atomically correct time

snip

If that happens, a sundial will be all that is required, and a knowledge of when to plant crops

martin

Engineers are all alike ;-)

...Jim Thompson

Analog TV WILL go off the air. FCC, NAB and congress are currently talking Jan 1 2009. Does that 'end of analog' apply to cable? I would think that they're allowed to do as they please and if there's a market for analog TV, I'm sure they'll supply it. BUT, having lived with off air free DTV/HDTV for 20 months, why would anbody WANT those marginal pictures? OK, it's only important to me. BTW, NAB and MSTV requested proposals from the consumer electronics industry for supplying inexpensive DTV converter boxes to help along the transition. 12 companies responded.

Heck, the last 3 weeks I've been transferring 25 and 35 year old analog video (all there was then) from 2" Ampex Quadruplex machines to digital Betacam for the restoration department for DVD. Seems that even though I'm a maintenance engineer there, I'm one of 2 who can set the machines up properly, so I get to be a tape operator. Haven't had this much fun in a while.

GG

Most tv stations use a framestore at the transmitter site to remove switching glitches and regenerate the sync with a 4* colorburst crystal, like the cheap ones used on computer boards. There is no oven or temperature control, and most stations don't have an in house frequency standard to tweak the circuit after it is at normal operating temperature. Add changes in temperature due to time of day, heat load on the air conditioning and how the cold air is distributed in the control room its a crap shoot. I had to try to sync to framestore systems for a telethon using multiple studios for a telethon once. It took both engineers over four hours to get them locked and to less than one degree of phase error.

All of the hard work only worked for a couple days before it had to be adjusted again. We were forced to use two different models which made it worse, but I doubt that station will try it again.

I may have the schematic of a framestore in my collection. if I run into it anytime soon I will scan that page and post it to ABSE.

Jim Thompson wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

I did say "off-air" which would exclude CABLE,although any off-air NTSC feeds would disappear from cable too.

Eventually,the Federal gov't wants to RECLAIM the bandwidth used by analog TV for resale auctions. So,NTSC -is- going away,just a matter of when.

Spehro Pefhany wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Some CABLE companies still get their local channels from air- broadcast,unless they arranged a direct feed from the local stations. Some local stations now want a FEE for cable companies to carry their signals.

"Michael A. Terrell" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.net:

Most TEK signal generators had temp-controlled ovens and gen-locked to incoming signal or a station reference.(black burst or subcarrier)

Uh,this I disagree with.It is usually some rubidium-based reference. Otherwise,you get all sorts of problems with sync,SCH-phasing.

(I serviced TEK TV test equipment for 15+ years while at TEK.)

Ha ha! No surprise there. Feed your right-wing brain directly from the tap. Fox News. The American equivalent of Al Jazeera.

BTW, I've had a DTV/HDTV TV for several years now. I get my local stations OTA. It's just like FM radio. If you have a strong enough signal it's perfect. If you don't, nada. I also have Directv via satellite, so almost all my TV watching is digital now. It works, Jim. You should learn to embrace technology. :-)

I do think the prices are way to high for the consumer. I bought my TV around year 2000. It has a good large picture and built-in Standard/DTV/HDTV/Directv reception. All for about $2000 ($1500 shortly after I bought.) I look from time to time, but I don't see buys like that anymore. Sometimes an ok buy on a TV, but with nothing DTV built-in so hundreds of dollars away.

Happy in general with my digital TV experience, except for the disappointment of the crappy video quality of most of the Directv channels due to the low bandwidth they are providing. Less noticable to the average consumer with a current crappy TV.

I've got the HDTV monitor too in my TV. Very impressive to watch the programming that is done for it. Started watching "Desperate Housewives" on OTA just because it looked so good in HDTV, then got sorta hooked on the clever soap opera. On Directv, the only thing in HD (that I'm willing to pay for) is HBO. Looks good when they broadcast something that I can stand to watch. I think HBO has gone way down hill in the last few years.

Our local PBS station (KQED) is a leader in HDTV broadcasting. They have it technically more under control than most of the network stations. On the ABC big shows (Desperate Housewives, Lost) they kept screwing up the HDTV OTA broadcasts in multiple ways. Sheesh! I think it was probably a protest against cost cutting by the local ABC workers. But maybe it was just incompetence.

What about "Mad Max" and all those other end-of-the-world movies that followed? Your brave new world seems really boring.

Is that the good news?

How do you like the XM? I've been considering XM since I live in a mountainous "bowl" which pretty well kills FM, and AM isn't much better.

...Jim Thompson

You're confusing CBS/NBC/ABC/CNN with FNN. FNN is by far rhe more balanced of the five. Guess why FNN viewership is up and *all* the others down?

Why? Why watch high-resolution digital crap?

The prices are high because they demand isn't there to move volume. Hint: the government is forcing HDTV down our throats, whether we want it or not. Most don't, or at least don't want to pay a nickel for it. I may buy in when a >36" 16:9 flat-panel TV drops under $1K.

A friend complains about the crappy TeeVee sets. HDTV makes them look flat and cardboard-like, which they are. Sports, OTOH.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

...and you bitch about FNN! Yikes!

Thanks to the taxpayer.

I use my XM MyFi and FM receivers around the house. I generally don't

I've been recording a collection off HBO/MAX/SHO/etc. The 160GB drive on my DVR/DVD-RW is almost full. I gotta catch up burning the discs.

I'm told people around here spent big bux on antennas to get the soft p*rn channel out of Montreal, about that time.

So, will the Feds make some kind of provision for the poor, who can't afford cable? Maybe a subsidy? Or do they really want to go to the kind of society where there's underground channels and stuff? Remember the "Voice of Freedom" stations back in the war days? Ever seen "Max Headroom?"

Thanks, Rich

Geez! Do you polarized guys ever use your Mother-Nature-Given brain to do anything but play tapes of the party line? Like, "consider?"

Thanks, Rich

We learned to read English phonically,[1] but after years' experience of reading all manner of frog-knows-what language that the scriptkiddies are writing these days, our brains filled in the closest most likely real word that anybody's ever seen.

Who's ever heard or seen the word 'atomically' used in any context whatsomever? [sic] Please explain. ;-)

Thanks! Rich

Thanks! Still Rich

LOL!

Thanks! Rich

...

I want to etch that second one into a mask and toast a tortilla over it. >:-> Then sell it on e-bay, of course. ! >:->

Cheers! Rich

No. ""Road Warrior" might look like fun, but you might change your attitude when there's nothing left to eat but rotting corpses."

If you want to survive armageddon, just follow your inner guidance. That's what Free Will is all about, anyway, after all. 0*-)