Correct ! I once worked in a building development, Starrett City in Brooklyn, where they have about 30 large apartment buildings.
One day, our TV feed (centralized system) went out. I felt bad for the shut ins who called building maintenece (I was answering phones for repairs), but a lot of the people were PISSED they could not get their soap operas and crap TV.
The opiate of the masses is not religion...it's the sort of TV/.tters disdain, but keep in mind someone's watching it...enough to support the whole industry.
Shut off free tv in a lot of places, then people would begin to talk to each other, and maybe wonder why things are not the way they should be.
Remember, the problem with the USA is not a lack of resources...it is the gross misallocation of resources, with the right wingnuts setting a chorus so those who are screwed by the system can find an "other" to blame...not our "leaders".
I get local TV from a roof antenna, with a perfect analog signal and 90% or more HDTV signals. I've a line of sight with my local transmitters, about 40 miles away.
Downstairs is a real HDTV set, which gets all the NY metro area HD stations. Of Course, the picture is great.
Upstairs is the real surprise. I'm feeding a ten year old junk Sharp TV with a HiSense HDTV set top box. (199 at Wal Mart)
The picture is fantastic. While I get a very strong normal VHF analog picture, the digital picture eliminates "dot crawl", and the tendency of NTSC pictures to fluctuate color. The "grainy" look is gone, and for an old 480i TV, the stability of the colors is a revelation. I'm using a single video feed, all the TV accepts other than RF, and it is DVD quality.
Even for the lamest analog TV, Digital will result in an improved picture. It clears up some of the known issues with SDTV.
If you get SDTV by cable TV, I am sure your picture has major flaws. Much like American beer, if you are used to it you don't know, but once you are exposed to better, it becomes glaringly clear how bad it is. I can't watch TV at a few friend's homes due to sh#$ty cable signals.
Now, having to set up an HDTV, with the Cable Company's HD box, that's a different story...you'll have some work to do once the cable tech leaves, with the box in "easy mode". The problem is that each HDTV setup needs a geek to make it work.
After a trip to Mexico city, I saw every single sort of software, from Word to esoteric engineering programs, on sale for USD $5.
I saw every sort of music, every sort of video.
Every video game you can imagine, for almost every platform.
All bootlegs, for $5 each, before negotiation.
We should encourage the **AA A-holes to go to town in other countries. They'll spend a bloody fortune as the "foreigners" take their money to do not much, the **AA will divert attention from USA extortion schemes, and generally spin their wheels.
Meanwhile, my young child thinks music comes out of a computer, knows how to rip a CD, and swaps songs (real, not virtual world) with all of her friends.
Outside the USA, Canada and the EU, they **AA has ZERO chance of any actual progress (from their Point of View...and that leaves only about 85% of the planet.
If they don't lock us all down with DRM (recalling that other 85% of the planet) they are totally doomed, and another way to distribute will come around, probably a compensated version of P2P.
Where's the first musical hit outside the current scheme ?
Yes, in two homes recently. One sports a 55 inch plasma, on the wall. Fed by SD CATV. Another home has a 42 inch projection Sony, which is in the "formal" living room while everyone watches a SD set in the den. Both are successful businessmen, but not "techie". No real HD in either home, but the guy with the projection set says "it looks good with DVD", and was feeding it with one video cable. AAK !
A bigger problem is going to be Cost. I get my HDTV OTA with a big antenna, and Dish for $40 or so per month for those "cable" channels. I figure the antenna and hardware is well amortized at this point, after calling my local cable monopoly.
To get HDTV via CATV, I need to spend about $80 per month. Basic cable + Broadcast package + upper tier + Digital service + HDTV tier. Wow. Kind of like what car makers do to you if you want SatNav in your new car.
Now, an $80 cable bill is normal in my area, but I can get the service for half that price via Dish, and my OTA HDTV is twice the channels offered by Cable, and is "free", with a minimal equipment investment. (TV antennas are a 50 year old technology which cause confusion in the land of "magic" cell service)
Not only are there tech problems, but pricing will be a bar to many.
SD at 50 + inches is not up to the job.
I drive a lot, going from Court to Court (BTW, IAAL). Listening to standard FM in the NY market is very, very painful. We get the worst, most homogenous radio, as the price of the FM allocation in NYC is so high that each conglomerate will "break" music in other markets and then only after it "takes" in the other market, will we get it in NY. Gone are any hints of interest, unusual ideas, or god forbid, local bands. Add 40 minutes of blab and commercials, and I want to sing myself...and that's not pleasant.
After installing Sirius in my car, I've tuned into local FM, zero times. I listen to AM for Air America, which left Sirius, but guess what FM guys, you have lost another "desired demograpic".
Still, while Sat Radio rocks now, I fear giving the pipeline to one or two companies...this can be worse. For now, tho, the only real use for FM in NYC is to give the satellite box an easy input to the car stereo.
The funny/tragic side is that Sirius has all the DJ's I grew up with, before the playlist became ironclad-all the classic WLIR, WNEW, jocks.
FM made it's own bed, and I for one don't choose to lie in it.
Listening to the congressional hearing on C span was interesting
The coalition of small cable providers, and the satellite providers all complained about having to buy programming by tier at wholesale. They wanted to all buy a la carte, and sell a la carte. Many pointed comments at the "content providers" were made by several from this camp.
The satellite guys all mentioned EVERY SINGLE SAT BOX OUT THERE HAS BUILT IN PARENTAL CONTROLS.
The religious station reps and advocates talked about the first amendment and then justified censorship as decency-asking that "decency standards" by the FCC be expanded to all broadcast media. One called for a return to the standards of the 50's in TV ! The religions broacasters all took care to please make sure those cable and broadcast companies "must carry" us after the digital transition.
The actor's guild rep called for parental control (eg 5 year olds watching the Sopranos), and then mentioned that the new proposed indecency fines are insane as written.
The Clearchannel rep talked about how they've cleaned up their acts, how they have zero tolerance, etc.....and then called for 'indecency standars' to apply to all media (no doubt sensing a competitive disadvantage)
I have no idea how these things are done, but why not find the secret IP addresses that First4Internet, XCP, and others phone home to, and create a denial of service attack ? Maybe a Black hat cracker who feels the need to use his zombie droves to perform a public service ?
Sony, etc, can't change the phone home addresses, so this might work.
This sort of garbage is creeping into the US. I attended, as an attorney and activist with the National Motorist's Association, a seminar at the Transportation Research Board in Washington a few years back. Present were many traffic engineers from England, who were excited about the photo enforcment (luckily US engineers are generally not) and didn't understand why we Yanks were so slow to adopt this wonderful technology.
I advised them politely that we are "citizens", not "subjects", and inherently distrust our government (prophetic words those, but I digress).
The ONLY nationwide organization fighting photo scameras is at www.motorists.org, the National Motorist's Association. I personally lobbied for many years to remove the 55 mph moron speed limits, but with Gatso, scameras for revenue, and black boxes in cars, we are far from finished.
Red light cameras cause an increase in rear end collisions, and don't really "save lives", rather, they are about money. There ARE forces and highly paid lobbyists who are pushing speed scameras at every opportunity, waiting for a gullible town council or greedy state government. While we are told "its for the children", it's really for the State Treasury.
www.motorists.org Think of us as the EFF for drivers..........
After a lot of research, it appeared the sony projection LCD was a good choice, and after a calibration session, it was happy HDTV.
Then this comes up, and I regret giving my money to sony for both a big flatscreen, and an HDTV unit.
News Flash to Sony-I'm your target buyer, can afford your stuff, and now that I have to monitor my kid's CD playing for DRM garbage, not just age appropriate lyrics, I regret giving you a (lot) of money.
I won't make this mistake again !
Now, aren't you glad you inconveninced some kid to stop him or her from ripping a copy of a cd for a buddy ? You saved a bunch of money, right, and now you will lose at least the same amount by two orders of magnitude, at least, from this one household.
And, by the way, I do not have a single MP-3, or bootleg song in my entire collection........
RIAA programming on my machine ? Why not invite invite certified sex offenders into a nursery school ? There'd be the same level of remorse for destruction of innocent life !!!
This is very scary. Bush and company have already shown how to botch a terrorist capture, attack a totally unrelated country, allowing an islamist theocracy to erupt, and sleep in while a major city is flattened by nature.
Hell, doing something stupid with a nuke is about all that's left on the "to do" list. This group has already proven beyond a doubt they don't have what it takes to handle this sort of responsiblity.
As a ham, I can tell you that where BPL is in use, like Briarcliff Manor, NY ( Route 9 A), almost all ham and shortwave frequencies are hit with a 20-+9 digital noise carrier. This is not an inconvenience, or a work around. It is finding your local swimming pool no longer clear, but full of someone else's waste products. Since you didn't *need* to swim, it's OK.
CB users also comment on the interference. While "not cool", CB is still probably the most heavily used public radio system, and despite the 1930 AM technology, still important to our commercial drivers. The FCC should move it to VHF, but that's for another time and topic.
I live about 5 miles away from Briarcliff, and fortunatley cannot hear it. If this came up my block, though, I'd have to sell all my HF ham equipment. Multiply this by thousands, and the safety net that is ham radio would be gone.
The internet's nice, but in an emergency we are all just writing on tissue paper. Note also that in many areas, like mine, we have Cable and DSL, so the chances of any BPL takers, unless it was free (snort) is small.
Having worked a few ham radio emergency events, often a few volunteer hams are the stitching between dissimilar professional radio systems. You'd be amazed how often agency one can't talk to agency two. It's a trivial thing to use one channel, but governments don't think that way.
I agree that the concept of transparent broadband is a great idea...even if it will be used to verify if your HD-DVD player is "legal" and whether the DRM chip in your Vista OS will be allowed to let you copy that CD.
BPL will eventually fail due to the business model. The point will be to keep it from destroying the natural resource that is the HF spectrum. Of course, our current administration never met a natural resource they didn't like !
It's about time the morse code was dropped.
A lot of old farts are convinced the world is ending, because they had to take a test in 1960 in front of the FCC, and want the rest of us to go through the same thing.
These are the same folk who dislike www.hamsexy.com, proving hams can laugh at themselves, and that there is a young side to the hobby too.
There are still the written tests, which will keep the CB'er out.
Most hams on voice admit they can't remember enough morse to operate...so whats the point ?
Way back when CB was cool, I went to a ham club. They were all very nice, and explained that if I learned code, I could communicate worldwide. Since it was the peak of the sunspots, I already had most of the lower 48 states without trying too hard (50 watts) on the CB. It didn't make sense to have to learn 13 words per minute (real literacy of code) to be able to use voice again, to talk mostly the same distances.
Now, a technically minded person can see the wonder of radio communications, and get involved in worldwide contacts with only a battery radio and wire. No dial tones or cable hookup needed !
And, if they get really interested, are NOT told, you have to learn Mandarin (er, morse code) to get a licence.
Google "Yaesu VX-2R" if you want to see what ham radio is up to.
Any computer geek reading this can pass ham exams with a little study-and it makes a lot more sense than computer language.
They can demand analog shut down, but in reality exceptions and extensions will be with us a long time. Broadcasters are NOT going to go easily into that good night. They have had free use of the best spectrum in history, and paid for politicos, aided by the best lobbyists in the industry, will shill on behalf of the part of our population which will not be able to afford a change. You don't want to tune out the stupid...they watch FOX news and vote accordingly.
As long a a lobbyist can raise a pen on K street, or a legislative aide can say "thank you" for a campaign contribution, there will be "delays", "extensions" and "temporary use of VHF".
The Federal Government will not crack a ruler across the knuckles of the broadcast industry...unless maybe the deadline bill has a broadcast flag rider:)
Having an HDTV set, with native 720 p, I'm not running out to buy this stuff yet-you don't NEED it.
Yes, my over the air signals in HD are better than over the air classic blur 0 Vision, 480 P, but a DVD usually throws the best possible 480 p picture, with stable colors.
The difference between HD and OTA or cable TV Classic is huge. The difference between DVD and HDTV is not nearly as great. I'm watching on a 42 inch screen, so this might not apply to a 60 inch screen.
The short answer, is that while I'd like an HD DVD, I don't need it badly enough to pay $1000 for it, nor do I need to eat the poison apple of DRM.
I'd like HDTV -DVD, but not as offered by the monopoly content providers.
Googles' usually too smart to do this, but as a ham op and computer geek, you need both. RF, for those of you scoffing, works almost all the time, without need for any infrastructure.
The web is great, broadband rocks, but it has all the toughness of wet tissue paper. A mere blip in the power grid messes things up.
BPL will pollute the entire RF spectrum, and, yes, it can be knocked out by a mere 100 watt mobile transmitter-I know this first hand.
Why, Google, Why ?
Analog TV is not going dark. Each station gets a new, free UHF channel for Digital broadcast. They keep the VHF allocation. Congress sez "give us back channel 2, etc. Broadcasters fight tooth and nail to keep grandma plugged in.
As long as a policitian can be bought, or a lobbyist or lawyer on K street can raise a pen, the networks will keep the VHF allocations.
They MAY give them back when Broadcast Flags and total Digital Right Management are in the majority of equipment. Not before.
As someone with HDTV from an antenna, the Nature shows on PBS, or CSI:Miami, will take your breath away. HDTV is still somewhat experimental here in NYC, tho, as often the Digital station is down, remapping channels, or otherwise changing. Also, for OTA viewers, the UHF channels don't travel as well in wet weather or if the trees have leaves. I get perfect signals in the winter, but not as much when my trees fill in.
This is the same bunch that runs the RIAA and MPAA-does any single/. person think they'll be forced to give up a channel ? No, they will give them up when THEY are ready, no matter what other pressing needs there are for RF spectrum.
BPL is a total killer for any radio in it's path. A trip on Rt. 9 in Briarcliff Manor NY shows that you get "digital hash" on most ham bands and on CB. While CB is uncool on this board, it is in common use. Any shortwave listening is gone.
Imagine these noise generators all over.....
The internet is tissue paper in tough times. Ham radio requires a radio, a wire, and a power supply. On 9-11, the third thing to fall was the cellular network and you can bet next time it will have a "priority access" limit for public safety persons. YOU won't get to use it.
BPL is like allowing me to use your fresh water lines to drain my sewage-it's only a little dirty water, and you probably won't taste it, and if you do, well, we have to share your pipes.
K2FIX
For us, Netflix is the alternative to a "HBO" package or equivalent. I get "classic" TV OTA, and "cable" via satellite.
For the price of the "hbo" package, netflix is the exact movie I want when I want to watch it.
I just rented the full series of "ufo". Try that anywhere else. You may insert your fatally geeky movie or series here.
Website, mailbox, website....no investment really in time or hassle.
I hope these guys make millions. And, by renting, I'm doing as little as possible to subsidze the morons at MPAA.
I have three machines. I got sick of the template issues, and "normal.dot" getting buggy. I was tired of the impromtu crashes when trying to close a document.
Open Office is on two of the three...and will be on #3 shortly.
Word was pre loaded on one machine, so it was 'free'. Open Office still wins.
I think most just have not seen real HDTV. It's not the compressed Standard Def you get on dish or Direct TV, with the pixellation in dard scenes.
Switching between my excellent NTSC signals to my HD signals, is like comparing a sepia tint early photo to a modern 35 mm photo.
Most NTSC is crappy because the providers don't care. Over saturated colors, or dot crawl, are the norm,not the exception.
I use dish for my "cable channels" and the quality is often good, but also often pixellated, depending on compression. This is not what I see using the OTA HDTV, which rarely pixellates.
Channel 50, NJN, is a great example. When broadcasting in 480i, it has four channels. They usually are more clear than the analog feed, with at the least, stable color. After 8 pm, they go for High Definition on one channel, and drop out two of the four. There are then one HD channel, in 1080i, and two SD channels, in 480i, which are compressed to within an inch of watchability, so the HD channel can have the bandwidth.
There is a real problem if this is done wrong, that the stations will give us one crappy 480i feed and sell off the rest.
Real, Off the Air HDTV, is like looking out a window. Public TV has some great stuff on HDTV, now if WNET (NY channel 13) would figure out how to get an HDTV signal out, then those who can't get NJN would have PBS in the NY area.
I have a location with line of sight to the NY broadcast towers. I get a perfect NTSC signal on all major stations. I also get digital from all outlets except for WNET, which is not capable of getting a digital OTA signal.
Some Observations:
My Radio Shack roof antenna delivers a way better signal than the cable company for normal broadcast TV. I agree that few have probably seen NTSC at best possible light. There's good NTSC, but not much of it, as delievered.
HDTV is a far sight better than NTSC. Those who claim it's not better have not seen real HDTV. Yes, Everyone Loves Raymond in HD still sucks, but it's real pretty, and CSI Miami is shot in such a way as to make you think of the first technicolor films. Most stores are at best feeding the HD sets with a DVD of Finding Nemo, so you won't see the real details-some have the same overamped and bleeding feed the NTSC sets get, so you learn nothing.
One station, Channel 50, broadcasts analog, and digital the next channel up. When the analog feed is weak, with dot crawl and fuzzing, the digital feed is perfect. So, for a weak signal, digital wins.
Once you get used to HDTV, you can't go back to "blur o vision". The correct colors alone are a huge change.
Local news is entertaining, as they tend to switch between HD cameras and SD cameras in the evening news broadcast, so the "location" reporter will be HD, the Studio Standard TV, back to the close up of anchor, in HD, and pull out to weather, in SD. Like having the wrong glasses a few times in sequence.
Problems: HDTV is the candy in which the DRM poison is located.
Second Problem: anyone who thinks that this is anything but a free extra channel for the broadcasters is totally deluded. Now, each station gets the VHF allocation they always had, and a free UHF channel for the HD feed.
As long as a lawyer can file papers in a Court, or petition FCC, or a lobbyist can buy a legislator on Ebay, the networks will keep the old channel and the new one. slashdotters may be early adopter geeks, this writer included, but the penetration of real HD is so low it's not yet measured by Nielsen or others. No one will take "grandma's" TV away, and the media, who normally ignores the poor, will suddenly chamption their rights to watch mind numbing entertainment. 2006, try 2026.
As a ham radio operator, I know the normal analog channels are prime radio real estate. The broadcasters will fight tooth and nail to keep the "free" channel, while using the digital one. This will take twenty years to change over.
Slashdot Mirror
Correct ! I once worked in a building development, Starrett City in Brooklyn, where they have about 30 large apartment buildings. One day, our TV feed (centralized system) went out. I felt bad for the shut ins who called building maintenece (I was answering phones for repairs), but a lot of the people were PISSED they could not get their soap operas and crap TV. The opiate of the masses is not religion...it's the sort of TV /.tters disdain, but keep in mind someone's watching it...enough to support the whole industry.
Shut off free tv in a lot of places, then people would begin to talk to each other, and maybe wonder why things are not the way they should be.
Remember, the problem with the USA is not a lack of resources...it is the gross misallocation of resources, with the right wingnuts setting a chorus so those who are screwed by the system can find an "other" to blame...not our "leaders".
I get local TV from a roof antenna, with a perfect analog signal and 90% or more HDTV signals. I've a line of sight with my local transmitters, about 40 miles away. Downstairs is a real HDTV set, which gets all the NY metro area HD stations. Of Course, the picture is great. Upstairs is the real surprise. I'm feeding a ten year old junk Sharp TV with a HiSense HDTV set top box. (199 at Wal Mart) The picture is fantastic. While I get a very strong normal VHF analog picture, the digital picture eliminates "dot crawl", and the tendency of NTSC pictures to fluctuate color. The "grainy" look is gone, and for an old 480i TV, the stability of the colors is a revelation. I'm using a single video feed, all the TV accepts other than RF, and it is DVD quality. Even for the lamest analog TV, Digital will result in an improved picture. It clears up some of the known issues with SDTV. If you get SDTV by cable TV, I am sure your picture has major flaws. Much like American beer, if you are used to it you don't know, but once you are exposed to better, it becomes glaringly clear how bad it is. I can't watch TV at a few friend's homes due to sh#$ty cable signals. Now, having to set up an HDTV, with the Cable Company's HD box, that's a different story...you'll have some work to do once the cable tech leaves, with the box in "easy mode". The problem is that each HDTV setup needs a geek to make it work.
After a trip to Mexico city, I saw every single sort of software, from Word to esoteric engineering programs, on sale for USD $5. I saw every sort of music, every sort of video. Every video game you can imagine, for almost every platform. All bootlegs, for $5 each, before negotiation. We should encourage the **AA A-holes to go to town in other countries. They'll spend a bloody fortune as the "foreigners" take their money to do not much, the **AA will divert attention from USA extortion schemes, and generally spin their wheels. Meanwhile, my young child thinks music comes out of a computer, knows how to rip a CD, and swaps songs (real, not virtual world) with all of her friends. Outside the USA, Canada and the EU, they **AA has ZERO chance of any actual progress (from their Point of View...and that leaves only about 85% of the planet. If they don't lock us all down with DRM (recalling that other 85% of the planet) they are totally doomed, and another way to distribute will come around, probably a compensated version of P2P. Where's the first musical hit outside the current scheme ?
Yes, in two homes recently. One sports a 55 inch plasma, on the wall. Fed by SD CATV. Another home has a 42 inch projection Sony, which is in the "formal" living room while everyone watches a SD set in the den. Both are successful businessmen, but not "techie". No real HD in either home, but the guy with the projection set says "it looks good with DVD", and was feeding it with one video cable. AAK ! A bigger problem is going to be Cost. I get my HDTV OTA with a big antenna, and Dish for $40 or so per month for those "cable" channels. I figure the antenna and hardware is well amortized at this point, after calling my local cable monopoly. To get HDTV via CATV, I need to spend about $80 per month. Basic cable + Broadcast package + upper tier + Digital service + HDTV tier. Wow. Kind of like what car makers do to you if you want SatNav in your new car. Now, an $80 cable bill is normal in my area, but I can get the service for half that price via Dish, and my OTA HDTV is twice the channels offered by Cable, and is "free", with a minimal equipment investment. (TV antennas are a 50 year old technology which cause confusion in the land of "magic" cell service) Not only are there tech problems, but pricing will be a bar to many. SD at 50 + inches is not up to the job.
I drive a lot, going from Court to Court (BTW, IAAL). Listening to standard FM in the NY market is very, very painful. We get the worst, most homogenous radio, as the price of the FM allocation in NYC is so high that each conglomerate will "break" music in other markets and then only after it "takes" in the other market, will we get it in NY. Gone are any hints of interest, unusual ideas, or god forbid, local bands. Add 40 minutes of blab and commercials, and I want to sing myself...and that's not pleasant. After installing Sirius in my car, I've tuned into local FM, zero times. I listen to AM for Air America, which left Sirius, but guess what FM guys, you have lost another "desired demograpic". Still, while Sat Radio rocks now, I fear giving the pipeline to one or two companies...this can be worse. For now, tho, the only real use for FM in NYC is to give the satellite box an easy input to the car stereo. The funny/tragic side is that Sirius has all the DJ's I grew up with, before the playlist became ironclad-all the classic WLIR, WNEW, jocks. FM made it's own bed, and I for one don't choose to lie in it.
Listening to the congressional hearing on C span was interesting The coalition of small cable providers, and the satellite providers all complained about having to buy programming by tier at wholesale. They wanted to all buy a la carte, and sell a la carte. Many pointed comments at the "content providers" were made by several from this camp. The satellite guys all mentioned EVERY SINGLE SAT BOX OUT THERE HAS BUILT IN PARENTAL CONTROLS. The religious station reps and advocates talked about the first amendment and then justified censorship as decency-asking that "decency standards" by the FCC be expanded to all broadcast media. One called for a return to the standards of the 50's in TV ! The religions broacasters all took care to please make sure those cable and broadcast companies "must carry" us after the digital transition. The actor's guild rep called for parental control (eg 5 year olds watching the Sopranos), and then mentioned that the new proposed indecency fines are insane as written. The Clearchannel rep talked about how they've cleaned up their acts, how they have zero tolerance, etc.....and then called for 'indecency standars' to apply to all media (no doubt sensing a competitive disadvantage)
I have no idea how these things are done, but why not find the secret IP addresses that First4Internet, XCP, and others phone home to, and create a denial of service attack ? Maybe a Black hat cracker who feels the need to use his zombie droves to perform a public service ? Sony, etc, can't change the phone home addresses, so this might work.
This sort of garbage is creeping into the US. I attended, as an attorney and activist with the National Motorist's Association, a seminar at the Transportation Research Board in Washington a few years back. Present were many traffic engineers from England, who were excited about the photo enforcment (luckily US engineers are generally not) and didn't understand why we Yanks were so slow to adopt this wonderful technology. I advised them politely that we are "citizens", not "subjects", and inherently distrust our government (prophetic words those, but I digress). The ONLY nationwide organization fighting photo scameras is at www.motorists.org, the National Motorist's Association. I personally lobbied for many years to remove the 55 mph moron speed limits, but with Gatso, scameras for revenue, and black boxes in cars, we are far from finished. Red light cameras cause an increase in rear end collisions, and don't really "save lives", rather, they are about money. There ARE forces and highly paid lobbyists who are pushing speed scameras at every opportunity, waiting for a gullible town council or greedy state government. While we are told "its for the children", it's really for the State Treasury. www.motorists.org Think of us as the EFF for drivers..........
After a lot of research, it appeared the sony projection LCD was a good choice, and after a calibration session, it was happy HDTV. Then this comes up, and I regret giving my money to sony for both a big flatscreen, and an HDTV unit. News Flash to Sony-I'm your target buyer, can afford your stuff, and now that I have to monitor my kid's CD playing for DRM garbage, not just age appropriate lyrics, I regret giving you a (lot) of money. I won't make this mistake again ! Now, aren't you glad you inconveninced some kid to stop him or her from ripping a copy of a cd for a buddy ? You saved a bunch of money, right, and now you will lose at least the same amount by two orders of magnitude, at least, from this one household. And, by the way, I do not have a single MP-3, or bootleg song in my entire collection........
RIAA programming on my machine ? Why not invite invite certified sex offenders into a nursery school ? There'd be the same level of remorse for destruction of innocent life !!!
This is very scary. Bush and company have already shown how to botch a terrorist capture, attack a totally unrelated country, allowing an islamist theocracy to erupt, and sleep in while a major city is flattened by nature. Hell, doing something stupid with a nuke is about all that's left on the "to do" list. This group has already proven beyond a doubt they don't have what it takes to handle this sort of responsiblity.
As a ham, I can tell you that where BPL is in use, like Briarcliff Manor, NY ( Route 9 A), almost all ham and shortwave frequencies are hit with a 20-+9 digital noise carrier. This is not an inconvenience, or a work around. It is finding your local swimming pool no longer clear, but full of someone else's waste products. Since you didn't *need* to swim, it's OK. CB users also comment on the interference. While "not cool", CB is still probably the most heavily used public radio system, and despite the 1930 AM technology, still important to our commercial drivers. The FCC should move it to VHF, but that's for another time and topic. I live about 5 miles away from Briarcliff, and fortunatley cannot hear it. If this came up my block, though, I'd have to sell all my HF ham equipment. Multiply this by thousands, and the safety net that is ham radio would be gone. The internet's nice, but in an emergency we are all just writing on tissue paper. Note also that in many areas, like mine, we have Cable and DSL, so the chances of any BPL takers, unless it was free (snort) is small. Having worked a few ham radio emergency events, often a few volunteer hams are the stitching between dissimilar professional radio systems. You'd be amazed how often agency one can't talk to agency two. It's a trivial thing to use one channel, but governments don't think that way. I agree that the concept of transparent broadband is a great idea...even if it will be used to verify if your HD-DVD player is "legal" and whether the DRM chip in your Vista OS will be allowed to let you copy that CD. BPL will eventually fail due to the business model. The point will be to keep it from destroying the natural resource that is the HF spectrum. Of course, our current administration never met a natural resource they didn't like !
It's about time the morse code was dropped. A lot of old farts are convinced the world is ending, because they had to take a test in 1960 in front of the FCC, and want the rest of us to go through the same thing. These are the same folk who dislike www.hamsexy.com, proving hams can laugh at themselves, and that there is a young side to the hobby too. There are still the written tests, which will keep the CB'er out. Most hams on voice admit they can't remember enough morse to operate...so whats the point ? Way back when CB was cool, I went to a ham club. They were all very nice, and explained that if I learned code, I could communicate worldwide. Since it was the peak of the sunspots, I already had most of the lower 48 states without trying too hard (50 watts) on the CB. It didn't make sense to have to learn 13 words per minute (real literacy of code) to be able to use voice again, to talk mostly the same distances. Now, a technically minded person can see the wonder of radio communications, and get involved in worldwide contacts with only a battery radio and wire. No dial tones or cable hookup needed ! And, if they get really interested, are NOT told, you have to learn Mandarin (er, morse code) to get a licence. Google "Yaesu VX-2R" if you want to see what ham radio is up to. Any computer geek reading this can pass ham exams with a little study-and it makes a lot more sense than computer language.
They can demand analog shut down, but in reality exceptions and extensions will be with us a long time. Broadcasters are NOT going to go easily into that good night. They have had free use of the best spectrum in history, and paid for politicos, aided by the best lobbyists in the industry, will shill on behalf of the part of our population which will not be able to afford a change. You don't want to tune out the stupid...they watch FOX news and vote accordingly. As long a a lobbyist can raise a pen on K street, or a legislative aide can say "thank you" for a campaign contribution, there will be "delays", "extensions" and "temporary use of VHF". The Federal Government will not crack a ruler across the knuckles of the broadcast industry...unless maybe the deadline bill has a broadcast flag rider :)
Having an HDTV set, with native 720 p, I'm not running out to buy this stuff yet-you don't NEED it. Yes, my over the air signals in HD are better than over the air classic blur 0 Vision, 480 P, but a DVD usually throws the best possible 480 p picture, with stable colors. The difference between HD and OTA or cable TV Classic is huge. The difference between DVD and HDTV is not nearly as great. I'm watching on a 42 inch screen, so this might not apply to a 60 inch screen. The short answer, is that while I'd like an HD DVD, I don't need it badly enough to pay $1000 for it, nor do I need to eat the poison apple of DRM. I'd like HDTV -DVD, but not as offered by the monopoly content providers.
Googles' usually too smart to do this, but as a ham op and computer geek, you need both. RF, for those of you scoffing, works almost all the time, without need for any infrastructure. The web is great, broadband rocks, but it has all the toughness of wet tissue paper. A mere blip in the power grid messes things up. BPL will pollute the entire RF spectrum, and, yes, it can be knocked out by a mere 100 watt mobile transmitter-I know this first hand. Why, Google, Why ?
Analog TV is not going dark. Each station gets a new, free UHF channel for Digital broadcast. They keep the VHF allocation. Congress sez "give us back channel 2, etc. Broadcasters fight tooth and nail to keep grandma plugged in. As long as a policitian can be bought, or a lobbyist or lawyer on K street can raise a pen, the networks will keep the VHF allocations. They MAY give them back when Broadcast Flags and total Digital Right Management are in the majority of equipment. Not before. As someone with HDTV from an antenna, the Nature shows on PBS, or CSI:Miami, will take your breath away. HDTV is still somewhat experimental here in NYC, tho, as often the Digital station is down, remapping channels, or otherwise changing. Also, for OTA viewers, the UHF channels don't travel as well in wet weather or if the trees have leaves. I get perfect signals in the winter, but not as much when my trees fill in. This is the same bunch that runs the RIAA and MPAA-does any single /. person think they'll be forced to give up a channel ? No, they will give them up when THEY are ready, no matter what other pressing needs there are for RF spectrum.
BPL is a total killer for any radio in it's path. A trip on Rt. 9 in Briarcliff Manor NY shows that you get "digital hash" on most ham bands and on CB. While CB is uncool on this board, it is in common use. Any shortwave listening is gone. Imagine these noise generators all over..... The internet is tissue paper in tough times. Ham radio requires a radio, a wire, and a power supply. On 9-11, the third thing to fall was the cellular network and you can bet next time it will have a "priority access" limit for public safety persons. YOU won't get to use it. BPL is like allowing me to use your fresh water lines to drain my sewage-it's only a little dirty water, and you probably won't taste it, and if you do, well, we have to share your pipes. K2FIX
For us, Netflix is the alternative to a "HBO" package or equivalent. I get "classic" TV OTA, and "cable" via satellite. For the price of the "hbo" package, netflix is the exact movie I want when I want to watch it. I just rented the full series of "ufo". Try that anywhere else. You may insert your fatally geeky movie or series here. Website, mailbox, website....no investment really in time or hassle. I hope these guys make millions. And, by renting, I'm doing as little as possible to subsidze the morons at MPAA.
I have three machines. I got sick of the template issues, and "normal.dot" getting buggy. I was tired of the impromtu crashes when trying to close a document. Open Office is on two of the three...and will be on #3 shortly. Word was pre loaded on one machine, so it was 'free'. Open Office still wins.
I think most just have not seen real HDTV. It's not the compressed Standard Def you get on dish or Direct TV, with the pixellation in dard scenes. Switching between my excellent NTSC signals to my HD signals, is like comparing a sepia tint early photo to a modern 35 mm photo. Most NTSC is crappy because the providers don't care. Over saturated colors, or dot crawl, are the norm,not the exception. I use dish for my "cable channels" and the quality is often good, but also often pixellated, depending on compression. This is not what I see using the OTA HDTV, which rarely pixellates. Channel 50, NJN, is a great example. When broadcasting in 480i, it has four channels. They usually are more clear than the analog feed, with at the least, stable color. After 8 pm, they go for High Definition on one channel, and drop out two of the four. There are then one HD channel, in 1080i, and two SD channels, in 480i, which are compressed to within an inch of watchability, so the HD channel can have the bandwidth. There is a real problem if this is done wrong, that the stations will give us one crappy 480i feed and sell off the rest. Real, Off the Air HDTV, is like looking out a window. Public TV has some great stuff on HDTV, now if WNET (NY channel 13) would figure out how to get an HDTV signal out, then those who can't get NJN would have PBS in the NY area.
I have a location with line of sight to the NY broadcast towers. I get a perfect NTSC signal on all major stations. I also get digital from all outlets except for WNET, which is not capable of getting a digital OTA signal. Some Observations: My Radio Shack roof antenna delivers a way better signal than the cable company for normal broadcast TV. I agree that few have probably seen NTSC at best possible light. There's good NTSC, but not much of it, as delievered. HDTV is a far sight better than NTSC. Those who claim it's not better have not seen real HDTV. Yes, Everyone Loves Raymond in HD still sucks, but it's real pretty, and CSI Miami is shot in such a way as to make you think of the first technicolor films. Most stores are at best feeding the HD sets with a DVD of Finding Nemo, so you won't see the real details-some have the same overamped and bleeding feed the NTSC sets get, so you learn nothing. One station, Channel 50, broadcasts analog, and digital the next channel up. When the analog feed is weak, with dot crawl and fuzzing, the digital feed is perfect. So, for a weak signal, digital wins. Once you get used to HDTV, you can't go back to "blur o vision". The correct colors alone are a huge change. Local news is entertaining, as they tend to switch between HD cameras and SD cameras in the evening news broadcast, so the "location" reporter will be HD, the Studio Standard TV, back to the close up of anchor, in HD, and pull out to weather, in SD. Like having the wrong glasses a few times in sequence. Problems: HDTV is the candy in which the DRM poison is located. Second Problem: anyone who thinks that this is anything but a free extra channel for the broadcasters is totally deluded. Now, each station gets the VHF allocation they always had, and a free UHF channel for the HD feed. As long as a lawyer can file papers in a Court, or petition FCC, or a lobbyist can buy a legislator on Ebay, the networks will keep the old channel and the new one. slashdotters may be early adopter geeks, this writer included, but the penetration of real HD is so low it's not yet measured by Nielsen or others. No one will take "grandma's" TV away, and the media, who normally ignores the poor, will suddenly chamption their rights to watch mind numbing entertainment. 2006, try 2026. As a ham radio operator, I know the normal analog channels are prime radio real estate. The broadcasters will fight tooth and nail to keep the "free" channel, while using the digital one. This will take twenty years to change over.