AIUI, the TiVo box works by downloading listings via a dial-up connection, and MPEG-encoding an analogue TV signal.
The thing is, they released it in the UK after digital TV was "widely" available. IMHO, most of the people that would consider buying a TiVo are likely to be people who have digital TV.
DVB has digital, in-band listings information that can be updated in real-time if the line-up changes. Additionally, with something like Sky+ or one of the yet-to-surface digital terrestrial or cable DVR boxes, you don't have to decode the MPEG to analogue and then re-encode it to MPEG before you can record it. That makes for a cheaper box, with higher quality audio/video and better compression (so more stuff can be recorded).
I'm guessing that demand for integrated DVR systems will be much higher than it ever was for TiVo.
The 1 for 1 and 1.5 for 1 is just based on the relative prices of 1 AOL share and 1 TWC share.
What's more important is the market cap of the two companies - AOL is valued at around 2x the value of TWC, so they're the dominant party here. Either way, it's a merger - both companies seem happy to be a part of it.
> You used to get analog TV signals over the air for free.
No, we pay for our analogue programming, and (I think) always have done. The money goes to fund the BBC.
> Now you have to get a converter box, and you pay a fee to get digital TV signals over the air.
You have to get a converter box, yes. You also have to take out a subscription to a service, which gives you more programming as well as the fact that it's a digital service. You have to bear in mind that the UK's analogue terrestrial service consists of 5 channels, and that many people are willing to pay extra for more programming. This has been shown to work with the analogue satellite and cable TV systems that we've had for several years.
> Plus you still have that TV tax thingy, right? (license)
The government is considering the introduction of an additional charge, to be levied on top of the current licence fee (about 15-20%, I think) for digital TV. The broadcasters and manuafacturers are almost unanimously against this, as it is expected to slow the adoption of digital TV. The money raised will be going (at least in part) to the BBC to finance its digital services.
The transputer isn't dead yet - ST are still using the core inside many of their digital TV decoding chips (e.g. the ST20).
I don't know if you can still link them together with the inmos links, so the parallelism might be out the window. The low power and good code density make them useful for embedded applications, though.
In the sentence "Microsoft does not leave 'back doors' in our products", the word "does" is the third person singular form of the verb "to do", whereas "our" refers to the first person plural.
Slashdot Mirror
Everyone I know says they will "hoover the carpet"
I my house, it's moved on a stage from that. We "hoove" our carpets, as a hoover is clearly a device for hooving.
AIUI, the TiVo box works by downloading listings via a dial-up connection, and MPEG-encoding an analogue TV signal.
The thing is, they released it in the UK after digital TV was "widely" available. IMHO, most of the people that would consider buying a TiVo are likely to be people who have digital TV.
DVB has digital, in-band listings information that can be updated in real-time if the line-up changes. Additionally, with something like Sky+ or one of the yet-to-surface digital terrestrial or cable DVR boxes, you don't have to decode the MPEG to analogue and then re-encode it to MPEG before you can record it. That makes for a cheaper box, with higher quality audio/video and better compression (so more stuff can be recorded).
I'm guessing that demand for integrated DVR systems will be much higher than it ever was for TiVo.
The TWC shareholders do look to be doing pretty well out of the deal, which might explain why Reuters are reporting them up almost 50% today.
The 1 for 1 and 1.5 for 1 is just based on the relative prices of 1 AOL share and 1 TWC share.
What's more important is the market cap of the two companies - AOL is valued at around 2x the value of TWC, so they're the dominant party here. Either way, it's a merger - both companies seem happy to be a part of it.
Wouldn't mind one of those...
> You used to get analog TV signals over the air for free.
No, we pay for our analogue programming, and (I think) always have done. The money goes to fund the BBC.
> Now you have to get a converter box, and you pay a fee to get digital TV signals over the air.
You have to get a converter box, yes. You also have to take out a subscription to a service, which gives you more programming as well as the fact that it's a digital service. You have to bear in mind that the UK's analogue terrestrial service consists of 5 channels, and that many people are willing to pay extra for more programming. This has been shown to work with the analogue satellite and cable TV systems that we've had for several years.
> Plus you still have that TV tax thingy, right? (license)
The government is considering the introduction of an additional charge, to be levied on top of the current licence fee (about 15-20%, I think) for digital TV. The broadcasters and manuafacturers are almost unanimously against this, as it is expected to slow the adoption of digital TV. The money raised will be going (at least in part) to the BBC to finance its digital services.
Because ISI are one of the leaders in the embedded space, and have proven experience in providing hard-realtime operating systems.
It's as simple as that.
I don't know if you can still link them together with the inmos links, so the parallelism might be out the window. The low power and good code density make them useful for embedded applications, though.
> What grammar issues?
In the sentence "Microsoft does not leave 'back doors' in our products", the word "does" is the third person singular form of the verb "to do", whereas "our" refers to the first person plural.
Well, you did ask.