Mrs. Mecomber's Scrapbook Talking technology, computers, and the Internet… for the average computer user

My generation (Generation X in America) grew up in what is known in popular culture as the “Information Age.” Technology was spawning inventions and geo-political implications, like the man on the moon, Reagan’s “Star Wars” defense plan, televisions and VCRs, and the inception of the Internet. Can you believe that all these things occurred only a generation ago? I remember when VCRs came out– the family was ecstatic! My stepfather was an electronics repairman, so we had the first of everything in my neighborhood. Today, those clunkers we call VCRs and tube televisions from the 70s are nothing compared to the sleek-looking HDTV models out there. Amazing.

I’ve been thinking that the generational age we are living in could be called the “Entertainment Age.” Never before in history have we used technology so much for our entertainment. It is truly a sign of the times. And sports is probably the most popular form of entertainment.

I heard that CBS (who has held the broadcast rights to the games since 1982) is going to stream the entire season of the NCAA March Madness on the Internet this year. The news commentator was joking that businesses would see a sharp drop in productivity, not to mention in clogged bandwidth because so many would be watching the basketball games. There was some speculation that businesses may add filters to their business Internet servers, to prevent workers from streaming the March Madness games.

Retrevo, an excellent source of news and electronics products (and one of my new favorites for news on gadgets and everything about technology), says:

Starting this year CBS will broadcast all games in the men’s tournament, both constant and flex, in HDTV . If you can receive CBS HDTV over the air or via cable you should be in good shape. For the women’s games you’ll have to get ESPN which will be broadcasting many games in HD.

Basketball can be very demanding for HDTV . A fast moving foreground (the action on the court) against a complex background (people in the stands) make it challenging to compress, decompress, and difficult to display without artifacts and blurring.

The very latest LCD sets that offer features like MEMC (motion estimation, motion compensation), 120 Hz refresh, and fast pixel response can help minimize problems. Sets with these features are just starting to show up and may cost a few dollars more.

On the other hand, if you’re willing to put up with a few possible annoyances for a much superior experience than your old standard definition set has to offer, you can get some great values in LCD, Plasma, or even Rear Projection sets for under $2000 and even under $1000.

Imagine, watching the NCAA games on a huge Plasma TV or projected on a huge wall through a high-tech projector? My husband would go bananas. All he’d need to be completely happy is to have Michael Jordan come back to basketball, lol.

There’s more information about entertainment technology here. I love this site because they are so thorough and offer advice and price ranges and examples of all the electronics they discuss. Bookmark that site for future reference (and they are also in my sidebar links).

Well, I have to wonder what will be next in this age of burgeoning electronics. Personal space travel? I still cannot believe that just forty years ago all we had was the tube television and the transistor radio… amazing.