There's got to be at least one team who has considered using a black Pontiac TransAm complete with red scanner on the front. C'mon people, make it happen!
There's an interesting entry about this in the unofficial eBay FAQ:
http://upce.toffee.net/#FAQ7.3
"Incidentally, one poster to upce was recently added to the blocked bidders list of a number of regulars for expressing the view that he would leave neutral feedback for any seller who didn't leave him feedback immediately following his payment being sent."
Yep, I have watched shows such as Dead Like Me on Showtime's HD channel just fine, and I can watch the standard def HBO channel that is showing Extras and stretch to fill my screen. They are broadcasting Extras (and a few other shows) in 4:3 with black bars.:o(
Has anyone noticed the HBO black outline phenomenon? HBO will play shows like BBC's "Extras" with black bars on all four sides. They broadcast the 16:9 material in 4:3 (broadcasting black bars on the top and bottom to maintain the aspect ratio), and then when the 4:3 content is shown on my 16:9 TV, I also get black bars on the left and right! In 720p and 1080i, my TV's zoom function does not operate, so I have no choice but to watch with a large proportion of my TV area black.
My first computer was a BBC B 32K with tape drive and TV, quickly upgraded to disc drive and colour monitor. It was purchased when I was around six and I remember trying a few BASIC programs when I was eight and wondering why it executed every line as I typed it. It took me a while to figure out that I had to enter the line numbers before each line of code before typing "run" at the end!
After that I upgraded to an Acorn A5000 with CD-ROM drive in 1991. This was just before Windows people started selling "multimedia" PCs when Acorn, Atari and Amiga had been selling them for years. At this point I was playing 25fps 3D games in 640x256 modes and playing 80286 games on the software PC emulator. This was back when the ARM 3 blew away all x86 processors on the market.
After that I caved and ran a PC alongside my Acorn equipment. Needed something to play Half Life on.
No, people do not have to buy new TV sets. How many millions of us never bother with the analogue channels already and just tune to DirecTV or whatever we have?
You can continue to watch broadcasts on your old black and white set if you really like, as long as you have a digital tuner.
I bought a Psion Wavefinder for 40 UKP a couple of years ago (about 70 USD at the exchange rate then). Most streams are 128kbps mp2s, which for all intents and purposes sound like mp3s to your average listener. You can record the streams using free software directly to an mp2 file, which you can play in Winamp et al. Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) in Europe also carries additional information with the raw stream, including artist and track title. DAB is free and broadcast via regular antennas, so you can switch your DAB radio on indoors and enjoy. There are around 20-30 decent stations to listen to.
I now live in the USA. I recently bought an XM tuner for my car, 150 USD plus 50 USD for the antenna, plus 10 USD per month for subscription. I was initially disappointed with the sound quality, and after doing some research, found nearly all channels to be less than 64kbps in a format similar to AAC (called CT-aacPlus - http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/lofiversion/in dex.php/t10492.html). The low bitrate means that a lot of the higher frequencies are severely cut, and the stereo imaging is poor. The clarity of a clean FM broadcast is far superior. I felt I was misled by sales talk that claimed "CD quality". It is not even close to cassette tape quality.
Anyway, back to my point. If you record an XM stream, it looks like it will be saved as an mp3. This means that the original stream has been re-encoded, losing quality. Re-encoding a 64kbps stream is not pretty, for anyone who has tried it.
XM has more choice and variety, but is expensive and of questionable quality. Yes, none of the music stations carry ads, but neither do the BBC channels on DAB in the UK, which form the bulk of the channel suite. Also, there is no radio licence in the UK, so it is completely free.
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There's got to be at least one team who has considered using a black Pontiac TransAm complete with red scanner on the front. C'mon people, make it happen!
There's an interesting entry about this in the unofficial eBay FAQ:
http://upce.toffee.net/#FAQ7.3
Yep, I have watched shows such as Dead Like Me on Showtime's HD channel just fine, and I can watch the standard def HBO channel that is showing Extras and stretch to fill my screen. They are broadcasting Extras (and a few other shows) in 4:3 with black bars. :o(
On Sony TVs, those black bars are grey.
Has anyone noticed the HBO black outline phenomenon? HBO will play shows like BBC's "Extras" with black bars on all four sides. They broadcast the 16:9 material in 4:3 (broadcasting black bars on the top and bottom to maintain the aspect ratio), and then when the 4:3 content is shown on my 16:9 TV, I also get black bars on the left and right! In 720p and 1080i, my TV's zoom function does not operate, so I have no choice but to watch with a large proportion of my TV area black.
My first computer was a BBC B 32K with tape drive and TV, quickly upgraded to disc drive and colour monitor. It was purchased when I was around six and I remember trying a few BASIC programs when I was eight and wondering why it executed every line as I typed it. It took me a while to figure out that I had to enter the line numbers before each line of code before typing "run" at the end! After that I upgraded to an Acorn A5000 with CD-ROM drive in 1991. This was just before Windows people started selling "multimedia" PCs when Acorn, Atari and Amiga had been selling them for years. At this point I was playing 25fps 3D games in 640x256 modes and playing 80286 games on the software PC emulator. This was back when the ARM 3 blew away all x86 processors on the market. After that I caved and ran a PC alongside my Acorn equipment. Needed something to play Half Life on.
No, people do not have to buy new TV sets. How many millions of us never bother with the analogue channels already and just tune to DirecTV or whatever we have? You can continue to watch broadcasts on your old black and white set if you really like, as long as you have a digital tuner.
I bought a Psion Wavefinder for 40 UKP a couple of years ago (about 70 USD at the exchange rate then). Most streams are 128kbps mp2s, which for all intents and purposes sound like mp3s to your average listener. You can record the streams using free software directly to an mp2 file, which you can play in Winamp et al. Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) in Europe also carries additional information with the raw stream, including artist and track title. DAB is free and broadcast via regular antennas, so you can switch your DAB radio on indoors and enjoy. There are around 20-30 decent stations to listen to.
n dex.php/t10492.html). The low bitrate means that a lot of the higher frequencies are severely cut, and the stereo imaging is poor. The clarity of a clean FM broadcast is far superior. I felt I was misled by sales talk that claimed "CD quality". It is not even close to cassette tape quality.
I now live in the USA. I recently bought an XM tuner for my car, 150 USD plus 50 USD for the antenna, plus 10 USD per month for subscription. I was initially disappointed with the sound quality, and after doing some research, found nearly all channels to be less than 64kbps in a format similar to AAC (called CT-aacPlus - http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/lofiversion/i
Anyway, back to my point. If you record an XM stream, it looks like it will be saved as an mp3. This means that the original stream has been re-encoded, losing quality. Re-encoding a 64kbps stream is not pretty, for anyone who has tried it.
XM has more choice and variety, but is expensive and of questionable quality. Yes, none of the music stations carry ads, but neither do the BBC channels on DAB in the UK, which form the bulk of the channel suite. Also, there is no radio licence in the UK, so it is completely free.
Let's say a mysterious being came and offered you a chance to win a million dollars by giving him $1 per ticket
;o)
Sounds like a 419 scam to me...