>> Geez how much are you guys paying for TV?!?!
>
> $75/month, no premium channels either.  It was $95/month.

Oh wow that is a lot, in the UK you pay the standard TV license which is 
about 10 pounds a month, which gives you about 30 channels IIRC, 5-10 of 
them are pretty good the rest pants.  You can subscribe to SkyTV via 
satellite which costs 15 pounds a month, but that's just for the basic 
channels.  If you want all the premium channels and HD it's about 50 pounds 
a month.

I just have a big satellite dish that receives all the free SkyTV channels, 
so no monthly subscription at all, and I get the 5-10 pretty good channels, 
plus 990 crap ones :-)

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Nicolas Alvarez wrote:

> Ever heard about that guy whose daughter installed a The Little Mermaid
> screensaver, and weeks later he finds a "Copyright (c) Disney" burn-in
> while working on a spreadsheet? So much for "screen-saving"!

Yeah. Most modern "screen savers" don't. (Save your screen, that is.) 
Quite the opposite in some cases...

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Nicolas Alvarez wrote:
> Invisible wrote:
>> I still remember how shocked I was when I found out that normal VGA
>> actually allows communication in the reverse direction. ;-)
> 
> Yeah well, I remember a just-installed Windows XP showing the "new hardware
> found" dialog box again and again on its first boot... One of the devices
> was the CRT screen, it actually said brand and model... How the HELL does
> it know that, and WHY would it want to know that?

It might want to know what screenmodes the monitor supports. (And what 
the "optimal" one is in the case of an LCD.) But make and model? Who cares??

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And lo On Wed, 21 Jan 2009 02:19:11 -0000, Nicolas Alvarez  
<nic### [at] gmailcom> did spake thusly:

> scott wrote:
>> Actually on BBC channels there are no adverts at all, apart from  
>> trailers
>> for other BBC programs and services.  These usually come in the form of
>> 1-3 short trailers *between* each program, never during a program.
>
> Whoa, I wish TV was like that here.
>
> The History Channel breaks every 10 minutes in the middle of the  
> programs,
> sometimes advertising products but mostly advertising other programs in  
> the
> same channel. And that's cable TV, paying for it. What the hell?

'Ah but if there were no adverts the amount you'd be paying would have to  
increase' Actually come to think about it go and buy a newspaper and count  
how many adverts it contains.

Just for comparision's sake on digital Freeview we get BBC1, 2 all say 3,  
& 4  plus CBBC and CBeebies from 7-7 (alternating slots) as well as BBC  
News 24, BBC Parliament, and a couple of extra slots for special stuff  
like news headlines or sport; not to mention the radio broadcasts.  
Commercial channels are ITV1, 2, 3, 4; Channel 4, Film4, More4; Five,  
FiveUS; Sky3, Sky News; UKTV History; plus a whole heap of others I don't  
bother with and this costs £139.50 per year per household.

Watching imported American shows on the BBC it is interesting to see all  
the scene shifts and dramatic moments where a broadcaster can stuff in a  
set of adverts. More fun on Channel 4 (a commercial channel) who are  
currently showing The Simpsons (in some bizzare loop that can't break past  
15) who can't even do this correctly  - 'But that means; d...' ad break  
'...oh', black, scene change.

-- 
Phil Cook

--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com

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> Just for comparision's sake on digital Freeview we get BBC1, 2 all say 3, 
> & 4  plus CBBC and CBeebies from 7-7 (alternating slots) as well as BBC 
> News 24, BBC Parliament, and a couple of extra slots for special stuff 
> like news headlines or sport; not to mention the radio broadcasts. 
> Commercial channels are ITV1, 2, 3, 4; Channel 4, Film4, More4; Five, 
> FiveUS; Sky3, Sky News; UKTV History; plus a whole heap of others I don't 
> bother with and this costs £139.50 per year per household.

Just for further information for non-UK people, all those channels come over 
the air and you just need to stick up an aerial on your roof to receive 
them.  All modern TVs have a digital tuner inside to directly decode the 
signals, older ones may need an additional box.  There is no encryption, if 
you don't pay the 140 quid and get caught you get a big fine.

CableTV is really not very popular in the UK compared to other countries 
like USA and Germany, people who want more channels and premium content 
usually bought SkyTV which is a satellite based service.  From them you can 
get all the channels Phil mentioned for free unencrytped, but the satellite 
also transmits many more channels that you need to pay a monthly 
subscription to receive.  Currently you need to pay about an extra 50 pounds 
a month to receive all the premium content (sports, movies, HD etc).

> Watching imported American shows on the BBC it is interesting to see all 
> the scene shifts and dramatic moments where a broadcaster can stuff in a 
> set of adverts.

Also fun to see hour-long shows only taking up 40 minutes :-)

> More fun on Channel 4 (a commercial channel) who are  currently showing 
> The Simpsons (in some bizzare loop that can't break past  15) who can't 
> even do this correctly  - 'But that means; d...' ad break  '...oh', black, 
> scene change.

On Five US reruns you can usually tell that the original had way more 
adverts, because like you say the weird scene changes where I guess they cut 
out the "welcome back" intro...

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Orchid XP v8 wrote:

> 
> Seriously? I thought it was all recorded in 15mm film...
> 

Actually 35mm film, I think ... At least for those movies still recorded 
to film. Everything's going digital these days.

> 


-- 
~Mike

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Invisible wrote:

> Yeah. Most modern "screen savers" don't. (Save your screen, that is.) 
> Quite the opposite in some cases...

The best screen saver you can use is the "Blank Screen with power 
management" option.
-- 
~Mike

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Invisible wrote:

> It might want to know what screenmodes the monitor supports. (And what 
> the "optimal" one is in the case of an LCD.) But make and model? Who 
> cares??

I think because it's part of the VESA standard.

-- 
~Mike

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Nicolas Alvarez wrote:
> How the HELL does it know that,

I'm told the VGA cable also serves as a serial cable.

> and WHY would it want to know that?

Plug and play.

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   "Ouch ouch ouch!"
   "What's wrong? Noodles too hot?"
   "No, I have Chopstick Tunnel Syndrome."

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On Wed, 21 Jan 2009 09:17:32 +0100, scott wrote:

>>> Geez how much are you guys paying for TV?!?!
>>
>> $75/month, no premium channels either.  It was $95/month.
> 
> Oh wow that is a lot, in the UK you pay the standard TV license which is
> about 10 pounds a month, which gives you about 30 channels IIRC, 5-10 of
> them are pretty good the rest pants.  You can subscribe to SkyTV via
> satellite which costs 15 pounds a month, but that's just for the basic
> channels.  If you want all the premium channels and HD it's about 50
> pounds a month.
> 
> I just have a big satellite dish that receives all the free SkyTV
> channels, so no monthly subscription at all, and I get the 5-10 pretty
> good channels, plus 990 crap ones :-)

Yeah, we get something like 150 channels currently, but we only watch 
about 6-8 of them consistently.  I would really like it if Comcast would 
give us a "build your own package" option, where you pay per channel and 
select only what you want.  Or maybe the reverse of that, they bill you 
only for the channels you watch programs on.  Kinda like the idea hotels 
have where you can start a movie for 10 minutes or so, and after that 
they bill you for it.

Heck, they could charge per program and get rid of the advertisers.  Now 
that's something I'd back.

Jim

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