Television
Flatscreen Philip's, the creator of "HDTV" said flatscreen was a "unique micro design." Unique Micro Design is now one of many companies investing in flatscreens. Their product is called "Keycorp K58 Flatscreen Monitor, and below are all of the specifics of the product, which are standard for most flatscreens, including Phillips' "Magnavox Flatscreen."
The K58 comes in two models, K58H-1223, and the K58S-1236. As of now, the price for the K58 is about $2,737, for a 12.1" monitor with adjustable height, and also comes in 14.5" monitor and up to 262,144 colors with a contrast ratio of 80:1, and contrast and sharpness sliders. The model also has a 70 cd/m 2 and a 150 cd/m 2 brightness range, along with XGA, SVGA, and full-screen-image resolution.
This model has a standard 15 pin VGA connection and a separate power supply via a 12V unit. "Active Mode" and "Sleeping Mode" are two other features with the K58 models. Both flatscreen models rotate 180o to the left and to the right, and tilt 45o up and 15o down.
So, as you can see, there are a lot of options available to you when, and if, you decide to purchase a flatscreen TV of your very own.
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Birth of Cable Television Cable television was born in 1948, but at that time was known as Community Antenna Television, or CATV. CATV started in Pennsylvania in a studio in between two mountains. The closest TV stations were 90 miles away in Philadelphia, so the reception was terrible. John Walson, the local appliance store owner, had a hard time selling TV sets to the residents of Mahoney City because of the poor reception. Walson decided to put an antenna on the top of a large utility pole, then installed it on top of a mountain and ran twin lead antenna wires from the pole to his store. As soon as the people found out about this new way to receive channels, TV sales soared. Soon Walson improved picture quality by using the coaxial cable system and self manufactured amplifiers to bring CATV to the homes of customers who bought TV sets.
Cable TV Advancements Many national 24 hour network stations have developed, such as Music Television (MTV), VH-1, ESPN, Home Box Office (HBO), Cinemax, The Movie Channel (TMC), Cable News Network (CNN), Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN), The Disney Channel, The Learning Channel (TLC), History Channel, Comedy Central, and Game Show Network. But, as always, not all cable service providers offer all of these stations. Looking into your area's cable provider(s) options, or Broadband network (if this is offered in your area) would be well-advised if you do want all of the offered stations via cable.
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The first U.S. satellite was launched in 1965, right after the launch of the Russian satellite Sputnik I, and ever since we've been refining the space exploration technology, amongst other things.
Satellites send out a signal (broadcast signal, like radios) that the dish receives and converts to the contents that you see on the screen. How does that work?!
Satellites do send out a signal, which cable companies receive and send out to you and your TV set. CNN is a good example, they use a satellite to broadcast their show. HBO and Showtime are also being brought to your house via satellite.
You can also if you would like recieve all of your chanels via satelite. When this is done you will get a small dish and put it somewhere near your house or on your house. The chanels will be sent down to your house straight from a satelite.
If you purchase a dish, try a provider, like Primestar, because they will angle the dish to the right place to receive the signal, since it really is difficult to angle a dish yourself. The dish will automatically convert the signal to digital so it will pop up as a picture on the TV screen. A wide variety of channels are offered, so also keep in mind what you want out of your provider and your hard-earned money.
Back to the TechPage Web TV Web TV is probably the latest in Internet technology. It's basically just what its title suggests. Internet surfing on your TV set. The basic advantages of viewing the Internet on your TV is that more than one person can easily view the pages and, can do so while sitting on your couch. If all you would like to do is surf the net you can easily get your TV connected for $200 to $500, which is far less than buying a new PC.
Right now many companies are investing in the Web TV market like: Zenith, Sony, Phillips, Samsung and Gateway. They are selling TVs with built-in modems and web-viewing software. Sega has introduced a Net-Link cartridge and phone line connection for its Sega Saturn video game system, and Nintendo intends to try the same thing. Compaq and RCA plan to release a full functional PC with a TV included. Also, some companies are thinking of making a VCR with web-viewing capabilities. This might finally make that PIP, or "Picture In Picture" feature useful. Imagine: being able to watch a TV show and view the Internet all on the same screen. Many cable TV companies plan to offer new digital set-top boxes for Internet access after the companies' one-way broadcast networks have been upgraded to handle two-way data traffic. A cable modem would greatly accelerate the speed of receiving web pages as opposed to a standard phone modem.
But, there is one problem, everything made to view on a computer is a digital signal. Almost everyone's TVs are a NTSC format, or non-digital. One way to correct that problem is to convert the digital, or VGA, signal to an analog, or NTSC, format. Down side: this process is far easier said than done. There are ways to do this but the picture quality can be fuzzy and/or flicker.
Because of these technical differences, text that's easy to read on a PC monitor is difficult to read on a TV especially when you view it from a distance. Pictures that look sharp on a PC monitor can appear grainy on a TV without some alterations. Some Web pages are too wide for the TV screen, too, forcing you to scroll horizontally as well as vertically, a process that quickly grows tiresome.
So, as you can see there are advantages and disadvantages to viewing Web pages on your TV. If you'd like a cheap way to access the Internet, Web TV may be the answer to your problems. But, if you would like a full working Personal Computer, you would probably want to look elsewhere.
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