"Wes Stewart" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 15 Dec 2005 09:02:17 +0000, Paul Johnson
wrote:
And after a natural disaster cable TV systems will be working about as
well as cell phones have.

Only as long as the emergency broadcast system is kept alive. There's no
particular reason the funding for it couldn't be shut off/expanded to include
cable/switch only to cable/whatever. In fact, one could argue that during a
natural disaster cable TV could actually be more reliable in that its
infrastructure is somewhat more protected than a huge antenna ever could be.
(I seem to recall from Hurricane Katrina that some of the first phone calls
getting out -- barring folks with satellite phones -- were VOIP calls over
wired Internet connections.)

4:3 aspect was a technical limitation that really should have died long
before my birth, much less now. Good riddance.

What "technical limitation"? Aspect ratios are arbitrary.

Not true. In the 'early days' of TV, the glass for CRTs couldn't be blown
into such arbitrary aspect ratios; hence 4:3 was chosen as a reasonably
compromise between producibility and "well, at least it's not square...!" :-)
Presumably 16:9 is a closer match to human vision than 4:3, and for viewing a
movie it would seem to make sense to try to match that since you're trying to
encompass the viewer.

---Joel

Wes Stewart wrote:

Furthermore, my wife and rarely watch anything live (except for local
news), but use two DVRs for time shifting and commercial elimination.
So with my system, if I can get a picture at all, I would need three
STBs (set top boxes) that are programmable or a couple of new digital
recorders and a new TV set.

Odds are you'll need the STB for each PVR, not TV. PVR's are basically a
VCR with a computer instead of a video slot, same limitations apply with
the signal you feed it. The video coming out of the PVR isn't going to
change magically overnight, though.

(If I was poor enough, my idiot government would buy this stuff for me,
but instead, I believe I will be taxed to buy it for someone else.)

Show me where I can sign up for a free TV from the government...

And then they are changing the aspect ratio so my 35" screen is
obsolete and any replacement would have a smaller screen if I want to
keep it in my $7,000 piece of furniture.

Actually, they're fixing the aspect ratio. 16:9 would allow most movies to
run without having to be butchered by some trained monkey that thinks
they're a pan and scan editor to fit the screen, or black bars to bring the
aspect ratio back to the original film ratio as it was intended to be
shown.

4:3 aspect was a technical limitation that really should have died long
before my birth, much less now. Good riddance.

--
Paul Johnson
Email and Instant Messenger (Jabber):
Got jabber? http://ursine.ca/Ursine:Jabber

On Sat, 10 Dec 2005 08:06:58 -0700, Wes Stewart
wrote:

On Tue, 06 Dec 2005 23:28:15 GMT, Owen Duffy wrote:



Don't you have digital television? Best thing since sliced bread.

I don't know if you can receive analog television beyond the digital
coverage ranges, but you probably wouldn't want to watch it.

Digital TV makes weak signals most watchable, DVD quality at weak
signals.

I use it and I am only 4km from the transmitter, but that is another
situation where it works a treat, ghost free pictures close to the
tranmitter in the presence of local reflections (hills, water towers
etc).

I suppose you have the Coded Orthogonal Frequency Division
Multiplexing (COFDM) standard there.

Yes.

I saw STBs in the supermarket this morning for A$69 or about US$55.

Owen
--

Cecil Moore wrote:

bitch snipped

Hey Cecil;

Are you into mutual jacking???

Up comes the RF noise floor.... The big problem that affects any AR
operation in urban areas...

I have a dirty insulator somewhere nearby. Rain helps a lot! It is
however a much greater source of noisie than the PC - so I dont need to
fix the PC yet..

grin

Bob W5/VK2YQA

Cecil Moore wrote:


A couple of days ago, my power failed right in the middle of a
football game. I just happen to have a 12v deep discharge battery
and a 12v B&W TV. I plugged it in, extended the two-foot telescoping
antenna and, wonders of wonders, I was receiving a very good vhf
TV signal from about 40 miles away. The game went on and after
awhile the power came back on. That good TV picture simultaneously
disappeared along with the sound. There may be a lesson there somewhere.