OT: Smart TVs

[Tim Watts]

And I will reiterate the point I made a couple of posts back:

What I'm seeing there is that uncompressed formats seem to have very long engineering lifetimes. As soon as we start accepting lossy compression tricks to compensate for lack of bandwidth, you are into a fast move evolutionary game were formats get more efficient (but still lossy) and bandwidth goes up (often used to put more tat out than improve the quality of the current channels.

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DAB was a shitty format. 405 line TV was a shitty format compared to now. However, 405 was *really* all they could manage at the time and it lasted 49 years which marks it in my books as a "pretty decent bit of engineering".

With DAB they had the benefit of knowing that better stuff was likely to appear soon.

The CD was born earlier than DAB but because they killed the beancounters and went for unlossy storage at a point where 99% of the population would regard it as practically perfect, the format endured.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

When DAB was first thought of? In those days the design process was much longer than now.

But perhaps what they didn't know was the bean counters would drop the data rate.

And had it had a better codec the bean counters would likely have dropped the data rate even more.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Don't worry about it. As others have said you have internet radio so don't need DAB.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

You don't know just how far from the truth this is.

[Adrian]

Barely. See elsewhere in this thread...

[Martin Brown]

It is always very pessimistic and you can expect to get about twice what it claims. This lot have a calculator somewhere which will show actual line attentuation to expected sync rate reasonably well:

[Adrian]

It's absolutely bob-on for us. And our connection is better than most of our neighbours.

SamKnows reckons 2.1km straight line from the exchange - we're straight off it.

[Dave Liquorice]

Which, monkey arsed crap or internet radio?

Nothing stopping makers having software based radios these days. The "problem" is the old hardware based receivers perceived to be still out there but superceeded hardware has never stopped things moving on in the past.

But did they, at the time of developing/launching DAB, have the abilty to make a software radio? Preferably a portable that didn't eat batteries even faster than the hardware ones.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

;-) I sort of guessed that anyway.

[Dave Liquorice]

It's gone quiet but I don't think the removal of the nationals from FM has gone away. Came across a consultation document fairly recently that made reference to changes in Band II (FM). I'll try and find it later but I might not suceed as I can't remember the context in which I came across it...

[Dave Liquorice]

There is here, just. You make out the difference between music and speech as the later has gaps in the sound of boiling mud.

[Dave Liquorice]

That's what the powers that be are using as a measure of "digital take up" to justify the removal of the nationals from FM. Trouble is how can you equate listening to a national on £4.99 for the occasional cost of a PP3 almost anywhere with DAB that doesn't have a comparable receiver or anything like the coverage? Including DTTV, DSAT, streaming etc is just skewing the figures the way the powers want the figures skewed.

[Dave Liquorice]

Are you refering to the move from "ADSL" to "ADSL Max" in BT speak?

Not for me:

BT BROADBAND AVAILABILITY CHECKER Telephone Number 01434382xxx on Exchange ALSTON

Featured Downstream Upstream Downstream Availability Products Line Rate Line Rate Range Date (Mbps) (Mbps) (Mbps)

ADSL Max Up to 1.5 -- 1 to 2.5 Available Fixed Rate 2 -- -- Available

Nothing about cabinets, all the other text is effectively disclaimer and the ceasation of Datastream back in 2012.

Uplink is normally very good and at the max 448 kbps. Did have a period when it was bad, instigated by the cable being dug up, streached and snapped. BT repaired it PDQ, same day IIRC. POTS was fine downstream was normal, just upstream was affected. The repair was two new posts roughly installed and 20' of new cable between them. I suspect something odd with standing waves iffy joints or perhaps the new cable was copper rather than ali(*). It stayed like that for a few months then I noticed that the two new posts had been set upright and the repair generally tidied up. Upstream speed had come good as well...

You need a man with a decent TDR to look at the line.

(*) See other posts about the trouble a few yards of CCS CW1308 gave me.

[Martin Brown]

Actually it does. You like me are physically connected directly back to the exchange with no cabinet for the fibre to run to = out of luck :(

Try a few friends nearer the centre of town where there are cabinets.

I know, but I have only a limited time to fight with Orange "support".

[tony sayer]

In article , Dave Plowman (News) scribeth thus

Just how many parts?..

Mate of mine has a DAB station here in Cambridge we're served by the Madingley transmitter. In his house he has to either hook up a bit of wire to the portable set downstairs or used the radio in an upstairs room.

FM works fine most anywhere at the same location...

No but Ofcom don't advertise the fact anywhere easy to find!..

Sense .. DAB?. You err.. jest squire;!..

[tony sayer]

It was just a consultation and nothing more.

Ofcom do them all the time.

That one was about shoving some frequencies around to free up a bit of space in the band...

[tony sayer]

So it was. However I think that the 405 line standard was what the EMI lot had to hand after the Baird mechanical system v the EMI electronic contest and trial..

The French managed 819 lines yanks 525 and even 625 on VHF was on the go but as we were early adopters;!.

Course the 405 line system was on the go pre war so the same mindset was probably around post war..

I say!, thats a bit below the belt Sir;!..

[Johny B Good]

That may seem to be the case but, even assuming DAB was _initially_ setup with the best of intentions (improved broadcast reception in motor vehicles), this description of the end result fits to a T.

It's worth remembering that the road to Hell is always paved with 'Good Intentions'[1].

[1] Another classic example being Intel's USB replacement for RS232 and even here I'm not so sure there were ever _any_ good intentions. It just seemed to be designed to boost CPU sales AFAICS.

[Mike Barnes]

[Johny B Good]

Ah, Godwin's Law. I've picked out the relavent text to quote here:

"While falling foul of Godwin's law tends to cause the individual making the comparison to lose his argument or credibility, Godwin's law itself can be abused as a distraction, diversion or even as censorship". :-)