Digital Television

"Nearly a century ago, in the 1920s, the great film director Sergei Eisenstein said that the future of cinematography was the 3d motion pictures. Many other cinema pioneers thought in the same way. Even the Lumière brothers experimented with three-dimensional (stereoscopic) images using two films painted in red and blue (or green) colors and projected simultaneously onto the screen. Viewers saw stereoscopic images through glasses, painted in the opposite colors. But the resulting image was black-and-white, like in the first feature stereoscopic film "Power of Love" (1922, USA, Dir. H. Fairhall).

The better stereoscopic films using the principle of light polarization were invented in 1930s and appeared to the public in the early 50s. After huge initial excitement, nevertheless, stereoscopic movies have not enjoyed broad application or great success. Though the polarization movie technology has been improved in every possible way (like in one of the best in the world system "Stereo 70", developed at NIKFI in Moscow) and in some variations has been used till now (for example, at the IMAX theaters), the stereoscopic cinema actually has no future. Put the reasons in simple terms, these stereo-films require wearing special polarized viewing glasses and they cause visual fatigue.

A talented inventor in the USSR, Semjon Ivanov, worked on eliminating the need for special glasses and developed a system of raster 3D motion pictures, which could be viewed without them. The only 3D movie theater in the world based on his system was constructed in Moscow in the 1941. In this theater the 3x4 meters mirror-raster screen created a 3d film "stereo-zone" for each and everyone of the 200 seats. Several documentary and short feature films were shot and shown there with long lines at the box office. Nonetheless, this system had a different technical flaw which was also a major inconvenience for viewers - the audience had to sit motionless in stereo-zones while watching these films. Ivanov's attempts to solve this problem were cut short by his death.

However in the middle of the century a new innovation in physics brought great optimism to many filmmakers - holography. Holography was "invented accidentally" in 1947 by the Hungarian scientist Dennis Gabor in Great Britain while he was working on an electron microscope. He coined the word and received a Nobel Prize for inventing holography in 1971. The holographic image is true three-dimensional: it can be viewed in different angles without glasses. This innovation could be a new revolution - a new era of holographic cinema and of holographic media in whole.

But the first holograms were of very poor quality. 3-D holograms of remarkable quality became possible only after invention of the laser and work done by Y. Denisyuk, E. Leith, S. Benton and other scientists during the 1960s and 1970s. The idea of holographic moviemaking began condensing in the air. The first holographic filming was made by M. Lehmann in the USA in 1966. Several holographic films were produced by a couple of French filmmakers C. Eizykman and G. Fihman, English sculptor Alexander, Japanese engineers and filmmakers J. Ishikawa, S. Hiyama, K. Higuchi and others.

But the scientists and artists soon realized that holographic films showed more the limitations than its potential, which was attributable to the immense technical difficulties involved in this technology. For example, in France the holographic movie must be seen inside an apparatus that was 7 feet high, 24 inches wide, and 28 inches deep. These holographic films were on lifeless objects, and they could be seen merely by one or two viewers simultaneously, which was not suitable for the public movie shows. That is why until recently, not many people have ever seen it and experienced the magic of a holographic movie.

Research in holographic cinematography was also started in the former Soviet Union in 1974 at the National Cinema and Photo Research Institute (NIKFI). It was funded by the State and led by Professor Victor Komar, the Director of this Institute, who developed the new principles of making holographic motion pictures, based on a totally innovative public-oriented approach. The major goal was: a holographic movie should be seen by the multiple viewers simultaneously in a movie theater without any inconvenient personal accessories, in full color and with better picture quality than the best current 35 mm films.

After extensive research and development the world's first true-public two-minute holographic film with a monochromatic image was produced by Komar's team in 1976 and it was shown in October 1976 at the XII congress of the International Cinematographic Associations Union (UNIATEC) in Moscow. The participants were amazed: the three-dimensional moving images could go out of a screen into any direction and even go around the screen.

The scientific community around the world responded to the Russian achievements in this area with high praise and splendid reviews. The eminent English scientist, Bernard Happe, editor of the British Encyclopedia of Television, who attended this congress, wrote: "delegates who saw the actual results were left with the sense of having been present at a historic occasion, comparable with the classic demonstrations of past pioneers in film and television and having equally vast and perhaps unrecognized potentialities".

The journal "Laser+Electrooptics" (November, 1978, Germany) analyzed the R&D in holographic cinematography which had been done by various researchers around the world (Hains, Brumm, Leith, Hsiao, Pole and Denisyuk). The journal noted that all this work had not yielded positive results and that "only V. Komar was able to demonstrate for the first time a short holographic film using his method in October 1976, and that this date now has become historical". And the American Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers conferred Prof. Komar its annual award for outstanding achievements in movies technology.

A few years later Komar's group solved the problem of color. And several short holographic films with color 3-D images were shot and projected in 1984. Now the holography had demonstrated its potential. It was unprecedented in public film and the effect it created upon those who saw it was absolutely stupendous. After this major achievement the idea of the holographic movies started becoming popular among filmmakers. Such as in a speech at a conference of Italian movie-makers in 1985, the renowned film director Andrei Tarkovsky said that "the most important thing for cinema is for it to become holographic".

In further pursing their research, Komar's group created a working experimental system of holographic motion pictures. In 1986, the Gorky Film Studio in Moscow started shooting the first 20-minute holographic movie. Simultaneously the USSR government approved plans for the construction of the first holographic movie theater with 50 seats.

But with the beginning of perestroika, state financing of holographic cinema R&D (as well as the majority of R&D in science and engineering fields in the USSR) was terminated.

Nevertheless, Komar's team didn't give up. Being cut financially from the holographic movie-making, they developed the technology of static holographic projection for multiple viewing zones, which opened up new means for advertising and show-making: new types of holographic advertising, presentations and holographic shows. Now such a rather simple and inexpensive static holographic projector can be used for advertising, exhibitions, show making, education and so on-just as usual slide-projectors are used-but thus we receive a 3d color image.

In 1991 the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded NIKFI an Oscar for Technical Achievements in the field of 3-dimentional filmmaking. It was stated in the Oscar diploma that "no other group or individual has shown such sustained dedication to the 3-D system". This Oscar certainly became one of the highest world's recognitions of the work of Victor Komar who headed all NIKFI's R&D in three-dimensional cinematography during several decades. "

OK, did you copy this out of the web or a book or what?

At the time of writing (2010), the Wii does not connect to an HDMI input. The Wii is currently limited to a variety of analog outputs including composite, S-video, RGB (Europe, 50Hz signals only) and component. Almost all televisions will have at least one suitable input. Select component or RGB if possible as these offer the best quality.

HDMI is a purely digital interface so none of the Wii outputs will drive it. Don't worry about it too much. Analog RGB or component out from the Wii provide the same resolution as an equivalent HDMI interface would and any difference in quality will not be noticeable.

Found a solution that works well...

I picked up a Sony RM-VL600 universal remote with learning capability. With this unit, I've been able to program all the functions of the TB100MW9 DTV Converter box.

I picked up this unit at Walmart for $25, but have seen it on Amazon for as little as $16.

This remote is a vast improvement over the remote that comes with the Magnavox DTV converter, and was easy to program.

Found another solution....

after tinkering with the Philips universal remote for an hour, i finally found a code that can control the magnavox converter. the code is 0759. the Philips remote i have is SRU3006/27 but it might work for any Philips universal remote. the remote itself cost me about 15 dollars. if you call Philips or magnavox they would say none of the remotes can operate the converter.they obviously didn't know their own product...

I'm having the same problem after buying another 46 in smart tv. I'm leaning towards learning the stock market and monitoring stocks on one, otherwise I might set it up to play download and manage music and photos from a pc or mac if could afford one.

In the US the answer is probably not. Digital and analog TV broadcasts use the same frequencies and antennas. Digital TV is more fussy about signal quality than the older analog signals. So if you get marginal analog reception, figure on getting a new antenna for digital. The idea that there are special HDTV antennas is just marketing hype. Any antenna that gives you better digtial reception will also give you better digital reception.

Television viewing is on the decline as the major entertainment for most people. Recreational pursuits such as social media and video gaming are taking the place of TV in many persons lives.

"The Coby Electronics Corporation ("Coby" or the "Company") is a privately held "C" Corporation incorporated in the State of New York. Founded in 1990 by Mr. Young Dong Lee, who is the President and owns 100% of Coby's capital stock, got its name (minus two letters) from Cowboy, a wholesale electronics company that Mr. Lee started earlier in his career" In accorance with information posted in thir site www.cobyusa.com. It is also said in their site that "products are manufactured in China.." It is a USA company with ties in China.

Freeview is the digital terrestrial television service for the UK and is replacing analog broadcasting. The changeover is being phased and will be complete by 2012.

Any UK television on sale should have a digital receiver incorporated now. Although there may be one or two exceptions, no reputable dealer will stock televisions that do not have a digital receiver.

The same should be the case worldwide wherever a digital conversion has happened or is happening.

But... There will be some very rare exceptions so make sure you ask the question before handing over cash to the salesman.

Some converter boxes have an 'Analog pass through' feature allowing for just that.

All stations will be required to broadcast in digital as of June. While this date has been pushed back a few times, this new deadline seems fairly solid. Get the converter box, you will love the new stations and services. There is also rebates so the boxes cost almost nothing.

The truth is that some translators and some low power TV Stations will be transmitting NTSC Analog after June 12, 2009 so with a NTSC Analog TV Tuner and an ATSC Digital TV Tuner you will receive all channels.

A Freeview set top box is a digital television receiver for use in the UK and delivers analogue signals at the output, for use with analogue televisions. All Freview receivers have video and audio outputs and normally these are found on a scart connector, the European multi-pin AV interface. If a television has no scart connector, it may be possible to use separate video and audio connectors, normally phono or RCA sockets. If the television doesn't have any kind of video input, then the only option is to use the RF connection. Not all Freview units have an RF output. If the Freeview signal must be taken into the television, then the receiver must have the output signal encoded to RF. Note that some Freeview receivers have an RF output but only to loop through the antenna signal and do not deliver the digital programme to the RF output. To be sure that it will work, you must ask the question "does the output of this receiver feed the RF output?" Remember that many salesmen will not know the answer to this, may say yes to get the sale and you get a unit that doesn't work. If that happens, you are fully entitled to return the unit and get a FULL refund as long as you asked the question before you bought it. (The Sale of Good Acts make complete provision for this). This isn't meant to be an attack on salesmen by the way but I have a big problem with poorly trained sales staff gicing out incorrect information!

There is a site on the Internet called NAKED NEWS that does that.

Advantages: *You can use the televion to see many channels. You can see some advertisements for many things.You can see some news,culture,weather,information,education programs,etc. Disadvantages: *you can see some of the harmful ideas,frightening/scary films & if you use it for a long time it may be dangerous to watch more,etc

An aerial. This is an old time term and not used in the USA much today.

The CRT refers to cathode ray tube. This is the oldest of the varous TV types. More recent developments have been projection, plasma, etc.

No, this TV has an analog tuner. When it was built, it was thought that DVI was going to be the connection of choice for HDTV systems, so it has these inputs. It can be connected to HDTV tuners w ith a HDMI to DVI converter cable.

When something is digital that means means it is composed of ones and zeros, i.e., the language of computers. This is as opposed to "analog" or wave-based signals. Digital cable is something new cable companies are implementing and offering to their customers. It can mean much better sound and picture quality than the old, analog cable television. However, it can also sometimes mean outages when the networks get overloaded.

Yes, there are portable TV Radio Combos available.

There are two main types of electric car aerial; automatic and semi-automatic. Automatic ones raise or lower when the ignition and/or the radio is turned on. Semi-automatic ones have a selector switch on the dashboard. When either of the conditions shown above exist, a relay turns ON and passes power to a motor at the base of the aerial. The motor then raises the aerial until it reaches its upper position where a limit switch breaks the circuit. The relay remains in the ON position and the aerial remains in the raised position until the ignition and/or the radio is turned off. When the ignition and/or the radio is turned off, the relay goes into the OFF condition. Power now flows through a second circuit in the relay and also through a second circuit in the aerial motor to reverse the drive and lower the aerial until a second, lower limit switch is broken. The relay is a single-throw, double-pole unit. The aerial motor is a three-wire unit and often incorporates a circuit breaker.

Most HDTV's have the capability to play VHS, but depending on your TV capabilities it may or might not fill the screen. Also, the bigger the HDTV the worse the picture will look. You can only stretch 480i so far before it starts to look horrible. On Most standard resolution TV's VHS looks ok because you are viewing the VHS source at such a low resolution, that you can't see all of its defects. When you go to an HDTV you are actually getting a view of that VHS source that is either 2x or 3x higher in resolution, which basically means you are getting a much better look at all of the defects of the 480i VHS source. As a result, 480i VHS source on an HDTV looks worse than it does on a standard television. There ARE some newer DVD/VCR combination units that "upconvert" the VHS signal, but 480i upconverted to 720p or 1080i/1080p will not look as good as a signal that is natively those higher resolutions. As a plus, some TV's also do some signal processing which further cleans up the signal from incoming devices.. So betwen a device upconverting and a TV processing, the signal might not look half as bad is if it were untouched... But it still will not be as clean as a straight nativie 720p/1080i/1080p signal.

It really depends on the size of the televison, what kind it is, and many other factor. Not all televisions weigh the same.

If you have cable or sattlelite hook up at your home, you really do not need a digital converter. If you only are using rabbit ears, you really would need a digital conterter box, so you would be able to watch TV.