Skip to main content

Computer Technology Merging With TV Technology More All the Time

Computer Technology Merging With TV Technology More All the Time

Author: Emily Sanderson

Over the past decade, there has been a phenomenal amount of crossover between computer technology and TV technology. This is especially surprising given the fact that most Americans have largely rejected the idea of a living room computer. However, most of the computer technology that has found its way into the living room hasn't had the overt appearance of a personal computer.





The earliest example of an acceptable piece of computer equipment in the home entertainment center (that wasn't a video game platform) was the digital TV receiver. The widespread use of these devices actually dates back to the early nineteen nineties when satellite TV became economically viable for typical households. By all outward appearances, it would have been easy to blur digital TV receivers together with any other set top box, but underneath it all was the fact that they converted digital data to the sounds and images that made up TV.





The DVD player was a much more obvious example of the blurring between computer and TV technologies. After all, by the time that DVD players became common, CD-ROM drives had been on computers for years. Since both are optical drives, and computers and DVD players loaded their discs in similar ways, the resemblance was pretty plain. Of course, CD's had been in stereo systems and computers for years, so people were already used to seeing the resemblance there.





The next major change was the digital video recorder. DVR's as these devices are more commonly known, can record video onto computer hard disks and then play that video back later. Most models also automatically record whatever the viewer is watching live in order to enable the pausing and rewinding of live TV. Among the advantages that DVR's have over VCR's is an ease of programming that none of the manufacturers of VCR's ever got right. Another advantage of DVR technology is an ability to watch recorded programs in any order. That's because a hard disk doesn't store video sequentially like a video tape does. In other words, a video file can simply be accessed without the time wasted cuing through other videos.





Over the years, computers have also taken on a number of the same capabilities that's previously only been reserved for TV sets. For example, it's been possible to buy a special TV tuner that can be installed in a computer for years. These devices allow computers users to watch TV right on their computer screens. These days though, this capability is standard on many computers to some extent. For example, most modern computers can display streaming Internet video on their screens and laptop computers have been used to watch DVD's for years. There are also now special adapters available that contain a TV tuner and connect to laptop computers through a USB port so that users of laptop computers can watch TV on the screens of their laptops.





The most obvious hybrid between computers and TV equipment is the media center computer. These devices are DVD players, DVR's, digital receivers, and Internet browsing machines all combined into a single unit. They're likely to be the future of TV technology.

About the Author:

E.Sanderson writes articles about the latest developments in technology, electronics, and satellite TV. She'd like to inform you about the latest Dishnet HDTV services.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - Computer Technology Merging With TV Technology More All the Time

Labels

Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Tips For Improving Your Site’s Search Engine Positioning

Tips For Improving Your Site’s Search Engine Positioning Almost all webmasters or website owners are looking for ways to get better results from their websites. They wish to improve their site’s standing and get better rankings in search engines. This quest for improved results, known as s earch engine positioning , can be satisfied by following a few basic procedures. Before you even begin, you have to realize that you are competing against hundreds, and in some categories, thousands of websites offering similar products and services. In the case of affiliate marketing, many of the competing websites may even be identical! If you want to get the edge over these competitors and improve your search engine positioning you have to fine-tune your website and actively work to make it better. 1. Make Sure that your design is search engine friendly: Your design may look good to your eyes, but it may also be the cause of you present difficulties and poor search engine positioni...
Read more

A Concise Guide To MICR And Associated Technologies

Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) was developed to utilize the benefits of computer technology in the banking industry. Prior to the use of a MICR line, check sorting by account number was a manual process. Two systems were previously used to handle the large numbers of checks processed in the banking industry: Sort-A-Matic and Top Tab Key Sort. The Sort-A-Matic system included 100 metal or leather dividers numbered 00 through 99. Each check was placed in the corresponding divider by the first two numbers of the account. The sorting process was then repeated for the next two digits of the account number, and so on. When the process was complete, the checks were grouped by account number. Under the Top Tab Key Sort system, small holes punched at the top of the checks indicated the digits. For instance, the first hole indicated the value of the first digits (0, 1, 2, 3...) A metal "key" was inserted through the holes to separate all of the checks with the same value ...
Read more

What is Barcode

What is Barcode Barcodes encode numeric or textual information in a printable, machine-readable form. The use of barcodes can significantly reduce cost of warehouse management and inventory. Two main forms of barcodes exist today: Linear or normal barcodes encode data over a horizontal stretch of space or one dimension. This kind of barcode typically encodes between four and forty digits or characters. So called area codes encode data in two dimensions, resulting in much higher density which allows for up to three thousand characters to be encoded. Most linear barcode types will only encode numbers or digits. Two notable exceptions are Code 39 and Code 128 which can also encode alphanumeric characters like letters. Two dimensional area codes usually encode numbers, letters and special characters. The most common linear barcode type is Code EAN which is used to encode article numbers in retail. It's used throughout the world with the notable exception of the USA which uses a...
Read more