The Wonders Of The Modern Age

[robby]

I was at work, playing with a high-end Sony HDTV today, and I am really impressed by digital TV. I never knew so many local stations broadcast in HDTV. For example, one of our local PBS stations, KQED is channel 9, and I am amazed to also find channels 9.1, 9.2, 9.3, and 9.4, that are digital channels owned by KQED with high definition signals. They each were broadcasting a different program. There is also a channel 36.1, and a channel 57, that I've never heard of, all broadcasting digital television. I jury rigged a 10' piece of copper wire as an antenna, but digital TV has built in error correction, and the picture quality color and resolution were stunning, even with a crappy antenna. The TV had two tuners, so I was able to watch the same program on a split screen, one side showing the standard analog, the other, digital. I also noticed a tiny time lag on the digital side, maybe due to processing time related to error correction.

On a non-technical note, I'm drinking some "Governator Ale", bottled in Oregon to commemorate California's newest and strongest Governor.