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Best Buy Stops selling Analog Televisions.

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posted on Oct, 19 2007 @ 12:51 AM
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Originally posted by Tom Bedlam

The NTSC specification is pretty thick. And if you don't follow it to a 't', you won't be selling that set in the US. Every country does this. It's to make sure you don't get competing television standards. This has been going on since just after the dawn of TV. The initial introduction of TV had all sorts of competing TV standards on the market, none of which were compatible. Pretty soon the gubmint stepped in and dictated which one was going to be used in order to make sure that the consumers didn't have to have two or three different sets to receive all the programming in their area.


Man, you got that right.
Thats why they stuck the color on the "backporch". To allow the older BW sets to work with newer color broadcasting of the time. No real progress for many many decades.

I watched a very early HDTV broadcast at an NAB convention back in '89.
It was a SONY, and it was BEAUTIFUL. Much better than the HDTV Standard of today.
The standards were dumbed down over the decade.



posted on Oct, 19 2007 @ 01:33 AM
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Originally posted by goosdawg



Starting Jan. 1, 2008, all U.S. households will be eligible to request up to two $40 coupons to be used toward the purchase of up to two, digital-to-analog converter boxes, while the initial $990 million allocated for the program is available.

Source | NTIA

Personally, I'd rather see our tax dollars go to ensure adequate health care coverage for America's children, but I suppose the Government knows what's in their, I mean, our, best interests.


I also would have preferred to see the tax dollars -- nearly a billion dollars -- go towards health care coverage, education and social programs. On the surface, it would seem like this program is another example of waste. However, without this sort of initiative, one would have to consider the incredible waste that would be added to the nations garbage dumps.

Discarded television sets contain a variety of toxic pollutants: cadmium, lead, mercury and other heavy metals and contaminants. By offering the vouchers, the government is seeking to avoid tens of millions of televisions being dumped into the landfills. If anything, this program would allow recycling operations to "strip" old televisions of such materials which would otherwise contribute to further polluting the planet.

It's a shame that so much money has to be allocated towards this program but, when one looks at the "big picture", it really is a necessity.



posted on Oct, 19 2007 @ 02:26 AM
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Originally posted by Tom Bedlam
The gubmint mandates a LOT of things when it comes to communications. With TV, it's all the way down to super-picky technical details of how that TV signal is structured.

Hell, as a TV designer you can't even choose your own IF frequencies, they're spelled out as well.

Did you ever stop to think that there are some good reasons?
Back in the Wild West days of TV when there was no real control and companies did what they wanted, things got pretty miffed up, broadcast signals were interfering with each other, you’d be listening to the radio and then you would hear a load screech because your neighbor opened his garage door etcetera. The rules put in place make life safer and more convenient.



posted on Oct, 19 2007 @ 09:42 AM
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reply to post by Mr Mxyztplk
 


Seeing that that was the entire point of my post before your editing, I'm not sure what your point is.

And the IF frequency has diddly to do with the on-air frequency or broadcast standards. Specifying that doesn't really affect jack with regard to either one, except to protect very badly-designed receivers. Or they're just trying to corral the LO frequencies into a readily identifiable range so you can spot what channel someone' watching.



posted on Oct, 19 2007 @ 12:03 PM
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Originally posted by stumason


It's about money, both making more of it (Governments with the "sale" of wavelengths and companies with the use of them) and making what you already have go further, by reducing costs.


Stumason,
Glad we can agree that it is about the money. But the thing is it is not reducing costs for the consumer. The consumer is going to have to go out and purchase new tv sets sooner or later if they want to have one in the home. Similar things have happened in the past, now its happening with tv sets. So far as im concerned this will be the biggest conspiracy, in terms of money, that the consumer will have to spend just to keep getting a signal.



posted on Oct, 19 2007 @ 12:41 PM
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Originally posted by RedGolem
Stumason,
Glad we can agree that it is about the money. But the thing is it is not reducing costs for the consumer. The consumer is going to have to go out and purchase new tv sets sooner or later if they want to have one in the home. Similar things have happened in the past, now its happening with tv sets. So far as im concerned this will be the biggest conspiracy, in terms of money, that the consumer will have to spend just to keep getting a signal.


Welcome to the world of capitalism and planned obsolencence!

It doesn't make good business sense to make a product which last's or doesn't need to be upgraded. You release "version 1" one year, then "version 2" a few years later and so on. Yet they probably had "version 3" designed by the time they got "version 1" to market!


apc

posted on Oct, 19 2007 @ 12:54 PM
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Better than the alternatives where you're stuck at version 1 because there's no incentive to create version 3.


Although having the State mandate version 1 be inoperable with version 3 is quite anti-free market.



posted on Oct, 19 2007 @ 04:04 PM
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reply to post by Tom Bedlam
 


Well the point of your post seamed to imply the government was up to some nefarious big brother scheme. The IF rules are there to insure that devices don’t interfere with each other out of convenience for us, the consumer.
Back on topic, are not the analog signals being cut for widespread wireless internet?



posted on Oct, 19 2007 @ 04:19 PM
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reply to post by Mr Mxyztplk
 


No, no, the IF frequency is just whatever frequency range you convert to. It doesn't cause any interference because it doesn't radiate. The various governments spec it (and they mostly specify it differently) in order to put a clear area there in the transmission spectrum. That's so you can have a crappily shielded IF section without it picking up stray transmissions. And the side effect, of course, is that it makes your LO very predictable for what channel you're watching at the time, that's how the TV Licence Police in GB find you.

As far as making room, I know some of the UHF band will go to "Homeland Security" but haven't really paid attention to the other reassignments.



posted on Oct, 19 2007 @ 10:44 PM
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Originally posted by BlueRaja
reply to post by jpm1602
 


The urgency is that it just doesn't make sense to sell something that will be incompatible with the broadcast format, in the same sense that you don't see any new 8 Track players being manufactured.


[off-topic]An interesting aside, related to the theme of obsolete technology:

So far as I can determine, it's true, they stopped making 8-track players, but they haven't stopped making 8-track tapes!

Current 8-track Releases

And it gets better!

Did you know William Powell Lear, inventor of the Lear jet, father of John Lear, (our own esteemed/scorned conspiracy master here at ATS,) was also the father of the 8-track tape?!

It's true!


In the fall of 1964, late at night in a dark laboratory in Southern California, William Powell Lear gave birth to the 8-track tape. Bill Lear, glamour boy and eccentric scientific genius, a man who was on the verge of unleashing the amazing and mighty Learjet on the world and making then losing so much money it would drive him and his entire family nuts, created the endless loop tape cartridge. Right away, Bill Lear got on the phone to RCA who agreed to provide music from their vast library and Ford would offer the Lear Stereo Eight in its Lincolns, Galaxie LTDs and Thunderbirds...

....Bill Lear's younger son, John, also highly honored and regarded in the aviation world, is now a noted UFOlogist and publically states that on April 30, 1964, the aliens agreed to provide technology and we agreed to overlook the abductions, the messing up of our cattle, crop circles and whatever other sinister stuff they wanted to do. John Lear was written out of his father's will.

Source | 8-Track Heaven | 8-Tracks and UFOs | Saucer Stories and the Lear Family

It's weird, how the supposed "six-degrees of separation" between anyone and anything, manifests in the strangest ways.

[/off-topic]

So, are there many people here on ATS that will find themselves actually affected by the switch to all digital broadcasts?

I'll bet we have a higher than the national average percentage of members that either;
1) Watch very little tv and could care less, and/or
2) Already have the very latest technology, as soon as it's released, and/or
3) Also collect and retain "obsolete" technology.

Hmm, maybe I should have started a new thread....?:shk:



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