, comparing the before and after of ATA and Serial ATA?
Parallel ATA picture-lots of ribbon cables and power supply cables, looks like your typical floppy, CD, single hard drive setup.
Serial ATA picture-just a single serial(two or four conductor wire) for each drive. No power. I guess that those Serial ATA drives (floppy too?) won't require 5v and 12v power. or at least will only pull 40mAh or so...
oh well, it is a nice concept, but the pictures are a bit misleading.
Unless I'm missing something, the article did mention that they hope to use the same cable to supply power. It said that it probably won't be available initially, but that it's one of the features being planned. Personally, I would kill to be able to do that. It can be a huge pain adding new devices if there are already heaps in there. Imagine being able to put in a drive, and plug in just one cable. At the moment, putting in a new drive often requires finding the best bay for the drive, based on cable length, cable orientation etc.
Slashdot Mirror
It's not a donation, it's payment for use of the technology which was developed and then patented.
42Mbps is already available
Our outlets here in Australia (240V) have switches. I didn't think it was that unusual. No fuses in the plugs though.
The world doesn't revolve around AT&T. What about everyone outside the US?
Well, there is the N95 8GB
I believe bills can be introduced in the senate as well as the house of reps, just not for taxation or appropriation.
ATSC requires less energy to transmit than DVB-T, due to the use of 8VSB modulation rather than OFDM; hence it is cheaper to use. If the USA were as densely packed as most of Europe, then DVB-T would probably be a slam dunk, but we have vast rural areas, and idiotically-built suburbs, and the TV signal needs to reach its audience at a cost that the broadcasters can sustain.
With DVB you can create a Single Frequency Network.This can either be used to span great distances, or to fill in blackspots in cities. Can't do that with ATSC....
We even use MPEG2, whereas I believe the BBC trials are using MPEG4.
Australia also has a lot in common with the US (large rural areas), and did trials
comparing the two systems (DVB-T and ATSC) but ultimately chose DVB-T. I'm sure the reasons are
detailed somewhere.
There is a distinction between this and the great firewall. In this case Google
has chosen to pre-emptively censor the results themselves, so the government
doesn't need to censor it.
What the article's talking about is access being blocked to sites like the BBC.
SMP means the processors are similar (i.e. can run identical binary code). They do not need to run in lock-step synchonization to be SMP.
The Symmetric in SMP refers to the fact that each process can run the same tasks.In an assymmetric setup, there may be a processor dedicated to the kernel or other tasks.
It most definitely has nothing to do with speed.
A few years ago, here in Australia, credit card companies were prevented from stopping merchants from passing on charges. But as far as I can tell, what happened after this was that prices stayed the same, but some merchants now charged a surcharge on top of the existing price. They're now able to advertise something at a price less than what you'll probably end up paying.
There's info on the ACCC website.
As a consumer, I preferred the old system, where merchants just absorbed the cost of the CC service. I knew what I would pay for something, and I felt free to make use of all the benefits of paying by CC (interest free period, rewards, insurance,
Well, that's obviously not true. In fact, there will even be US election coverage on the AM band.
NewsRadio are promising coverage starting about 10am.
For recording under Windows, I hear webvcr is pretty good.
It's a pity that channel seven are still unable to show most of their sport or live shows in widescreen, while even the ABC manages to show local football matches with fantastic widescreen picture. It was also disappointing that this year's formula 1 race here in Melbourne wasn't widescreen, but that wasn't channel ten's fault, as the f1 guys have taken back control over the tv coverage.
It has been a bit disappointing lately, with the amount of HD programming seeming to drop off a little. It's hard to believe that a few years ago, the three original star wars movies were shown in HD with 5.1 sound on Nine. Now the only show with 5.1 sound is A Current Affair (and maybe Mcloud's daughters). But the picture quality on shows like The Panel make them an absolute treat to watch.
For anyone wanting to see what's available in HD and SD, there's a pretty complete and accurate guide at www.widescreentv.info. Just ignore 7's "HD", which really shouldn't count as HD. They use the 576p format, yet most of their content comes from 1080i sources (both internally (apparently), and externally). So while we will apparently get some of the Olympics in "HD", it's pretty disappointing that they won't just show it in the correct 1080i format it's produced in.
DBA also supports a whole lot of interesting features (single frequency networks being the first that comes to mind) that ATSC doesn't.
Pretty much all of the DVD players which claim to play SACDs do it by converting the DSD audio to PCM. This means that all the (alleged) problems of PCM are reintroduced, so you're really not doing the SACD format justice. A true SACD player outputs the signal directly, without conversion to PCM.
That said, the DSD format does have some problems, such as a high noise floor at higher frequencies (due to the noise shaping needed to make it work)
You mean like the Slashdot meeting reminder [slashdot.org] that was posted on the front page yesterday?
Yes, that would be the one. The one that was posted over 9 hours after the Melbourne meetup (we're +1000).
The again, people who signed up did receive a few emails beforehand.
>With the ownership like that, the bandwidth is also spread something like that, and
>the owners of each particular portion are able
>to sell it to whoever wants it. So my guess for the slowdown, is that
>the Aussie ISP is not the 40% owner and hence can't use the
>new Sothern Cross bandwidth.
This is not the case. The ISP in question was quoted in an article today as saying they will be hooked up to it by Christmas. The companies owning the cable are NOT the only ones using it. This ISP isn't one of the owners.
I'm not sure if anyone at all is actually using the cable yet anyway, they seem to all be testing it.
I would assume they didn't physically move the server, but just moved the content onto a server in the US.
Funny you should mention that, because a few weeks ago there were reports in newspapers (ie. people knew about it) about a website (with a .com.au address) that was able to escape the regulations simply by moving the server overseas. The ABA (the organisation that is supposed to manage the regulations) admitted there was nothing they could do about it.
I need to stop using brackets damnit!
Parallel ATA picture-lots of ribbon cables and power supply cables, looks like your typical floppy, CD, single hard drive setup.
Serial ATA picture-just a single serial(two or four conductor wire) for each drive. No power. I guess that those Serial ATA drives (floppy too?) won't require 5v and 12v power. or at least will only pull 40mAh or so...
oh well, it is a nice concept, but the pictures are a bit misleading.
Unless I'm missing something, the article did mention that they hope to use the same cable to supply power. It said that it probably won't be available initially, but that it's one of the features being planned. Personally, I would kill to be able to do that. It can be a huge pain adding new devices if there are already heaps in there. Imagine being able to put in a drive, and plug in just one cable. At the moment, putting in a new drive often requires finding the best bay for the drive, based on cable length, cable orientation etc.