ATSC (Advanced Television Systems Committee) is a group which defines the standards for digital television transmission in the United States and many other counties. ATSC is the digital replacement for the earlier analog standard, NTSC. The ATSC standards are created by the Advanced Television Steering Committee, whose charter members are the Electronic Industries Association (EIA), the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), the National Cable Television Association (NCTA), and the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE). The ATSC standards include high Read More

MP3 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3) is a digital audio encoding format that uses a lossy compression algorithm. Although the algorithm used is lossy in nature, the sound quality of the MP3 file is very good. An average listener cannot tell the difference between the MP3 file and the original uncompressed audio file. The lossy compression algorithm is very effective as it can be used to produce files that are 1/10th the size of the original uncompressed file. The MP3 file size depends on the type of compression. A mid-range bit Read More

The PocketDISH is a great way to store your favorite TV shows, videos, photos, music, in fact almost any digital media, onto a portable device that can fit in any small bag or pocket. The PocketDISH is created to work with the Dish Network Satellite TV service; however, if you are not a subscriber to this service, you can still find plenty of great uses for this tech gadget. In essence, the PocketDISH is a portable media center. The PocketDISH has the ability to download from a Dish network, TV Read More

The FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) is an open source file format designed for the storage and playback of audio content. Unfortunately, the format is not supported on a number of music playback devices. The WAV (Waveform Audio File Format) is designed by Microsoft and IBM for both audio playback in uncompressed form. A common task for end-users is to convert FLAC files to WAV format. Steps to Convert FLAC Files to WAV Using WAV MP3 Converter Step 1 – Download and install the WAV MP3 Conversion application. Step 2 Read More

HDTV stands for High Definition TV and while the FCC does not have a standard definition for HDTV, it is widely agreed upon that HDTV is defined as having higher quality video, audio and a wider image aspect ratio than standard television broadcast signals. HDTV is part of a larger set of standards called ATSC. The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) has mandated that all licensed television stations be capable of broadcasting DTV by 2007. To understand how much higher the quality HDTV is, you need to know the quality of Read More

A video scaler converts an existing video signal or stream from one resolution to another. It is normally used to upscale or convert a signal from a standard definition to a higher definition broadcast. Video scalers are commonly found in televisions, computer monitors, video editing equipment, audio/visual periphery devices, and broadcasting equipment. A video scaler is not always embedded in a device, however, as it can convert standard definition displays or movies into HD format on its own. Today, most video scalers are digital devices. However, they can also be Read More

Multimedia is simply multiple forms of media integrated together. Media can be text, graphics, audio, animation, video, data, etc. An example of multimedia is a Mozart web page that has text regarding the composer, an audio file of some of his music, and even a video of his music being played in a hall. Besides multiple types of media being integrated with one another, multimedia can also stand for interactive types of media such as video games, CD ROMs that teach a foreign language, or an information Kiosk at a Read More

Dish 300 was the first satellite dish receiver provided by the direct broadcast satellite television company, Dish Network, and was originally known as the “Dish Network Dish”. Dish 300 had a single LNB, or Low Noise Block, that was capable of receiving signals from the 119°W orbital location owned by EchoStar as well as the 148°W or 61.5°W orbital locations for Latin American broadcasting, but not the 61.5°W, 110°W, or 129°W orbital locations. Because of the inability of Dish 300 to connect to these other satellites, it was eventually discontinued Read More

S-Video Separate Video (S-Video) is an analog video transmission technology that sends video signals via cable, as two detached signals known as lumen and chroma. Lumen indicates the brightness and chroma the color aspects of the video transmission. The S-Video technology is ideal for television sets as they are built to display separate lumen and chroma signals. It is one of the most commonly used video transmission technologies today. Electronic devices such as TVs, DVD players, digital TV receivers, game consoles, and graphic cards utilize S-Video. The most readily available Read More

The AVI video CODEC was created by the Microsoft Corporation and lets end-users create high quality video files on a container format. The file format can contain both video and audio content; however, it is not supported on all multimedia software programs or hardware devices. As a result, end-users commonly have the need arise to convert AVI to CD. Although AVI files can easily be burned to CD without converting the content, conversion is required in order to support playback on portable media players. Steps to Convert AVI to CD Read More