Favorite multi-channel DAC with serial interface?

Hello Nico,

Pretty much the same way it detects board rev levels, through either a personality memory area if available of through register bits that are hardwired by placing or not placing resistors in certain locations.

Hello Michael,

I don't either. Many of the sets with digital come with these ominous ad remarks "save $500" etc. Meaning they cost thousands. Not worth it. Let's see, when was the last time I looked at a TV? Saturday, I guess. And only for the interesting part of the local evening news.

You know we're taking up a collection buy you a converter box, Joerg. :-)

If you tell me how to get my bandpass filters (on ABSE) to work I'll send you one myself. :-)

---

I am taking a "wait and see" attitude when it comes to "HD Radio" (which the industry assocation will tell you, no, it doesn't stand for high definition radio -- a response that holds about as much as Microsoft claiming the "NT" in Windows NT didn't stand for "new technology"). I'm not convinced it's going to fly... in a mobile environment when listening to news, there's a lot to be said for analog modulation which slowly fades out rather than pretty much dropping all at once. Satellite radio seems like a better bet in many cases anyway, if one is looking for digital "quality," minimal fading problems, etc.

---Joel

I have enough analog TVs to last me the rest of my life so why would I want to change the transmission format when the programming still stinks?

I need to read 1984 again.

Maybe there is some technical details I missed in high school. :-)

In message , dated Mon, 21 Aug 2006, Donald writes

No, you need to read 4819. These days, people are watching Big Brother.

-- OOO - Own Opinions Only. Try

John Woodgate, J M Woodgate and Associates, Rayleigh, Essex UK

Hello Joel,

Well, I took a stab at it but I won't really need a converter box. The stations around here don't seem to tout digital much anymore. In the beginning they ran ads every hour. Haven't seen one in several month. Then again we didn't watch TV much.

Nah, that's 8419. Big Brother is little-endian.

Cheers,

Phil Hobbs

In message , dated Tue,

Are the dimensions of his anatomy relevant?

Joerg,

I've been seeing a lot of parts 'fall out' at Digikey lately. I think its the change to Pb-free that's screwing things up. So, for the next few months anyway, stock at Digikey will probably NOT be a good barometer for what is a well distributed part. Same thing with Mouser & Allied, etc. That said, I've had good experience with the Linear Tech devices. They're pretty good about really producing parts for awhile, unlike some parts from Maxim. It seems Maxim stops making the neato, geewiz chip, just after the prototype been tested and approved. Drives me nuts.

Good point. I've seen the same happening over here. Some parts are still not available in lead free, others just arrived.

After poking around a bit within

Hello Joseph,

That's history, it seems. Looks like it's pushed to 2009 now:

Making the switch before the 2008 elections without proper preparation could easily become the political equivalent of jumping off a cliff. Preparation means, at the bare minimum:

a. Distribute subsidized or at least reasonably priced set-top converters. Reasonably priced means $50 or less, and possibly free for folks below poverty. Hasn't happened.

b. Provide ample time for feasibility tests outside metropolis. Considering that our chosen standard might fall apart in heavy multi-path there may be utter disappointment. Hasn't happened, at least not where we live. None of the neighbors has OTA digital and since we hike a lot with our dogs we know most of them pretty well.

c. Make sure that nearly all stations can muster a financial path to digital.

d. Send folks to stores and look what's really going on. Then contact the manufacturers and figure out why so many sets are still analog-only.

If you look hard enough you'll find the orders allowing WLW to run

Thanks for the link to better info, that date seemed me as being unachievable.

Please, i only spent 15 minutes and was aware that that the time line had changed. Indeed i verified that; as the original end of NTSC broadcast was supposed to be Dec. 31 2001. It only reflects the result of a cursory search.

Hello Joseph,

You are welcome. I believe that the 2009 date is slowly migrating to the unachievable category as well. It basically leaves just about two years for deployment and, most of all, realistic tests on the receiving side. I don't see much going on in that area. Right now there should be pilot households with at least one experienced engineer in the family and AFAICT that's not happening in our (heavily multi-path laden) neck of the wood.

Possibly, but it's definitely getting closer to "concrete" now than before... we had 2001->2006 and now 2006->2009, and for the past year or two I've seen active advertising about "HDTV" and, while many of these "HDTVs" don't have ATSC tuners built-in, the ATSC designs are already in about the

I imagine that's because so few people are intending to receive their signals over the air compared to cable; the FCC is already taking back parts of the UHF TV channel spectrum due to how underutilized it is these days.

I did read that with the ATSC chipset designs, generation 1 was basically "does it work at all?," generation 2 was, "OK, let's make it reliable under good signal conditions," and the current generation 3 is, "now let's try to deal with severe multi-path and other non-idealities."

---Joel

Hello Joel,

Sure. But considering how many smaller TVs on store shelves are still sans ATSC these days it'll be a tough sell unless there is a converter program or subsidy. A set bought in 2006 won't be considered old or expended by the buyer just 2 1/2 years down the road.

Out here it's quite a lot of people. Many of the sat customers also receive their local channels OTA. I believe they'd have to make a case of why they can't receive it plus pay extra if they wanted these also via sat.

Taking back some UHF range would be ok IMHO. While we have a lot more channels than in the 80's the content did not improve IMHO. We'd be ok without TV if the news was available on the web with proper video. Right now the video quality still lacks a bit. Then I'd buy or build another modulator and pipe it through the house network.

Let's hope they get multi-path licked. After all, we did fix the "Never-the-same-color" issue, to a good degree. That took a long time though.

The worst case would be a deployment with inadequate prior tests and then it doesn't really work. If a ghosty and snowy picture turns into a "Data path corrupt - try later" message a lot of technically not very inclined folks would be mighty angry and wanting to know who dunnit.