[mythtv-users] coax vs. composite

[Brian Wood]

On May 16, 2006, at 10:13 AM, John Brooks wrote:

> On 5/16/06, Cory Papenfuss <papenfuss at juneau.me.vt.edu> wrote:
> > I can dig that much. How do we figure out the signal quality, then?
> >
>         Simple... it's all crap.  As was pointed out before, to  
> have more
> than crap costs more than anyone but broadcasters can pay.  They're
> *required* to have clean, standards-compliant signals.
>
>
> ... so they put in the minimal amount of effort necessary to  
> comply? Makes sense, I guess. The average consumer doesn't seem to  
> notice- heck, I guess it took me long enough.

It wasn't that way long ago.

CBS News had some footage of the 1968 Democratic Convention (In  
Chigago for those who don't remember). It was great stuff (as far as  
broadcasters are concerned), police cracking heads and even more  
obvious cases of law-breaking by those sworn to uphold it.

CBS did not air that footage because it contained a "technical flaw".  
I saw the footage years later and had to look hard to see what the  
"flaw" was: maybe a 3% or 4% AC hum in the video, probably not  
noticeable to most viewers. Technical standards meant something in  
those days.

Of course the possibility of a fine for "out of standard" video  
helped this view along.

No broadcaster would hesitate to air that footage today, and you know  
what changed it: CNN

Ted Turner proved to the world that the public would accept less-than- 
perfect video. Nowadays "amateur video" is accepted, even solicited  
and paid for, by every major (and minor) network. Uncorrected slant- 
track VCRs are fed to air without hesitation (well nowadays not so  
much, but when time base correctors were $20,000 items that meant  
something).

I saw a demonstration of HD TV many years ago at O'Hare Airport (when  
HD was almost unknown to the public). Were the people wowed by the  
resolution, the crispness, the fine detail? No, the comment I heard  
most was "wow, it's wide".

Yuppie and Yuppette sitting on their couch are happy with VHS  
quality, they are not demanding anything better, to the point where  
the government was moved to force it on consumers at the behest of  
Sony et al, because quality doesn't and never will sell.

As a group folks on this list are better than most, but picture  
quality is still not their primary goal.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mythtv.org/pipermail/mythtv-users/attachments/20060516/2adadfd9/attachment.htm