One Week To Go

Unless the government steps in again to mess things up, by this time next Friday you will no longer be able to receive over the air analog broadcasts.

The long planned for DTV conversion was supposed to happen in February, but at the last minute the government decided too many people weren’t ready and postponed it until June 12, 2009.

Never mind the fact that the change didn’t force broadcasters to wait until next week to shut off their analog transmitters.  In fact many stations have already shut off their analog broadcasts.

The FCC has created what is actually a pretty useful tool to help you locate digital signals in your area.  Enter your zip code or street address and it will show you station signal strengths in your area and exactly where that broadcaster’s transmitter it located.

New Website

We launched our redesigned website today.

In addition to updating the design, we are announcing several new and valuable services.

Website Design – Our on-staff Web Development and Graphics Design Team has more than 40 years combined experience and is ready to fill your needs. Whether it is a simple banner ad or the development of a complex retail site; Action Duplication is here to help

USB Drives & Promotional Products – Give your customers and prospects something they’ll remember you by. We offer custom printed USB Flash Drives and thousands of custom printed giveaways.

Custom Printed Blank Discs – When you distribute discs to your clients and customers they are a reflection of your company. Let us help you portray the image you want by custom printing blank CD-Rs or DVD-Rs for you.

Contract Packaging, Kitting & Fulfillment – We can offer our extensive quality-oriented labor force to assist you with your contract packaging needs. Our 20 years of packaging experience and tight production control mean your job gets done right and on time regardless of your product.

Visit our new site, check out our new services and you might win a great prize!
Once you’ve visited the pages for each of the four new services, you’ll be given instructions on how to enter the drawing.

New Website

Posting has been light lately because we have been working hard on updating our website.  (And making bagels.)

The new site should be available soon and it will showcase our new products and services.  There is some great stuff coming to help your company better use its resources and not have to rely on as many vendors.

Today’s (Not) The Day

Today was supposed to be the big day.  The day we finally shut off the analog broadcasting transmitters and switched to all-digital broadcasting.

After about 10 years of planning, preparation and public awareness, the government decided too many people still weren’t ready and stepped in at the last minute to delay the change.

Now we get to go through this all over again in June.  As if an extra 4 months is going to substantially change the number of people who aren’t ready.

This delay is only going to add to the confusion since broadcasters are not “required” to delay the cutoff, they “may” delay it if they wish.  So instead of everyone switching at once and dealing with the problems and confusion one time, there will be at least two dates for switching and increased confusion as some stations switch and others don’t.

The government really should have stayed out of this.  One of their big concerns was the derth of coupons for converter boxes.  In their infinite wisdom, they delay the change, but make no provisions for extar coupons, more funding for the coupons or reissuing the expired coupons people already have.  So they step in add to the confusion and don’t do anything to help people.  Sounds like a typical government program.

Now we can reset our count down clocks for June 12, 2009.

2 Weeks And Counting

Unless you’ve had your television turned off for the past 6 months, you have seen many, many spots reminding you that the conversion to digital broadcasting will occur two weeks from today on February 17.

There was a last minute push in Congress to delay the switch, but they didn’t garner enough support.

Studies show a large number of people have analog sets and do not have converter boxes.  I’m certain some number of people are going to be negatively affected by the switch, but you know what, no matter how long you delay it some people will be negatively affected by the switch.  If you wait until everyone is ready, you’ll never do it.  Actually making the switch is the fastest way to get the stragglers to do something.

There are far too many people with far too much money and power behind the change to allow it to be delayed.

So if you are one of those people who still has an analog TV, AND you get your television from over-the-air broadcasts (no cable or satellite), AND you don’t have a converter box, AND you want to keep watching “Deal Or No Deal” in two weeks, you need to do something.  The other 90+% of you can go back to watching TV.

End Of An Era, This Time We Really Mean It

In case you still had any doubts, VHS is dead.

First, JVC stopped producing VCRs, and now the last remaining distributor of VHS media is sending out its final shippments.

“It’s dead, this is it, this is the last Christmas, without a doubt,” said [Ryan] Kugler, 34, a Burbank businessman. “I was the last one buying VHS and the last one selling it, and I’m done. Anything left in warehouse we’ll just give away or throw away.”

How Netflix Does Encoding

If you are using Netflix’s “Watch Instatntly” streaming service, you may be interested to know some of the technical details about their encoding processes.

End Of An Era

Believe it or not, JVC was still producing VHS decks, until today, when they announced they are stopping production of stand-alone VCRs.

More than 900 million VCRs were produced during the past 30+ years.

VHS. RIP.

Photo courtesy of http://av.watch.impress.co.jp

Real World Experience Switching to Digital OTA

A reporter for IEEE Spectrum Radio details her experience switching from analog over-the-air broadcasts to digital over-the-air broadcasts.  She found it was “neither as easy or painless” as everyone promised.

It’s unknown if her experience is typical or not, but the reality is that most people do not need to do anything to prepare for the February 17, 2009 switch to digital television broadcasting.  You only need to be concerned if, like the reporter, you get your television only from a roof antenna or “rabbit ears” AND you have an older television without a digital tuner.   If you get your television from cable, satellite or some other provider, or if you have a newer set that has a digital tuner, you don’t need to do anything.

Steve Jobs calls Blu-ray “a bag of hurt”

At today’s Apple event, Steve Jobs was asked about Apple’s OS support for Blu-Ray.  He replied:

“Blu-ray is just a bag of hurt. It’s great to watch the movies, but the licensing of the tech is so complex, we’re waiting till things settle down and Blu-ray takes off in the marketplace.”

So basically, we’re not going to see Blu-Ray support any time soon because Apple doesn’t want to pay the licensing fees.