I am attending the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and I am looking at a few very specific items. As I have been doing DTV information sessions throughout the state of Iowa, I have had an opportunity to listen to and answer many questions. However there are many more questions that still need to be answered and I have used those issues to determine what I am looking at.
Primarily there are four specific issues. First is recording over-the-air digital television. Many peopl who have purchased converter boxes have discovered that they make using existing VCR's very difficult. I am looking at what items are available to replace the analog VCR. The second area is indoor antennas. Although I am not a fan of indoor antennas because of the problems associated with indoor reception it is clear that many people want to continue to use them. I will be reporting on what is happpening on this front.
The third issue is about what is happening in display development. There are some exciting new technologies being unveiled at this year's conference. Many people are looking at new televisions and want to be sure that what they are purchasing is the right choice for them.
The fourth issue is audio. You don't have to watch too much digital television to recognize that there are some unresolved audio concerns. Audio/video synchronization is an issue and a number of vendors are offering the consumer some options for correcting these problems. And if you change channels you'll notice the other issue which is loudness or more precisely the inconsistent audio levels between channels. I will be reporting on what is happening on this front as well.
I will be filing my first report later today.
Bill
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8 comments:
Will there be any information about indoor antennas that are available that are possibly more efficient at capturing signal than the silver sensor. Anxiously awaiting any available news.
I am searching for output from the 2009 Consumer Electronic Show. Were there subsequent posts to the one mentioning you would be attending?
Is anyone ever going to answer the above question?
What happened to channel 36 in the Quad Cities. I could receive this in April and thought everything was cool. Now it doesn't even show up on scan.
Mark,
I am not sure if you are talking about the analog of the digital service. Channel 36 (analog) is still on the air and will be until 12:01am on Friday, June 12 and it will then be shut down. The digital is currently on the air, however it was off the air intermittently last week, along with a number of other digital stations while tower work was being done. That work is finished and everything should be back to normal.
Bill
I must apologize for not following up on this blog entry. When I went to the CES it was fully my intention to file regular reports. Unfortunately that was also the week that the DTV delay act was announced and I spent most of my time scrambling to try and determine what the impact of the delay would be to Iowa Public Television and how we should proceed so I really had very little time to go over CES material. I am just now looking over the data that I have collected and the notes that I took. I will try and put together a highlights of the show entry after we complete the analog shut off on June 12.
Bill
I'm having trouble finding a definite answer on my question, when the analog signals shut down on Friday, will PBS stations still be broadcasting "time sync data" to auto set TVs and VCRs clocks via their digital signal? I've heard yes and no.
Time sync data is part of a package of services that was being provided by a vendor, not IPTV or PBS. I have been told that the vendor made a deal for digital carriage with CBS but unfortunately somehow in making the deal they overlooked the fact that CBS was only carrying the data in markets where the CBS network owned the CBS station. In the vast majority of markets, the network stations are owned by independent companies, not the network they are affiliated with. As a result of this oversight, the service is not available in many markets. I know that we have heard that the vendor is trying to work a deal with PBS again but I do not know the status of the negotiations or a timeframe for when the equipment required at each station would be available. I think it is safe to say that the service will come back in the not too distanct future but that it will be gone for some period of time after June 12th.
This is about the best answer that I can give you.
Bill
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