Televison Technology - How far has it come?

[whirlcool]

Since the ColorTV thread was starting to focus on the technology used in television shows, I thought I would start this thread to discuss various television shows and what technology was used back then.

Weren't some of the early Twilight Zone episodes filmed on Kinescope? I recently saw some that had that "Kinescope" look to them.

 

[toggleswitch2]

Dont know about that, but it appears the February transition to digital tv has been moved to June.

 

[jeffg]

AFAIK all TZ episodes were filmed on either film or videotape. The six videotaped episodes look like videotape, but even the very first ones ("Where Is Everybody?", etc) were filmed.

 

[mattl]

I'm pretty steamed about the digital extension. There is no reason after 3 years to delay this more. Just because some people were lazy and could not pick up a phone and order a coupon, and then use it. The number of redeemed coupons if recall correctly was about 15%, the rest expired.

It was stupid to put such a short expiration date on them, and it was also stupid not to have a method to recycle the money from the expired coupons. So there is plenty of stupid to go around.

While I'm not affiliated with any broadcast station, I feel for them. I hope they file a class action suit to have the Govt. pay their extra utility bills for the extension. I communicate from time to time with one of our PBS station engineers and he tells me that it costs about $15,000 a month to run their analog transmitter. If you factor in all the millions needed to upgrade to digital the station really have to be hurting. Luckily for them they were allowed to kill the analog transmitter a couple of months ago.

Technology is in a sad state in the US. We have slower and less internet service. We have much poorer Cell service. In many ways we are a third rate country technologically. There are many reasons for this, corporate greed for one and poor government oversight for another.

There is no reason Europe should have better cell phones then we do, same for internet service.

 

[iheartmaytag]

I am a board member at a local PBS station. We were fighting the extension for the same reasons that Matt mentioned. The people that are still behind will be behind in three, six, or twelve months from now.

Because of the cost to operate two transmitters as we have actually been doing for the last two years is about $20K per month extra. We decided to end analog broadcast on Jan 5th so that we could move the digital transmitter to the top of the tower and be ready for full power on the conversion date. This left many in our viewing area in Nuclear Winter, because the could not receive the analog any longer, and we were not up to full power on digital.

The extention as it was originally proposed would not have allowed us to go full power until June. They changed that last night and will allow us to go full power on the original conversion date as we are licensed. With that approval we don't stand to lose not only the cost of the added transmiter, but the cost of losing two of our largest producing pledge drives of the year.

On the other side of the coin, there is a vast population of people that can't do the conversion themselves ie. the elderly and physically challenged. We are doing an outreach to try to locate and help these people through my "real" job. There are many of the forgotten population that due to memory and cognitive reasons do not process what is being told to them on those, yes we broadcast 1,110 of the PSAs warning of the conversion. Others even with the coupons, can't afford the converters. We are trying to get local TV stations to donate the difference, the response has been very good thus far.

 

[mattl]

That's great, I'm all for helping those that can't convert. Boxes around here are going for $49 so the additional cost, if they have the coupon is small.

I'm sure there are lot of people who will fall through the cracks. I hope they call their TV stations so someone is at least aware of their needs, and pass that info on to a community group.

I've been HD since 2002 and at that time there was ONE HD station available to me. I was one of the few out there as the stations rolled out their digital signal and talked to most of the engineers of almost all the TV stations I receive at one point or another. Most were great, some were idiots, but that's the case everywhere.

 

[iheartmaytag]

It doesn't sound like much, but a $49 converter plus 6.3% sales tax is $53.09 minus $40 converter coupon leaves an out of pocket of $13.09. There are some that this $13.09 is a difference between their medications and not. This is why we are asking people to donate converters. Those with cable and satalite can still apply for their coupons and when they get the converters donate them to the station to help people that can't afford them.

As an example of someone bareley making it. I just entered an assessment for a lady that gets the minimum SSI per month $505. Out of this she pays $349 subsidized rent, utilities and the difference between her $53 food stamps for food. She pays approximately $26 in co-pays for her percriptions under Part D. She doesn't have nor could she afford cable, a new TV or the converter. She will be sitting in the dark when the over the air was her only entertainment.

 

[danemodsandy]

iheartmaytag:

You're one of the few people I've read who really gets it on the digital transition - there are a lot of older people who honestly, really, genuinely and truly cannot afford even the modest amount a converter box would cost with a coupon. On top of that, hooking the thing up is beyond many of them, too.

I really think the Feds muffed it where our elderly are concerned; the digital transition could have been far better planned for them. I think set-top boxes should have been free to Social Security recipients, for starters.

P.S.: You want to talk about station engineer doofuses - you couldn't do better than our local VHF (old-school) public station. We get all the stations with digital that we got before, except that one. Calling them gets the response, "You need a bigger antenna." We've done that, it did less than no good, and we still can't get the station, nor can any of our neighbours. We're all planning to have a lot of fun when they telemarket us during their next pledge drive! Maybe when they hear a few hundred people decline to donate because there's no signal, they'll begin to figure out that they've got a problem.

 

[polkanut]

When my wife's uncle received his DTV converter coupon in the mail last Spring, it was only good for 2 more weeks from when he got it in the mail. I had ordered it for him roughly 3 months earlier. The government also dropped the ball with taking so long to send the coupons out to those who did order them.

 

[aquarius1984]

How very odd,

Conversation Topic in the staff room today at work was about the cost of TV's and the such.

I personally dont have any need for a mega sized flat screen whatever added feature you care to make up Television.

I dont watch enough of it to reason that notion.

The technology is lost on me so when the time comes for us to get a place of our own I certainly wont be advocating Paul buying something like that.
I think he feels the same way anyway so it shouldnt be a problem.

I can think of better things to do in my spare time than watch tv - rather be out in the garden or going for a walk somewhere.

or sat in front of the washer, need I say more lol

R

 

[iheartmaytag]

Polkanut

Part of the extention is that they are going to allow those who's coupons expired to re-apply. They will have to return the old coupons, which some/many have thrown away, but at least it's a concession.

 

[cadman]

Anyone here have a link to a listing of desireable converter boxes? AFAIK on another popular television forum, quite a number of the converters are deficient in feature or function but it's tough to get to the bottom line when many are badge engineered.

As a television collector, I ordered up two of the gov't coupons when first announced, but by the time such things were even available in stores and I was ready to buy, they were well expired. Of course to me there's nothing more idiotic than having to patch a digital converter box into a 1956 8" RCA with built-in antennas that I had been planning on putting back into daily use when the lodge is complete. Served me well as a bedside for years!

 

[rickr]

Why do I even own a TV??

I did get my converter box for the Magnavox console. I get more channels now, but big deal. They pretty much all suck anyway. I do not bother wasting time watching tv unless it is PBS, or sometimes 60 Minutes. Only time I watch my tv is if we have a movie to watch on dvd. Then I do enjoy it. Likewise, the only time the boyz watch it is a movie, or they hook up to it to play video games.

It is still a nice piece of furniture though. <:

 

[alr2903]

Why would it not be SO much easier for the Government to just send a memo to merchants to honor the coupons, okay they made a mistake must heaven and earth be moved? We have cable, i did order the coupons (unused), i had no idea they had an expiration date: I really like the idea of buying and donating a converter to someone, without the means to purchase one.

 

[whirlcool]

I have noticed that the next big thing in television seems to be 3D broadcasting. While looking at some HDTV sets, I noticed a few claimed to be "3D Compatible". Anyone know more about this?

 

[danemodsandy]

3D Compatibility:

Allen:

All that "3D Compatible" jazz means is that the set's resolution is high enough to watch 3D programming on if it's ever offered, and if you have the glasses needed. There have been attempts to run 3D movies on standard analogue TV in the past, and the low resolution makes watching them a literal headache. I remember back in the '80s, one of our local (Atlanta) stations ran 1954's Gorilla at Large in 3D. One of the local convenience store chains made the glasses available (cheap cardboard ones, of course) as a promo. There were a couple of weeks' worth of publicity leading up to the Big Event. Well, the broadcast came on, everybody put on their glasses, and watched for about five minutes - the picture was so bad and the colour fringing so extreme that you couldn't watch it. Even stoned people couldn't take it, LOL.

Today, with Blu-Ray and HDTV's, to say nothing of greatly improved 3D glasses, it should be possible to do 3D TV that looks decent. I'd particularly like to see some of the early-'50s pictures that were done in 3D put on Blu-Ray in their 3D versions. Kiss Me, Kate was shot in 3D, and so was Alfred Hitchcock's Dial "M" for Murder. Both movies were also shot in conventional "flat" versions for theatres that didn't have 3D equipment, and those are the only versions that have been available for most of the last five decades. Dial "M", in particular, must have been a breathtaking experience in 3D, especially the scene where Grace Kelly turns the tables on her would-be strangler by reaching for a pair of scissors on the desk behind her and stabbing him. And in Kiss Me, Kate, having Ann Miller's legs tapping away in three dimensions would have been quite a sight, too, LOL.

 

[toggleswitch2]

Speaking of digital and anal-ogue.....

I'm starting to get annoyed when one screen-size ratio (length to width) is stretched or compressed to fit the other type of screen ratio.

I'm ok with a black band across the top and bottom of the screen but the other way (shrink / stretch) really is yucky.

 

[mattl]

Exactly! It's called by various names but I call it stretch-o-vision. All it is is distortion. I have boycotted one of my local tv stations for years because they do this. I've talked to the station manager, engineer and anybody that would listen there to no avail. I was told it's because the (stupid...) public likes their screens filled. apparently they are too stupid to find the button on the remote to do this.

People with widescreen sets have the option to distort the picture if they want, stations that do this are taking away my ability to control this. I liken it to having a great audio system and then have someone remotely take control of the equalizer and making it sound like a tinny AM radio.

TV stations that do this are scum!

 

[ptcruiser51]

Casual Use

It's really pitiful how people are ignored because they don't fit the "majority" mold.

What do you do if you have an RV or house trailer? One more converter to buy. Do you have to re-program it every time you move? Same if you have a cabin in the woods, I guess.

Occasional use: Teeny TV for the patio, deck, porch or office? Drag converter with you.

Power failure/Ice storm/Hurricane? Something tells me your battery-powered portable is not going to work with an AC converter box that has no power.

And how many of us have ultra-reliable cable service? NOT! When the screen goes to snow, you used to be able to just hook up some rabbit ears. Better have a converter in the closet!

Just my two cents.

 

[iheartmaytag]

Think of those people that bought those hand held TV

You know the ones they take to the stidum with them. Now do they have to have a converter box plugged in so they can watch the instant replay whilst sitting in the stands?