READER FEEDBACK continued frompage 10
less bandwidth, don't send all the sync
info. H/V sync in the analog signal takes
up about 20% of the bandwidth. In the
digital world, all that can take up one
byte. Saved a bunch of space there!!!
Do some creative compression, data
processing, error correction, remove
parts of the image people won't notice,
and before you know it you have
squeezed that digital signal into less
space than the analog one.
I get tired of everyone saying that
the digital signal is better — it’s not all
the time. I would tell people if they
thought that, then they had not seen a
really good analog signal! If you take a
good look at a digital TV picture, you
will see lots of picture faults. Most
people don't notice these faults and the
broadcast companies can get away with
it. If, in the past, a broadcast company
broadcast a picture with as many
impairments as in the digital picture,
their phones would be ringing off the
hook. Thank you for your time.
Donovan Stenger
Broadcast Technologist
verb, why not “edict”?) all broadcast
TV stations to have digital over-the-air
programing. These are on other
frequencies from their VHF/UHF
programing. The MIGLIA tuner outputs
on USB 2.0 and came with a driver
package called eye TV2. Unfortunately,
the password issued for the tuner
restricts the driver to only access the
USB port, even though there are other
drivers provided which may have made
the Firewire port available for input,
and thus the STB viewable.
There are channels from my STB
that I cannot get from local broadcasters
that I wish to view with my setup. I can
only assume that the STB must utilize
a standard protocol if it is to be
compatible with any TV set that has a
Firewire input. There are discussions
on line about recording from STBs, my
only interest is to view. Please, do you
have any advice?
Thanks in advance for your most
kind consideration.
Tall Henning
TRYING TO TUNE IN
Apparently I always have things
backwards! If the advertisers are to be
believed, the whole world wants to
watch video on their iPod, iPhone, or
laptop. Apple even comes out with i TV
figuring people's monitors to be smaller
than the wide screen TVs they are sure
to own. Not me!
I have an Apple 30” Cinema
Display connected to a 2 GHz dual
G5 running Mac OSX 10. 4.x Thanks
to iDVD, I can watch DVDs on this,
but the problem came with trying to
watch cable TV.
When I upgraded from analog to
digital cable service from Time/Warner,
I insisted on a set top box E/W a
Firewire® output. After connecting
everything together, the G5 reports
seeing the Scientific Atlanta “Explorer”
3250HD STB at the Firewire input, but
refuses to T anything with it.
In the interim, I have opted to use a
MIGLIA TVMini HD (now discontinued)
digital over-the-air tuner. The FCC in its
infinite wisdom has edicted (if the news
readers on TV can make “impact” a
Response: You have quite a nice
setup there. While Firewire has been
around for a while, it’s not in common
use to connect home theater equipment.
The Scientific Atlanta “Explorer”
3250HD you have specifies the Firewire
connectors as “reserved for future use.”
Depending upon which of the two main
software OS your box is running, these
connectors may someday be active.
Until then, I think you will have to find
another way to hook up your STB.
I assume you are using your Mac
as the hub, probably hoping to let it
perform DVR functions. If not, I would
suggest replacing the STB with a unit
that has DVI or HDMI output. You
could use a DVI switch (perhaps
w/remote control) to toggle between
the computer and STB. And you could
have a DVR in the STB as well (for a
fee, of course).
Probably not what you wanted
to hear, but unless you want to go
shopping for a new STB (cable
companies are now required by law
to let you buy your own), there’s
nothing else you can do.
Jeff Mazur
Author of previous NV HDTV articles
92
August 2008