it'd be like trying to read the tea leaves in your cup of tea after someone ran a bulldozer through your house, set fire to the rubble, dug it up and sent it to the dump.
I recently bought a SATA hard drive from Best Buy. It was shrink-wrapped and everything, but I got home and inside was a nice old, used, IDE drive. I took it back and they let me exchange it, fortunately. They really need to do better about checking their returns... I'd go somewhere else, but the town where I live doesn't have a lot of alternatives.
NEWegg.com
newEGG.com
newegg.COM
If UPS or Fedex deliver to your town, you can shop newegg. I don't understand all of the "I got ripped-off at Best Buy when I bought a SATA drive but it turned out to be IDE" stories on/. today. I have purchased a metric crapload of computer parts (cases, motherboards, memory, video cards, monitors, etc.) as well as few digital cameras from newegg. I have never had a problem with the stuff that shipped from newegg's warehouses.
My wife fucks me often enough, doesn't complain much, gives me a hot (by any standards) sexy body to feel up whenever I want, and arranges meets with other couples for us (for sex)...
Wow! Bill Clinton reads/.? We are honored by your presence, Mr. President
It really is inexcusable that there is no way for me to get HDTV into my HTPC without using a goddamn OTA card with a big antenna on the roof.
That isn't true where I live (Time Warner Cable territory). I have a TV tuner card in one of my PCs (connected to TWC coax) and I can get all of the local TV stations in HD. It's the same content that I would get if I put up an antenna that could receive the HD content. I can record CBS in HD, ABC in HD, NBC in HD and FOX in HD until I run out of hard drive space.
Now if you were really complaining about premium channels and not the local TV stations, that's a whole different story.
Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mention I'm a cable TV support rep.
Seriously? Ha ha ha ha! Aren't you supposed to be reading from a script right now? Or asking someone to unplug their TV from the wall for ten seconds and then plug it back in again?
logically, digital cable will be less reliable, simply because there are more points of failure
You lost all credibility with me when you said that you work customer support for a cable company. The only lower life forms are the people who do Road Runner tech support.
My Sony TV has a CableCard slot in back. Unfortunately, Time Warner Cable could not get the CableCard to work reliably in my TV so now I have a Scientific Atlanta 8000HD DVR. TVs are supposed to work with CableCard. There is no way to export a perfect digital copy of the decrypted content you are viewing on your CableCard-capable TV. If you are able to get CableCard working in your TV, I'm happy for you.
> So you must like your crappy comcarp box with rates that are now going even higher for them?
As I mentioned above, I live in Time Warner Cable territory, not Comcast territory. My choices for receiving premium (encrypted) content are CableCard or an HD DVR from Time Warner Cable. I tried CableCard but the TWC techs could not get the card to work reliably. I gave up on the CableCard route and I am now renting an SA 8000HD DVR from TWC. I guess I could have purchased a Tivo (which also uses CableCard) but I have not really researched them thoroughly. The SA 8000HD DVR is working well for me.
What about people who just want to watch tv on there custom build pc and they don't want the dell carp or the over priced Alienware, Voodoo PC, and others systems?
Those people are S.O.L.. As I mentioned in my previous post, CableCard is not available to the unwashed masses because this keeps people from making perfect digital copies of the content they are receiving from their cable provider. No one (Congress, the FCC, whoever) is going to make CableCards available to people like me who build their own MythTV systems because piracy would be rampant.
What's the best PC HW to drive my 50" HDMI TV, that costs under $1000 and runs a Linux PVR like MythTV, and works on NYC TimeWarner cable?
If you are asking about non-encrypted digital content on your TWC connection, there are a number of HD video cards (like this one http://www.pchdtv.com/) that can be used with a DVR package like MythTV. To feed your HD set, you will need to look at something like a DVI-to-HDMI cable for the best quality connection. I have read MythTV-related articles about VGA-to-component converters but I think using DVI-to-HDMI would be far simpler (and cheaper). You will not be able to build your own PC that can decrypt TWC's premium content. I know that you are pretty technically inclined so you may want to read-up using the firewire output of a TWC HD DVR (like the Scientific Atlanta 8000HD or the 8300HD/HDC family) to capture digital content coming from your cable box/DVR. I have not fully investigated how to use the firewire port on a TWC DVR but I have encountered a number of articles that mention using this method to acquire digital video. There is a law which requires the cable company to provide a working firewire port on DVRs. I hope this helps.
> No, not the most important. I think it's the thing most likely of those to be on the forefront of their mind.
Re-read your own post, assmunch. I've included it below:
>Another thing, pretty tangential, that occurs to me is that forced conversion to digital TV will probably cause more civic unrest than anything else the US government has done lately.
You said that the conversion to digital TV will probably cause more civic unrest than anything else. An issue that is bigger than any other issue is the "most important issue". You said it. Are you trying to change your story now?
But you're screwed if you want any premium channels. It won't decode those, which is what CableCard is theoretically for. But it just doesn't work reliably.
For the same monthly fee as a CableCard or maybe a few dollars more, the cable company will be glad to rent you a box that will decrypt all of the premium channels that you want to pay for. The cable box has SVideo outputs, component outputs and probably even an RF out to feed your bargain basement "analog" TV. I don't understand all the FUD around the switch to digital. If the analog Luddites want to stick with their 20" TV that they bought with their first paycheck after college 30 years ago, get a cable box.
So far, I have avoided digital TV because I just ass/u/me it is plagued by interoperability problems (i.e. DRM) so that you can't just do whatever the hell you need with it, in order to be able to watch it.
Is that still the case (in USA)? Can I timeshift using third-party equipment/software that doesn't have any particular entity's blessing?
Yes, if you take a look at MythTV, you will find a number of HDTV tuner cards that are supported. With a Myth box, you'd be able to timeshift any local stations (which are not encrypted). The "premium" channels are encrypted and the only way to timeshift that content is with a DVR provided by the cable company or a DVR that uses a CableCard (which is also provided by the cable company).
Could I use my MythTV box to timeshift a Green Bay Packer game that was broadcast on FOX in HD? yes
Could I use my MythTV box to timeshift an episode of the Showtime series "Californication" that was broadcast in HD? no
One of the things I've noticed in reading the posts in this Slashdot article today is that a lot of people seem to have digital televison and HD confused. They are related but they are not synonymous. You have have digital channels which are not HD.
We need the FCC to force cable card 2.0 to work with any PC,
So you can make perfect digital copies of the movies you view on Showtime, HBO and Cinemax and share those movies with your friends? Um, yeah, that's not going to happen any time soon...
I actually support the NTSC-> ATSC Change over. I just think the Cable companies should not be allowed to do what they are doing, and make Digital Cable all encrypted. Essentially, I'm in favor of the governments telling the Cable Companies, You MUST send your signal in unencrypted ATSC for the non-premium channels for your paying customers. They aren't doing that. What they are doing is just the the oppisite. EVERYTHING is getting encrypted by the cable companies, and we are ALL being forced to go to the Digital Tier. The Cable companies will be switching off NTSC Some time, but an ATSC won't replace it. That makes me so damn angry you have no idea. Its going to get to where if you want any Cable at all, you HAVE to have one of their boxes and pay the Digital cable rates.
What cable company are you referring to? I am a Time Warner Cable customer and there are non-encrypted channels carried on the TWC cable. I can plug my TV into the TWC coax in my house (no cable box) and get local TV stations (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX) in "analog" format. I can also get some of those stations in SD digital. In addition, I can also view the local stations in HD. All without having a cable box or paying TWC anything extra. I'm not sure where you are getting the "OMG, everything is encrypted!" from. TWC is sending digital content over its infrastructure that can be viewed without a cable box (which means the content is not encrypted).
Yes, the premium channels are encrypted and a person needs a cable box (or a CableCard) to view those channels. But it is "premium content" and the cable provider has to have a way to keep who haven't paid for those channels from viewing them.
>Another thing, pretty tangential, that occurs to me is that forced conversion to digital TV will probably cause more civic unrest than anything else the US government has done lately.
Oil is on its way to $100 a barrel, the US has troops and mercenaries (Blackwater) killing people in a "war" in a foreign country and nearly every day, young men and women from the US are being killed in that "war" and you think that the most important thing on people's minds is freaking analog vs digital TV? It's obvious that the money you've saved by not buying an HDTV has been spent with the local ganja dealer.
They already have allergy treatments. Basically, they give you a shot every few months.
If you are talking about immunotherapy for the treatment of allergies, the frequency of the injections is more than "every few months". It's more like "once a week". The injections provide an ever-increasing amount of the substance the patient is allergic to in an effort to get the patient's immune system to "chill out". The last time I was receiving these shots, I was getting them every five days (Mon, Fri, Wed, Mon, Fri, etc.). I spent a lot of time sitting in the waiting room at the allergy clinic (you have to sit in the clinic after receiving the shot so the clinic staff can monitor you for an adverse reaction to the shot).
I think I've posted about this before but anecdotally I noticed there were no farmers who had allergies or asthma as I grew up and worked on farms with them.
I think you may have it backwards: You are saying that there are no farmers with asthma because working on a farm prevents asthma. It's more likely that there are no farmers with asthma because people with asthma do not become farmers. Even though I (someone who has had asthma my entire life) have helped bale hay, milk cows and shovel manure, there is no way that I would *think* of becoming a farmer. Wearing a dust mask while baling hay or doing other chores on the farm is no fun. Being in the barn without some sort of mask is a surefire recipe for having a meeting with Mr. Albuterol later in the day.
I could come-up with a parallel to your "I've never known farmers with asthma" story by saying "I've never seen a one-armed crab fisherman on the Discovery TV show "Deadliest Catch". I could infer from watch the Deadliest Catch that crab fishing must be a pretty safe line of work because there are no one-armed guys working the crab pots. The reality is there are no one-armed crab fisherman because the one-armed guys do not sign-up for a job that they know would be extremely hazardous for them to do with just one arm.
This is why I recommend against anyone installing an air purifier in their home. It's a great idea--if you never plan on leaving your home.
I'm sorry, I didn't catch the name of the medical school you graduated from or where you did your residency in allergy/asthma. Could you post that information one more time? I have an IQAir HealthPro Plus http://www.iqair.us/residential/roomairpurifiers/healthproplus.php that runs in my bedroom every night. That air purifier filters the dust, pollen and other allergens out of air inside my house so that I can breathe more easily - especially during the spring and fall when thing like tree pollen, ragweed and alternaria are bad. The indoor air purifiers also help when local "air quality alerts" are issued. Even if the air outside is filled with small pollutants that are harmful to my lungs, I can come home at the end of the day, run the IQAir and have decent breathable air.
The watch is being issued because of the forecast for elevated levels of fine particles in the air. Fine particle pollution is composed of microscopic dust, soot, liquid droplets and smoke particles that are 2.5 microns or smaller. These fine particles come primarily from combustion sources, such as power plants, factories and other industrial sources, vehicle exhaust, and outdoor fires.
The Air Quality Index is forecast to reach the orange level, which is considered unhealthy for people in sensitive groups. People in those sensitive groups include those with heart or lung disease, asthma, older adults and children. When an air quality watch is issued, people in those groups are advised to reschedule or cut back on strenuous activities during the watch period.
People with lung diseases such as asthma and bronchitis and heart disease should pay attention to cardiac symptoms like chest pain and shortness of breath or respiratory symptoms like coughing, wheezing and discomfort when taking a breath, and consult with their physician if they have concerns or are experiencing symptoms. Fine particle pollution deposits itself deep into the lungs and cannot easily be exhaled. People who are at risk are particularly vulnerable after several days of high particle pollution exposure.
Regarding your comment about air purifiers being a bad idea,
It's a great idea--if you never plan on leaving your home.
Slashdot Mirror
it'd be like trying to read the tea leaves in your cup of tea after someone ran a bulldozer through your house, set fire to the rubble, dug it up and sent it to the dump.
In my house, we call that Tuesday.
-Gil Grissom
I recently bought a SATA hard drive from Best Buy. It was shrink-wrapped and everything, but I got home and inside was a nice old, used, IDE drive. I took it back and they let me exchange it, fortunately. They really need to do better about checking their returns... I'd go somewhere else, but the town where I live doesn't have a lot of alternatives.
/. today. I have purchased a metric crapload of computer parts (cases, motherboards, memory, video cards, monitors, etc.) as well as few digital cameras from newegg. I have never had a problem with the stuff that shipped from newegg's warehouses.
NEWegg.com
newEGG.com
newegg.COM
If UPS or Fedex deliver to your town, you can shop newegg. I don't understand all of the "I got ripped-off at Best Buy when I bought a SATA drive but it turned out to be IDE" stories on
http://www.newegg.com/
women at a /. party?? whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa? ...
This one is pretty hot:
http://medsocial.com/thumbnailgenerator.ashx?ImgFilePath=/userimages/101367/IMG_6235.jpg&thumb=yes&width=400&height=300
The way her hair stands up reminds me of that chick in "Something About Mary"
What are you going to do when the zombies show up at your door?
Throw my Michael Jackson CD in the CD player, hit Play and then run like mad!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMnk7lh9M3o
ummm... FYI: you can not mod and comment on the same discussion...
/. account), but you can moderate and then leave a comment as AC.
True (when you are signed-into your
My wife fucks me often enough, doesn't complain much, gives me a hot (by any standards) sexy body to feel up whenever I want, and arranges meets with other couples for us (for sex)...
/.? We are honored by your presence, Mr. President
Wow! Bill Clinton reads
Didn't Hitler have to use a shitload of potatoes to make fuel for his V2 rockets?
Didn't Mussolini make the trains run on thyme?
It really is inexcusable that there is no way for me to get HDTV into my HTPC without using a goddamn OTA card with a big antenna on the roof.
That isn't true where I live (Time Warner Cable territory). I have a TV tuner card in one of my PCs (connected to TWC coax) and I can get all of the local TV stations in HD. It's the same content that I would get if I put up an antenna that could receive the HD content. I can record CBS in HD, ABC in HD, NBC in HD and FOX in HD until I run out of hard drive space.
Now if you were really complaining about premium channels and not the local TV stations, that's a whole different story.
Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mention I'm a cable TV support rep.
Seriously? Ha ha ha ha! Aren't you supposed to be reading from a script right now? Or asking someone to unplug their TV from the wall for ten seconds and then plug it back in again?
logically, digital cable will be less reliable, simply because there are more points of failure
You lost all credibility with me when you said that you work customer support for a cable company. The only lower life forms are the people who do Road Runner tech support.
Also, boxes aren't as reliable as television tuners, mostly due to the DRM crap.
Link(s) please? Or STFU. Thank you.
Didn't the guide service that Myth tv uses shut down? Or would I have to program it all by hand, vcr style?
Yes, Zap2It stopped offering free schedules to MythTV users. Here is the replacement for that service. There is a small fee to use Schedules Direct.
http://www.schedulesdirect.org/
> People with new tv's with cable card slots?
My Sony TV has a CableCard slot in back. Unfortunately, Time Warner Cable could not get the CableCard to work reliably in my TV so now I have a Scientific Atlanta 8000HD DVR. TVs are supposed to work with CableCard. There is no way to export a perfect digital copy of the decrypted content you are viewing on your CableCard-capable TV. If you are able to get CableCard working in your TV, I'm happy for you.
> So you must like your crappy comcarp box with rates that are now going even higher for them?
As I mentioned above, I live in Time Warner Cable territory, not Comcast territory. My choices for receiving premium (encrypted) content are CableCard or an HD DVR from Time Warner Cable. I tried CableCard but the TWC techs could not get the card to work reliably. I gave up on the CableCard route and I am now renting an SA 8000HD DVR from TWC. I guess I could have purchased a Tivo (which also uses CableCard) but I have not really researched them thoroughly. The SA 8000HD DVR is working well for me.
What about people who just want to watch tv on there custom build pc and they don't want the dell carp or the over priced Alienware, Voodoo PC, and others systems?
Those people are S.O.L.. As I mentioned in my previous post, CableCard is not available to the unwashed masses because this keeps people from making perfect digital copies of the content they are receiving from their cable provider. No one (Congress, the FCC, whoever) is going to make CableCards available to people like me who build their own MythTV systems because piracy would be rampant.
I won't be buying a digital TV anytime soon, probably not before I'm Soylent Green,
:^)
There, fixed that for you.
What's the best PC HW to drive my 50" HDMI TV, that costs under $1000 and runs a Linux PVR like MythTV, and works on NYC TimeWarner cable?
If you are asking about non-encrypted digital content on your TWC connection, there are a number of HD video cards (like this one http://www.pchdtv.com/) that can be used with a DVR package like MythTV. To feed your HD set, you will need to look at something like a DVI-to-HDMI cable for the best quality connection. I have read MythTV-related articles about VGA-to-component converters but I think using DVI-to-HDMI would be far simpler (and cheaper). You will not be able to build your own PC that can decrypt TWC's premium content. I know that you are pretty technically inclined so you may want to read-up using the firewire output of a TWC HD DVR (like the Scientific Atlanta 8000HD or the 8300HD/HDC family) to capture digital content coming from your cable box/DVR. I have not fully investigated how to use the firewire port on a TWC DVR but I have encountered a number of articles that mention using this method to acquire digital video. There is a law which requires the cable company to provide a working firewire port on DVRs. I hope this helps.
Re-read your own post, assmunch. I've included it below: You said that the conversion to digital TV will probably cause more civic unrest than anything else. An issue that is bigger than any other issue is the "most important issue". You said it. Are you trying to change your story now?
Unfortunately Media Center doesn't have any QAM support. Thats the part of the switchover that scares me - not being able to use my DVR.
http://www.mythtv.org/
http://www.linuxmce.com/
But you're screwed if you want any premium channels. It won't decode those, which is what CableCard is theoretically for. But it just doesn't work reliably. For the same monthly fee as a CableCard or maybe a few dollars more, the cable company will be glad to rent you a box that will decrypt all of the premium channels that you want to pay for. The cable box has SVideo outputs, component outputs and probably even an RF out to feed your bargain basement "analog" TV. I don't understand all the FUD around the switch to digital. If the analog Luddites want to stick with their 20" TV that they bought with their first paycheck after college 30 years ago, get a cable box.
So far, I have avoided digital TV because I just ass/u/me it is plagued by interoperability problems (i.e. DRM) so that you can't just do whatever the hell you need with it, in order to be able to watch it.
Is that still the case (in USA)? Can I timeshift using third-party equipment/software that doesn't have any particular entity's blessing?
Yes, if you take a look at MythTV, you will find a number of HDTV tuner cards that are supported. With a Myth box, you'd be able to timeshift any local stations (which are not encrypted). The "premium" channels are encrypted and the only way to timeshift that content is with a DVR provided by the cable company or a DVR that uses a CableCard (which is also provided by the cable company).
Could I use my MythTV box to timeshift a Green Bay Packer game that was broadcast on FOX in HD? yes
Could I use my MythTV box to timeshift an episode of the Showtime series "Californication" that was broadcast in HD? no
One of the things I've noticed in reading the posts in this Slashdot article today is that a lot of people seem to have digital televison and HD confused. They are related but they are not synonymous. You have have digital channels which are not HD.
We need the FCC to force cable card 2.0 to work with any PC,
So you can make perfect digital copies of the movies you view on Showtime, HBO and Cinemax and share those movies with your friends? Um, yeah, that's not going to happen any time soon...
I actually support the NTSC-> ATSC Change over. I just think the Cable companies should not be allowed to do what they are doing, and make Digital Cable all encrypted. Essentially, I'm in favor of the governments telling the Cable Companies, You MUST send your signal in unencrypted ATSC for the non-premium channels for your paying customers. They aren't doing that. What they are doing is just the the oppisite. EVERYTHING is getting encrypted by the cable companies, and we are ALL being forced to go to the Digital Tier. The Cable companies will be switching off NTSC Some time, but an ATSC won't replace it. That makes me so damn angry you have no idea. Its going to get to where if you want any Cable at all, you HAVE to have one of their boxes and pay the Digital cable rates.
What cable company are you referring to? I am a Time Warner Cable customer and there are non-encrypted channels carried on the TWC cable. I can plug my TV into the TWC coax in my house (no cable box) and get local TV stations (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX) in "analog" format. I can also get some of those stations in SD digital. In addition, I can also view the local stations in HD. All without having a cable box or paying TWC anything extra. I'm not sure where you are getting the "OMG, everything is encrypted!" from. TWC is sending digital content over its infrastructure that can be viewed without a cable box (which means the content is not encrypted).
Yes, the premium channels are encrypted and a person needs a cable box (or a CableCard) to view those channels. But it is "premium content" and the cable provider has to have a way to keep who haven't paid for those channels from viewing them.
>Another thing, pretty tangential, that occurs to me is that forced conversion to digital TV will probably cause more civic unrest than anything else the US government has done lately.
Oil is on its way to $100 a barrel, the US has troops and mercenaries (Blackwater) killing people in a "war" in a foreign country and nearly every day, young men and women from the US are being killed in that "war" and you think that the most important thing on people's minds is freaking analog vs digital TV? It's obvious that the money you've saved by not buying an HDTV has been spent with the local ganja dealer.
I like how you say his anecdotes don't prove anything, then use your own personal anecdote to try to disprove his ideas.
Which part of my post are you objecting to?
They already have allergy treatments. Basically, they give you a shot every few months.
If you are talking about immunotherapy for the treatment of allergies, the frequency of the injections is more than "every few months". It's more like "once a week". The injections provide an ever-increasing amount of the substance the patient is allergic to in an effort to get the patient's immune system to "chill out". The last time I was receiving these shots, I was getting them every five days (Mon, Fri, Wed, Mon, Fri, etc.). I spent a lot of time sitting in the waiting room at the allergy clinic (you have to sit in the clinic after receiving the shot so the clinic staff can monitor you for an adverse reaction to the shot).
http://www.allergycapital.com.au/Pages/immth.html
I think you may have it backwards: You are saying that there are no farmers with asthma because working on a farm prevents asthma. It's more likely that there are no farmers with asthma because people with asthma do not become farmers. Even though I (someone who has had asthma my entire life) have helped bale hay, milk cows and shovel manure, there is no way that I would *think* of becoming a farmer. Wearing a dust mask while baling hay or doing other chores on the farm is no fun. Being in the barn without some sort of mask is a surefire recipe for having a meeting with Mr. Albuterol later in the day.
I could come-up with a parallel to your "I've never known farmers with asthma" story by saying "I've never seen a one-armed crab fisherman on the Discovery TV show "Deadliest Catch". I could infer from watch the Deadliest Catch that crab fishing must be a pretty safe line of work because there are no one-armed guys working the crab pots. The reality is there are no one-armed crab fisherman because the one-armed guys do not sign-up for a job that they know would be extremely hazardous for them to do with just one arm.
This is why I recommend against anyone installing an air purifier in their home. It's a great idea--if you never plan on leaving your home.
I'm sorry, I didn't catch the name of the medical school you graduated from or where you did your residency in allergy/asthma. Could you post that information one more time? I have an IQAir HealthPro Plus http://www.iqair.us/residential/roomairpurifiers/healthproplus.php that runs in my bedroom every night. That air purifier filters the dust, pollen and other allergens out of air inside my house so that I can breathe more easily - especially during the spring and fall when thing like tree pollen, ragweed and alternaria are bad. The indoor air purifiers also help when local "air quality alerts" are issued. Even if the air outside is filled with small pollutants that are harmful to my lungs, I can come home at the end of the day, run the IQAir and have decent breathable air.
Here is a little more background on local air quality issues:
http://dnr.wi.gov/org/aw/air/health/status.asp
Regarding your comment about air purifiers being a bad idea,
I can't
These examples pretty strongly support the hypothesis that New York's infrastructure is in a scary state.
A better example: If you see Kurt Russell, Ernest Borgnine and Adrienne Barbeau together, you'll *know* that NYC is in a scary state!