finally caught up with digital television revolution, again

I was unpleasantly surprised last year when my digital TV receiver device for my Mac suddenly lost the capability to receive a lot of network TV stations.  They had migrated from UHF to VHF band.  My digital TV antenna only worked with UHF band.

The next surprise came when I upgraded my Mac to Snow Leopard (Mac OS 10.6).  My television program for the Mac stopped working.  No way to get it to upgrade.

I upgraded the program yesterday and hooked up a nice, inexpensive, very high quality UHV/VHF indoor TV antenna.  Just in time too.  That is how I learned we are getting hit by another lash of bad weather today.

At first, I thought the switch of some stations to VHF was silly.  However, now I see it is better.  I do not have to move my antenna around as much.  The rabbit ears seem less sensitive to direction than the UHF part of the antenna.  Signal strength for most of my network broadcast TV stations seems slightly better than before.  Good deal!

EyeTV One

Elgato has come out with an even lower-priced EyeTV television adapter for the Macintosh:  EyeTV One.

This new product is less expensive because support for analog television has been removed.  It only supports digital television.  That means you cannot play your really old TV console video games on the Macintosh or digitize your old VHS tapes with your old VCR.  Probably, that was not a huge market anyway.

Being able to watch HDTV on your Mac for a little over a hundred dollars, now that is something special.

Analog Televsion Retired Today

Analog television woke up for the last time this morning and at noon it was retired.

Digital television, which has been broadcast by every station in my area for years - and the local PBS affiliate for a decade - is now the sole broadcasting format in the United States.

This new digital format for TV, known as ATSC as opposed to the old analog format referred to as NTSC - is far better for viewing. The image can be larger and much more detailed than was possible before.

Also, digital television uses a widescreen format that is similar to that used by movies in theaters. It is a much nicer viewing experience.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

I am glad that the Sarah Connor Chronicles staff managed to trudge through a crucial several months of its production with a skeleton staff.

It sounds like the Screen Writers Guild strike made things difficult for those people who were left to work on the show very short-handed. The first episodes have been terrific but in that light they have been just amazing!

The producers, studio, or network - perhaps all three - bringing this show to the public have shown themselves very adept at web technology. The series has its own wiki, Producers Blog, Cast page, and Episode Guide.

They even have a page called the series called Promote This Site. How savvy is that? Pretty savvy!

The show is set in the present. The action takes place a few years before the nuclear apocalypse for the human race. The one that is brought on by Sky-Net when it is prepared to unleash its deadly Terminators upon the remainder of humankind.

John Connor is in high school at the time. He has a sister who, in fact, is really a Terminator programmed to protect him.

John, his mom Sarah, and the female bodyguard cyborg, have all 3 been transported a few years into the future from the time their original present time.

It gave them some brief safety. But it was short-lived, as the head and headless body of the Terminator they killed just before they went through the time portal, came through it with them.

Those parts ultimately reassemble themselves. Then they resume their mission: to kill John.

My favorite character is Cameron Phillips, played brilliantly by the beautiful actress Summer Glau.

Official Sarah Connor Site

I like the way she alternates between totally logical, machine-like statements, expressions, and actions - and completely human ones. Kind of appropriate for a character who is a cyborg - a blend of both man and machine.

You can play around with different models of Terminator by using the link below. Have fun!

See My Terminator Model

Watch the show. Take in the sites. And Take Back the Future!

Screen Screen Writers Guild strike ends

I am so glad for everyone in the television industry that the Screen Writers Guild strike has ended.

I am also happy for television viewers and people in the advertising industry.  Now, they can go back to doing what they enjoy too.

Comcast gradually offering TiVo to its customers

Apparently, this has been in the works for a couple of years but moved very slowly.

It is still moving very slowly. But it is starting to happen.

Apparently some customers in the Northeastern US received TiVo boxes from Comcast starting a couple of days ago. The availability of the TiVo DVR's from Comcast will be very gradual. It will also cost more than the existing non-TiVo DVR offered by Comcast.

Read Comcast rollout of TiVo for details.

Bionic Woman

I have not watched much TV this year.

I guess as we get older first we stop watching cartoons. Then we get tired of the adolescent action shows.

I like sci-fi and horror shows still.

I think I am going to start watching the Bionic Woman.

I looked the new Bionic Woman series up at TV.com yesterday and some people panned it but a couple of the reviewers really liked it.

Guess I will see for myself if I like it.

If you watched the show, did you like it?

Michael J. Fox offers his new fellow Americans advice for November

I just spotted a neat article about Michael J. Fox.

He has pointed out the impact that stem cell research can have on people like Michael.

CTV.ca | Fox's stem cell ads hit a nerve in U.S. election:

What you do in Missouri matters to millions of Americans. Americans like me, Fox, who is now an American citizen, said in an ad for Claire McCaskill. She is running for the U.S. Senate in Missouri against an incumbent Republican.

The video, available on the online service YouTube, has been viewed there more than one million times.