P3D Re: B and W TV Comment

[Bob Wier <wier@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 1:13 PM -0600 on 9/30/98, Michael Kersenbrock wrote:


|
|Won't HDTV broadcasts (ten years from now in the ten year plan) require
|converters for regular tv's to see broadcasts?  I didn't think there
|was going to be NTSC simulcasts forever.  The formats aren't at all
|compatible (analog NTSC and compressed digital).
|
|Mike K.

Yup - I was just talking to someone about this today. I think all
TV stations have to be broadcasting hdtv by March(?) of next year. Seems
like the last NTSC is phased out in 2008 (or thereabouts). Presumably
there will be converters or circuity that will run both ways - show
NTSC on 16:9 HDTV screens, and show HDTV on NTSC screens (but I don't
know if they'd be letterboxed, or just cut at the sides). A big potential
problem is VCRs - all those tapes from 1970 - 2000 will be increasingly
difficult to play. 

I can just hear Disney cackling with glee - they get to sell all their
stuff AGAIN - just like when they used to re-release Snow White/Dumbo
every 7 years to catch another generation of kids.

THANKS

              Bob Wier
     mailto:wier@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
   10:24 PM Wednesday, September 30, 1998
        Unix/Internet Administrator
   Rocky Mountain College, Billings MT.
 keeper of the Photo-3d and Overland-Trails
mailing lists and the USA GPS Waypoint server



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