News COVID-19 pandemic

[Urwumpe]

Well, that is strange. Its a big event, but no bigger than many football matches or pop concerts?

Exactly - also it is in May.

 

[Lucy]

Is it the notion that folk might congregate to watch it? The UK has an oddly standoffish attitude towards Eurovision, so it's hard to contemplate here, but... well?

 

[Notebook]

Old enough to remember when it was quite an event on television(monochrome), sort of a European variety show. Technology wasn't what it is today it was quite an achievement linking all those national broadcasters together live.
Went on a bit, so usually sent to bed and missed the result.
Tragic.

 

[tl8]

People really go nuts here. The next case is still miles away in Uetze (about 50 km) and its a single person right now.

But guess what: Toilet Paper has become a rarity. (Exactly the thing I have forgotten to buy twice now since returning to Wolfsburg)

I have no idea why people need so much toilet paper when they in their pants. Diapers would be a better choice.

You have this problem too. We are in a feedback loop at the moment with a lot of people stocking up. The factory has even ramped up production.

 

[Urwumpe]

Technology wasn't what it is today it was quite an achievement linking all those national broadcasters together live.

Yeah, especially also many different technologies - the EBU started long before even the EC.

 

[Notebook]

Indeed.
Most were PAL, France of course developed its own system SECAM.

System Essentially Contraire to the American Method.

Also the USSR before they fell out with the French, though they may be back in.

History of television isn't my thing, I think NTSC was only used in North America and Japan and their colonies?

 

[Artlav]

Interesting. I thought PAL and SECAM were similar and or compatible, since TVs over here offered "PAL/SECAM" and "NTSC" tuning.

 

[Notebook]

Your tellies must have had multiple-standard tuners. Were they made for export and had the relevant tuners fitted for each countries standard?

PAL was 625 lines, NTSC was 525 and SECAM 819? from memory. Field rate was the mains frequency for each nation.

PAL and NTSC had the colour information amplitude modulated on the luminance signal.(simplified explanation. It was a suppressed-carrier modulation system, had to be compatible with the monochrome sets in use.)
Secam was clever and frequency modulated the colour signal. I can't remember the advantage of this. 800+ lines was higher resolution of course.

We had a big box made by Rhode and Swartz? that could handle standards conversion between the three when making overseas sales dubs.

Managed to keep out of that area, PAL was complicated enough.

Re. your original question.
The 525/625 and 50/60Hz are close enough that the tv time-bases could switch between these. Just remembered we had some Sony monitors that could handle that.
The 819/60 Hz, not sure. I think there were dedicated monitors for that.

 

[Quick_Nick]

COVID-19 put the nail in the coffin for Flybe, who was responsible for some flights I was taking later this month for a family vacation in the UK...
Losing that money and having to come up with a new itinerary.

Meanwhile my job is requiring (self)-quarantine of anyone coming from China, Japan, South Korea, Italy, or I think also Singapore.
Hoping they don't add too many more countries while I'm away.
But the spread for countries other than China has been consistently exponential so far, which would extrapolate to maybe a million cases by the end of the month.
I feel like at some point soon they should stop worrying about travelers because it will have hit every state in the U.S.

 

[Urwumpe]

PAL and NTSC had the colour information amplitude modulated on the luminance signal.(simplified explanation. It was a suppressed-carrier modulation system, had to be compatible with the monochrome sets in use.)
Secam was clever and frequency modulated the colour signal. I can't remember the advantage of this. 800+ lines was higher resolution of course.

I think NTSC was doing the color information different since the acronym meant "never the same color" because of its sensitivity to environment factors. In PAL, they swapped the color channels and inverted one, so the environment only affects saturation, not tone. Also, the previous line of the TV image was used to correct such errors in the following line in PAL .



But both NTSC and PAL used QAM to modulate the color information on the luminance channel at the same time. SECAM needed a higher number of lines on the other hand because the two dimensions of the color could not be modulated on the same signal by frequency, so they alternated lines transmitting either color tone and color saturation.



Actually the solution of SECAM wasn't that clever, because it made TV sets more complex and expensive at pre-digital times. But it protected the French electronics industry from foreign competition without violating EC regulations. SECAM = Système élégant contre l’Amérique :lol:

 

[Notebook]

PAL was developed from NTSC, and designed to minimise the problem with multi-path reflections at the aerial that caused hue changes in the picture.
As you say it transformed a hue change to a saturation change that was less disturbing.

SECAM was technically clever, but I'm told it was a nightmare in any signal processing area. I was also told that some tv channels used PAL in their studios and converted to SECAM at the transmitter. May be apocryphal?

 

[Urwumpe]

SECAM was technically clever, but I'm told it was a nightmare in any signal processing area. I was also told that some tv channels used PAL in their studios and converted to SECAM at the transmitter. May be apocryphal?

Sure possible - while different modulation standards, they are based on a very similar monochrome standard. Many modern PAL TV sets also work fine with east european SECAM.



Its harder with NTSC - this uses almost the same modulation standard as PAL, but has a different monochrome format. The old solution for converting this must have been like what they did with the Apollo program TV images: Filming them off a special display with a NTSC camera to convert the image formats.

 

[4throck]

Sorry for the OT

quite an achievement linking all those national broadcasters together live

Indeed. In the early days Portugal got the Eurovision signal through Spanish transmitters. I guess it came from France like that (point to point), all the way back to the organizing country. No satellites used!

---------- Post added at 09:16 ---------- Previous post was at 09:05 ----------

PAL was 625 lines, NTSC was 525 and SECAM 819? from memory. Field rate was the mains frequency for each nation.

The 819 "high definition" was only used for black and white transmissions.

You can use PAL or NTSC with 625 or 525 lines, and with 50 or 60fps.
For example, Brazil used PAL-M.

 

[Notebook]

No satellites till Telstar I think? The UK site was at Goonhilly down in the West of UK.
Quite fun watching it arrive over the horizon and have its twenty minutes of fun and disappear!

 

[Lucy]

Maybe we should take the PAL / NTSC / SECAM discussion to another thread, folks, and keep this one on track?

 

[Notebook]

Yes, though I think its run its course!.

Health Minister says the government is working with supermarkets to keep the shelves stocked.
I think I'll go out and do some panic-buying.

 

[Lucy]

Yes, though I think its run its course!.

Health Minister says the government is working with supermarkets to keep the shelves stocked.
I think I'll go out and do some panic-buying.

There's no pot noodles or rice left, apparently.

 

[Notebook]

Too Late!

Down to my last Curly-Wurly.

 

[Urwumpe]

Yes, though I think its run its course!.

Health Minister says the government is working with supermarkets to keep the shelves stocked.
I think I'll go out and do some panic-buying.

When I arrived at work, every corner inside the building was plastered with two posters of the German ministry of Health, reminding us in German and English about the safety rules:

"Who coughs gets shot."

:j/k:

 

[Notebook]

Seems a bit harsh?