Recent Comments:
Blockbuster kiosks to offer movies on SD cards, you some candy as you checkout {Engadget HD}
Nov 11th 2009 12:39PM This will be an epic fail. 95% of the population couldn't tell you what a SD Card is. The other 5% are downloading BD rips right now at this very minute.
Engadget HD Podcast 152 - 08.26.2009 {Engadget HD}
Aug 27th 2009 7:04AM Ben,
You're killing me with the pronunciation of Hauppauge. Hauppauge is a town in Long Island, New York. It is an Indian name. I've heard it pronounced different ways growing up but yours is way off.
I've heard it pronounced "hop-hog" or "hop-ogg" or "ha-pawg" or "haw-pawg"
not ha-paj
From the Happauge.com website:
http://www.hauppauge.com/html/faqusb.htm#HOPHOG
How do you pronounce Hauppauge?
Hauppauge is a town in NY on Long Island. Hauppauge is pronounced HOP-HOG. The American Indians dubbed the area around the headwaters of the Nissequogue (NISS-I-QUOG) River Hauppauge; it means, “overflowed land” in the Algonquian language. Hauppauge boasts a large industrial park, home of many well-known companies.
LG's THX-certified LH90 LCD HDTVs now shipping in US {Engadget HD}
Jul 22nd 2009 5:25PM Super Glossy Bezel = detriment, not a benefit
A wish they would stop doing this. I don't need reflections to see the rest of the room. It is distracting.
PopcornHour's latest C-200 media box is Blu-ray (& anything else) ready {Engadget HD}
Jun 16th 2009 9:55PM Not having wireless connectivity out of the box is very disappointing.
Mark Cuban promises the first 1080 NHL & NBA arena next season {Engadget HD}
Jun 9th 2009 11:38PM I wonder if Cuban is footing the bill by himself for this because Tom Hicks [owner of the Dallas Stars, Texas Rangers, and 1/2 of Liverpool FC] is in financial trouble.
BTW, I was at Yankee Stadium last week and the scoreboard is fantastic!
FCC received record 55,000 calls after analog shut off test {Engadget HD}
May 25th 2009 5:58PM This article is old but I read something similar recently about the same problems:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/19/AR2008051902730.html
Digital signals typically do not travel as far as the old analog signals, according to research by Oded Bendov, who is president of TV Transmission Antenna Group and who will replace broadcast antennas on the Empire State Building. Every city will experience different reception challenges, he said, depending largely on the local landscape. Bendov said that about half of the viewers who now receive analog channels would not reliably receive all of their digital replacements and that viewers more than 40 miles from a broadcast tower would probably need new equipment.
"The picture's clarity is impressive, she said, until an airplane flies by on its way to nearby Reagan National Airport -- a frequent event in her 20th-floor apartment. Airplane traffic used to cause seconds-long bouts of fuzziness in the analog picture. But digital signals are more sensitive to disruption, so the sound mutes and the screen freezes, sometimes dissolving into a cascade of pixels. Similar glitches happen when her roommate walks through certain parts of the living room."
"The government's message for consumers is that all they need is a converter box or digital TV," said David Klein, executive vice president of Centris, a market research firm. "That's an oversimplification of what's going to happen."
In the Washington area, about 56 percent of the 370,000 households watching over-the-air broadcasts may need to upgrade their antennas, according to Centris. Nationwide, Centris estimates that about half such households will need a new antenna.
What new digital audiences have to fear is the "digital cliff," or the all-or-nothing quality of digital reception. The picture is excellent until the signal weakens or is interrupted, causing the picture to disappear, and it is more sensitive to interference from hills, trees, buildings and bad weather than traditional analog reception. An analog picture degrades gradually, getting more static and snow as signals weaken.
To complicate the situation, some broadcasters' digital coverage areas vary slightly from their current analog coverage areas, meaning some viewers on the edge of coverage areas will not consistently receive signals. FCC engineers estimate that about 15 percent of viewers live in these fringe areas, and about 5 percent of those, or 1 percent of current analog households, will need new antennas.
Some TV watchers have found they cannot always receive as many digital channels as they did with analog broadcasts. Mike Mellish of Silver Spring said that he was generally pleased with digital reception but that he could not pick up the local PBS broadcasts now that the leaves have grown back on the trees around his house, even with an older rooftop antenna. He sometimes gets spotty reception on other stations, which he attributes to bad weather and other unknown obstacles.
"One evening they might come in great," he said, "and the next, nothing."
Francis Haynes, 77, had always gotten 24 analog stations, including several Baltimore broadcasts, but he lost five of them after switching to digital, meaning he lost some of his favorite programs.
His picture improved when he put a more powerful antenna in his attic, but he sometimes misses a few channels. Haynes, a retired engineer, wants to buy a larger antenna for his roof to pick up more signals, but his Fairfax condominium association won't allow it.
"I'm still having some trouble -- sometimes the stations flicker on and off," he said.
FCC received record 55,000 calls after analog shut off test {Engadget HD}
May 25th 2009 3:22PM I think the problems people are facing is that the digital signal does not travel as far as the analog signal. So your analog signal is just fine but you can't get the digital signal even with your spiffy, new converter box.
Poll: Who is right in the NFL Network / Comcast battle? {Engadget HD}
Apr 18th 2009 4:59PM It is interesting that today some fat-ass, probably barely literate, offensive lineman signed a $53 million, 4-year contract extension. He will earn $60 million over the next six seasons, including $25 million in guaranteed money.
Do you know why this happens?
1. Rich people are allowed to buy luxury suites, club seats, and court side seats and then claim them as a "business expense". Who ends up paying the cost - you guessed it - the average common working man taxpayer. Closing this loophole would solve this problem.
2. ESPN charges 5$ a month for all their channels whether people want them or not. One question that is never answered is this: Why should people have to pay for channels they don't want??? My mother has to pay ESPN each month in extortion money. A la carte programming would solve this problem.
3. This is probably the only country in the world where taxpayers pay for billionaires stadiums. Make a law saying that stadiums will no longer be financed by taxpayer dollars.
Fixing these 3 things would return sports in this country to its proper balance.
Fox VP details soccer HD plans {Engadget HD}
Apr 17th 2009 6:52PM It is too bad we will have to settle watching Arsenal win the Champions League and FA Cup in Standard Definition this year.
CEA rails on California's proposed TV energy standards, rings doomsday bell {Engadget HD}
Apr 11th 2009 4:27AM This sounds like the same whining and crying that every industry does when they don't want to change.
The auto industry did the same thing when they said that seat belts, front air bags, side air bags, anti-lock brakes, crumple zones, etc. were just too expensive and would "DOOM" the industry.
It was easier for GM to hire a prostitute and try to smear Ralph Nader's reputation than to actually, like, build a safer car. It was cheaper for Ford to pay out lawsuits for the deaths due to the Pinto than to recall the thing and make it safe for people to drive.
