Thanks for the trip down memory lane! Don't forget that NTSC is still broadcast in many countries, including Cuba (which was the world's second country with regularly scheduled color programming).
TTFN, Mark On 3/6/2010 4:44 PM, Olivier Houot wrote:
At my place, analog switch off will occur within less than 2.5 Months (May 18th). In an effort to pay hommage to the pioneers, i 've dragged out my faithful old analog TV set (must be close to 20 years old by now) from its dust-gathering corner and put it in front of the dinner table, so i can watch SECAM as it was designed to be watched, while it is still possible. This is a brave endeavor, since the remote has been eaten alive some years ago by leaking batteries. Furthermore, the mains switch has become inoperative, but there are ways... Of course, SECAM will still live in France in various regions until November 2011. Beyond, that, i wonder where the last transmitter will be switched off. Perhaps some country in Africa will have the responsibility of making SECAM vanish forever from the face of the earth. Will there be a small ceremony for that event, or will it disappear silently? Which of the analog standards will be the last on air? I guess PAL stands a good chance, but who knows? Right now in shops, i can see heaps of small FujiOnkyo TNT decoders sold for 19.80 euros, with a poster above them reminding people of the switch off date. Oh well, I suppose some amateurs will recreate SECAM signals for the purpose of reviving some old TV sets. Perhaps some of them will even dare broadcasting it at ultra low power and short ranges. It appears they have already managed to produce a compliant VHF system E signal for the purpose of feeding restored 819 lines TV sets, for example (french site): http://819lignes.free.fr/Regarder%20les%20programmes%20actuels%20sur% 20un%20t%E9l%E9viseur%20819%20lignes.html They are in fact directly modulating a 185.25 MHz carrier for video and a 174.1 MHz carrier for audio and summing them, to emulate former F8A channel. A the end of the page, there is a link to schematics. There is also a UK forum about those subjects: http://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=37 With the disappearance of analog signals, discussions about the relative merits of the different standards will become entirely theoretical (and will be of interest only to an ever shrinking number of people, of course). Nevertheless, it should still be possible to build a digital simulation of encoders transmission and decoders and display all three standards side by side, starting from a common image source. Sigh...I guess standards, even more than civilizations, should know that they are mortal. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways: - Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org - By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line.
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