How to Switch from an Analog to Digital TV

That's the question a lot of people will be asking after installing one of the converter boxes that will keep their older TV sets tuned in to over-the-air broadcasts after February 17, when most stations will switch from analog to digital transmission.

The National Association of Broadcasters estimates that 70 million sets are in danger of losing their picture.

We tested two boxes and found them to produce a picture quality far better than any analog channel we could find, giving a whole new lease on life to a tube TV that lacks cable or satellite service (which will still work with older TVs after February 17). The boxes also gave us access to more channels than analog reception.

But the boxes also have a peculiar problem: Unless users manually change settings from show to show, the picture from many stations either won't fill the screen or it will be so big that parts of the picture are cut off by the edges of the screen.

We tried the Digital Stream DTX9900, sold by RadioShack Corporation, and Insignia NS-DXA1, sold by Best Buy. Each costs $59.99, which can be partly defrayed by a $40 coupon available from the government at www.dtv2009.gov.

Both boxes, with some programs, produced "windowboxing" or "the postage-stamp effect": The TV picture occupies the center of the screen, leaving black bars above, below and on either side of the picture.

This occurs because the digital broadcasts of network stations are in most cases formatted for widescreen HDTVs. When shown on a non-widescreen TV, the image will be "letterboxed," showing black bars above and below.

But it doesn't end there. A lot of these digital broadcasts are actually of non-widescreen content. Practically no daytime fare, like syndicated shows and reruns of old sitcoms, is widescreen.
The stations deal with this by inserting black bars to the left and right of the image to pad out the widescreen frame. On a non-wide TV, the result is windowboxing. That nice 32-inch TV you got five years ago is turned into a 24-incher.

The solution is to press the "Zoom" button on the remote that comes with the converter box. That will expand the picture so it fills the screen. Everything good now? No. When the next show comes on, it might have been shot in widescreen. The "zoom" mode will still be on, which means only the center of the image will be visible. The left and right sides will fall outside the screen, but you won't know that, unless you start mashing the Zoom button again to cycle through a few options until you get to the letterboxed mode.

Now, a lot of people might accept that they're going to be missing part of the frame, especially since many stations use a "center cut safe" principle, which means they try not to put important information on the left and right edges when shooting widescreen content. But when we watched "Everybody Loves Raymond," having the zoom engaged cut Raymond's brother out of the frame. I don't think Robert appreciated that.

The converter boxes have another issue that may affect some people. It has been widely reported that all analog broadcasts will go away next year. That's not quite true. More than 2,900 low-power stations and about 4,400 signal-relay stations known as "translators" that extend broadcasts to rural areas will not be required to go digital by the deadline, and may lack the resources to do so.

The converter boxes we tested don't let analog broadcasts through to the set, so these low-power signals will be blocked. None of the other converter boxes carried by the big U.S. electronics retailers have analog passthrough either. One model sold by online stores, the Philco TB100HH9, has passthrough, but it was sold out at the sites that listed it.

Lack of analog passthrough may not be a fatal flaw. You may not miss the low-power stations. If you have a TV that takes a "composite" input, usually via a yellow socket, you can plug the converter into that, leaving the antenna socket free for a second antenna, which you can use for remaining analog broadcasts. (Even if you don't plan to use a second antenna, plugging the converter box into the composite jack is a good idea, because you'll get better image quality.)
The two models we tried are quite similar, and opening them up reveals that their major components are in fact identical.

We preferred the RadioShack's Digital Stream model for its user interface, which contains a program guide that allows you to look ahead at a channel's programming for up to 24 hours. It's bare-bones compared to the program guides that come with cable or satellite subscriptions, but hey, it's free.

The Insignia also has a program guide, but it only tells you what the current and following shows are.

Another minor difference is that the Insignia remembers the zoom setting for each channel, while the Digital Stream applies the same setting to all widescreen channels. Either way, you'll be using the zoom button a lot if you want to watch TV the right way

Internet addictions: A real medical menace?

Alcohol, drugs, food, sex, and even shopping are all candidates for medical treatment and are recognized as genuine mental disorders, so what about the Internet? Internet addiction -defined as "excessive gaming, sexual pre-occupations, and email/text messaging" - is becoming so common that at least one psychiatrist says it merits inclusion in psychiatry's official handbook of mental illness, the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders."

Dr. Jerald Block of the Oregon Health and Science University is the latest voice pushing for this inclusion, noting that tech junkies display genuinely debilitating behavior, including drug-like cravings, withdrawal, and a constant need for more and better gear - just like a substance addict might exhibit.

But other doctors comment that Internet addiction, while it may be real, is too new of a condition and needs further study before being medically classified. There might be something to this: No one wants people being medicated or institutionalized if they aren't genuinely ill.

The "Manual of Mental Disorders" won't be published again until 2012, but an early draft will arrive for public comment in 2009. Meanwhile, mind docs say the problem is growing, now possibly affecting up to 10 percent of Internet users. Recent studies are surprising, indicating the problem is worst not among game-obsessed teens, but rather among middle-aged women who stay at home, constantly on the computer as a way of connecting to the outside world.

Is computer use (or computer downtime) causing a problem in your life? If so, you might be an addict. But you'll have to wait a few more years to find out for sure.

So how much time do you actually spend on the internet per day?

PhotoHunt 101: I Spy

A quick look into the tech geek's desktop, not really good specs but still suitable for gaming.



And yeah I know its kind of dusty inside..haha

MALAYSIA ELECTION DECIDES 2008

Abdullah sworn in as PM

KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was sworn in Monday as the prime minister before the Yang diPertuan Agong, Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin, following the victory of the Barisan Nasional (BN) in Saturday's general election.

Abdullah took the oath of office and oath of secrecy at the ceremony which was held at the Balairong Seri of the Istana Negara here at 11.10am after he was presented the instrument of appointment.

Abdullah, 68, assumes the office of prime minister for a second term.

The Raja Permaisuri Agong, Tuanku Nur Zahirah, was also present at the ceremony.

Abdullah arrived at the Balairong Seri at 11am, accompanied by his wife Datin Seri Jeanne Abdullah.

Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor as well as other VIPs were present at the event.

Among the VIPs were former MCA president Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik, Umno secretary-general Datuk Seri Mohd Radzi Sheikh Ahmad and several new members of parliament (MPs).

At the ceremony, which took about 20 minutes, Abdullah signed the instrument of appointment before Chief Justice Datuk Abdul Hamid Mohamad, which was witnessed by the Chief Secretary to the Government, Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan.

Barisan won 140 of the 222 parliamentary seats in Saturday's general election, enabling it to garner a simple majority and form the government.

Abdullah retained his Kepala Batas seat in Penang by defeating Subri Md Arshad of PAS with a majority of 11,246 votes.

Quick look into Latest Internet Explorer 8 beta 1

Perhaps acknowledging its declining market share among Internet browsers, Microsoft is borrowing several popular features from Firefox and Safari in its release of Internet Explorer 8 beta 1. Although intended primarily for developers, the beta is public and should be used with caution.

We downloaded the 14.4MB file, then waited as Microsoft downloaded any missing Internet Explorer updates, checked for malicious code on our machine, and finally installed the browser. We then had to reboot. Our system crashed during the reboot and had to be manually restarted (but remember, this is a beta).

After restarting Windows, we were not prompted to do anything. Only after clicking on Internet Explorer did we find that version 7 had been overwritten with version 8 beta. A first-time use wizard walked us through configuration and personalization. There's the express settings option, which accepts the settings from your previous Internet Explorer installation, and there's choose my settings. We chose choose my settings, and we were asked to:

1. change default search engine (we kept ours Google)
2. change Activity Providers (see below)
3. enable Safety Filter (yes)
4. make Internet Explorer 8 beta 1 your default (no)
5. import settings from another browser (yes)

Activity Providers, according to Microsoft, are default pages for maps, encyclopedia information, and social networks. Accepting Microsoft's defaults puts you firmly within the Microsoft universe of Windows Live spaces: Blog with Windows Live Spaces, Define with Encarta, Translate with Windows Live, and send with Windows Live Hotmail. We chose not to install any of these. Later we found that Microsoft has partnered with Facebook, eBay, StumbleUpon, Yahoo, Windows Live, and MSN, and provides "activities" associated with each. By choosing StumbleUpon, for example, we found that we can set Internet Explorer to always check StumbleUpon for reviews of a Web page, for related content associated with a Web site, for up-to-the-minute feeds of popular sites, or StumbleUpon itself. If you check for more Activities, you will find a Page Not Found.

The Safety Filter exists in the latest release of Internet Explorer and is the antiphishing part of the browser. In version 8, Microsoft adds malware prevention, actively scanning a downloading page for malicious content. Unlike other safe-surfing applications we've seen, Microsoft displays a warning. We think it might be better to flag the user, say in a pop-up window. Efforts to find what Microsoft found objectionable were futile; you could either block the threat or allow it without ever knowing what "it" is.

When we typed in maps.google.com, Internet Explorer 8 beta 1 crashed. Fortunately, Microsoft has borrowed the Session Recovery feature from Mozilla Firefox. Dubbed Automatic Crash Recovery (ACR), the Microsoft feature only crashes the tab, not the whole browser, and attempts to restore the tab individually. Apparently Google Maps did not crash the page, but our Google Toolbar did. After several attempts to recover the page, Internet Explorer 8 beta 1 asked if we wanted to close the tab.

Another borrowed feature is Web Slices. At the moment, only a handful of sites offer slices, so it's hard to judge how well this works in the wild. Apple Safari has a similar feature, allowing you to create applets on your desktop with snippets from live Web sites. Microsoft isn't that ambitious, as the site snippets only work within the Internet Explorer 8 beta 1 browser.

If you load Internet Explorer 8 beta 1 and then decide you don't like it, you can click the Emulate IE7 button to return your browser to the look and feel of the current version. Check back to see our take on beta 2 and the final release expected later in 2008.

Friendship Chain

Thanks Denz for the tag, doing it now, nice job you've done.

~~Begin Copy~~

This is the easy way and the fastest way to :

1. Make your Authority Technoraty explode.
2. Increase your Google Page Rank.
3. Get more traffic to your blog.
4. Makes more new friends.

Rules :
1. Start copy from "Begin Copy" until "End Copy" to your blog.
2. Put your own blog name and link.
3. Tag your friends as much as you can.

1. Picturing of Life
2. Juliana's Site
3. Hazel-My Life, My Hope, My Future.
4. Jeanne-The Callalily Space
5. Starz in De Sky
6. Denz Techtronics
7. Denz Recreational
8. Only the Strong Survive
9. AD's Techs

Now my turn to direct this tag to all the bloggers out there, and that's if you get tagged by me. Lol

~~End Copy~~

Wordless Wednesday

My post of the day : A friend of mine. Looks really funny, Haha !!