Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Figs




orget the old analog TV! February brings only digital pictures for your viewing pleasure! I've heard a lot of people complain about the federal mandate. Why should the government demand we watch high-quality TV?

As it turns out, there's quite a bit more to digital TV than a better picture. Way back in the "good old days" when radio became popular, problems started arising -- everyone wanted to broadcast. Back then, you didn't have your own blog; you had your own radio station. In order to do this, you, of course, needed your own station (or "frequency"). Otherwise, your radio waves would collide with someone else's radio waves, and when that happens, the radio waves cancel each other out, creating a tiny speck of light. Originally, this was no problem because there were enough frequencies (or "stations") to go around.

Just like blogs, the idea of having your own radio station spread like wildfire, and soon they ran out of frequencies. The way around that, of course, is to use someone else's frequency and transmit more powerfully than they do so you can "overwhelm" the other guy's radio waves. Well, the the other guy would do the same and boom! You have an even brighter speck of light.

The problem grew and grew. In the mid-1920s so many people were trying to transmit more powerfully than everyone else that in densely-populated areas like Chicago and New York City, the night sky became as bright as day. Tired and grouchy citizens demanded federal regulation on radio waves so they could once again sleep at night. Thus, the FCC was created.

One of the jobs of the FCC is to allocate ranges of frequencies for different purposes. This worked well for a while, but the demand for wireless communication has continued to grow. Once again, we are almost out of usable space. Digital transmitters seem to be the answer to this problem. A digital transmitter can transmit the same information in a much "skinnier" station. It's like using an old radio to listen to a Spanish station -- move that dial a a little and you've lost it. Using digital transmitters has made "skinnier" stations and thus frees up space. Since TV currently uses really fat stations, congress mandated that television be converted to digital to free up a large sections of frequencies; TV has gone on a diet.

(Ok, the colliding radio wave stuff isn't really true -- I was having fun making up stuff.)

I'd probably agree that TV should be converted to digital, but having Juris Naturalists tendencies, I don't believe the government should hand out coupons for converter boxes. I'm of the opinion that the Federal aid probably had the same effect on converter box prices as insurance companies on medical prices. Once the converter box coupons are gone, the price of the converter box might fall to $10-$20 a box.




7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, great video!

Great Googly Moogly! said...

1st. Put the Coaxial Flange male connector into the Diop Rypton female Tripset unit.

2nd. String the K24R Hexmabfricat through the VT16/bit Camrector.

Then pull the Jule Semi-Xpac Brine R-Wran24 cable out of the Y-Gigahert MetWan module.

Next stick the Thingamajig into the Whatchamacallit.

Now run the Doomahickey around the Gizmo but make sure you don't touch the Doodad!

Finally put your Left Foot in and shake it all about!

Oh...and don't forget to plug it into the Jigger Thing on the wall.

Happy Digital Day!! :-)

Sarcastic Sally said...

So that's what figs look like...



I'm watching something similar to that video right now -- a guest speaker for class is trying to figure out how use a projector. She looks like she might start grunting and banging on it.
Technology + old people = fun.

(Free WiFi is pretty fun too.)

Ben&Brit said...

LOL -- Good one, googly moogly :-)

KODOL! I loved it when my teachers would decide to use the classroom's "technology." Some of them were so persistent that they'd spend 1/2 the class period trying to figure it out. Time to play games on the Palm pilot, doodle, or, if the world was about to end, do some homework if it was absolutely necessary for your survival :-)

Man, you and your nice laptop. :-/ If only I had had one... I could have joined the network games in the back of the classroom :-) Board engineers -- Just means their so smart that they're board with the material. (I wish :-)

Wow! That was long! I should have just put it in a post so I wouldn't have to try to come up with some other piece of useless information to talk about :-D

Jowy H said...

I like the higher quality part, but the converter boxes we got don't let you choose channels... instead you have to scan for them and it almost never gets them all, So if you want a channel that's not on there you have to try 10 times to get it in the scan .

It also is really hard to get the channels to come in unless you have a really nice tuner or box.

SO ON TO INTERNET TV! :D

(So ends my rant for the day.)

Ben&Brit said...

That is one thing about digital -- you either have it or you don't. I think your problem is your antenna, though, not your receiver :-)

Steven said...

Nah, Joe actually is right for ONCE. ;) yeah, the boxes are really cheap.. Beth's laptop card will pick up more channels with the same antenna.. Still, a better antenna would help..... That is, if we watched enough tv to use it.