I watch a lot of CBC in Detroit, so I see all the Canadian evironmental propaganda (shows are better though :thmbsp:). I had the same thought regarding hydro-power. You got David Suzuki popping up in people's houses, telling them to dump their old (working) fridge in favor of one with an energy-star rating.

So I think... How much pollution dumped into the river/air at the LG plant in China? How much oil burned shipping it 10,000 miles? And this is to save some fractional percentage of electricity in a nation that uses mostly hydo and nuclear...? Not to mention their portrayal of the average Canadian male being a lunkhead who only does it to save money for "more beer".

It's pretty obvious that all governments like to consider their citizens to be dopes, ironically while selling them a load of BS that makes NO environmental sense when you think about it. :rolleyes:

Never mind that, how about the heat coming out the top vents? You could put bread up there and make toast! : 0
Looked at the back of my new DirectTV receiver/dvr - 65 watts, nothing to sneeze at, and that's not even the tv.

I just got DirectTV hooked up and I would heartily recommend anybody who has cable or dish - get a DVR! It actually makes the satellite bill worth paying... can just save up all the shows I love to watch automatically, watch them whenever I want, and can skip commercial breaks in a couple of seconds with the remote.
After only a few weeks I can't imagine watching cable or dish without this DVR, best thing since tv was invented.

power...
 

quote frenchy: "65 watts, nothing to sneeze at, and that's not even the tv."

Now you guys are hitting on one of my favorite games... efficiency.

Remember that NTSC-ATSC RCA 14-incher another AK'er and I bought a couple of months ago? Forty-four watts it takes. That's like nothing. Swear to god, I sometimes use it as a nightlight! :no: :yes: :D

......David Suzuki, don't get me started. On behalf of Canadians everywhere, let me formally apologize for sticking him and his Toyota Prius onto the world. If it weren't for canadian content rules I'd think he'd still be stuck in a classroom at the University of British Columbia.

One of my middle school science teachers absolutely had the world's biggest crush on him (was a prof of hers at U.B.C.) and forced the entire class to endure his shows (Oh the pain). If you wanted to get an "A" in that class, you had to write your reports in his third person interrogative and voila!

"The Nature of Things" doesn't get any more interesting in 1080i.

Given the sheer high cost of Canadian beer in Canada (yes, it's more expensive here than in the US)....
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/ima...s/scratch2.gif

My Sony KV-1206 only takes 65W of power, and it was made in 1979.

I guess that with fewer components and at least 28 more years of development in the Wal-martron tv you'd think that they would have come down more?

Shit, my 1989 RCA Colortrack 2000 draws nearly 200 watts.

http://www.antiqueappliances.com/gra...igerator/1.jpg
Back in high school I worked on the team that ran the school website. We used to keep pop in a 1942 GE Fridge in the server room. The school was built in 1965, so the fridge was old even then, and had probably been donated by a teacher. its been running non stop, in the same spot, for over 40 years. Its never needed repair, coolant, or any mechanical parts. The Ecology Club kept hounding us to get rid of it because they believed it was "inefficient" and "an old piece of junk." So, they hooked it up to a watt-hour meter and left it for a week. To make a long story short, a 65 year old fridge bested the EnergyStar requirement by leaps and bounds, and the Junior Environazis ate crow. Two years have passed and its still plugging along.

accidental doublepost

QUOTE fsjonsey: ...a 65 year old fridge bested the EnergyStar requirement by leaps and bounds....

Great story. The biggest power hogs have to be frost-free refrigerator types, especially those from the sixties. I shut down my old apartment-supplied frost-free Kenmore, replaced it with a new 4 cu. ft'er that draws 70 watts when running. Damn near cut the power bill in half.

You do realize, jonsey, that your are making some of us feel awfully old? :) Well, we did have Apple IIe's when I was in school...

I would agree that frost-free has come a long way, and continues to do so. When my 1990 Signature 2000 refrigerator died my wife talked me into getting this massive Frigidaire side-by-side. I thought the electric bill would shoot up but it actually went down slightly.

You think you're old? We only had calculators in high school physics, and they wern't even ours - they were too expensive for everybody to have so the teacher loaned them to us during class.

Have i mentioned that working unrestored examples of that fridge have sold for more than $3000? And its just sitting in a back room... Im not too suprised though, as the school has a number of all tube RCA Lyceum TV's, both color and b&w, that are still in daily use, connected to DVD players. The school does have one old portable open reel VTR, that they used to videotape educational shows off of television back in the late 60's-early 70's.

info sidetrack for this thread
 

"Washington, D.C. (September 5, 2007) -- The satellite TV industry's disclosure that it may not meet the 2009 Digital TV deadline is more evidence that the transition is not proceeding smoothly.

The disclosure may also increase calls from lawmakers to push back the February 17, 2009 transition date by several months at least to ensure that no TV viewer is left behind when the nation switches from analog to digital.

.
.
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...and most Americans [are] still unaware of the Digital TV transition, which is just 17 months away -- it's hard to see how Congress won't intervene next year and push this thing back, perhaps to 2010."

How did you mean about satellite TV not being ready for the digital conversion?
As far as I know the 2009 date is only for broadcast over-the-air TV...not cable or satellite which can use any transmission scheme they choose.
Plus all Direct TV and Dish Network is already transmitted digitally and HDTV is available. The only incompatability I see would be between older satellite receivers which only have analog video/RF outputs and purely digital TV's.

I still think the amount of analog TV's still in use in 2009 which depend upon an over-the-air broadcast signal (not cable or satellite) will be very small. Everyone I know has converted to digital flat screen sets. One place I read that 40% of American homes already have HDTV's...not counting digital SD sets.

As far as Refrigerators, I have a late 1940's or early 50's GE with top freezer that works great still! The old fridges have only the compressor (no fans or defrost heaters like modern ones) and are very quiet and much more efficient.

I have a 1938 Frigidare that still works, it was the samily refrigerator during the time my mother grew up.

Had this strange thought: Someone somewheres decides to build and operate a pirate analog TV station the next day after the official analog TV shutdown, on a newly vacated TV channel. Wonder what program material he'd broadcast...

You know, that just reminded me of something...translator and low power TV stations are not required to convert to digital! they can still broadcast analog even after the 2009 conversion deadline. Seems kind of odd that they would require full power stations to be digital but allow analog low-power.
Here is some information:
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/otiahome/dtv/lptv.html

The converters are not vaporware. I have one. They do seem to be only available by mail order though. I purchased mine from Newegg.com.

It works ok on over-the-air signals as I am fairly close to the transmitters. As long as it does work, it is great-no snow at all. When it doesn't work it is fairly irritating as the picture pixellates or freezes and the sound stops.

One thing that I have found is that the stations HDTV signal strength varies greatly here-Austin, Texas. The lone VHF station(thanks to LBJ), Fox, has a very weak HDTV signal, but a very strong analog signal. I cannot receive their HDTV signal(As do not ever watch them, it does not matter to me). I can receive the other network stations on HDTV as well as their UHF analog signals. The suprise is PBS. I get them much better with two seperate channels on HTDV, but can barely recieve their analog UHF single channel signal.

I do not know if the stations will change their HDTV signal transmit power levels here once the analog signals are turned off.

I'm having an awful time with reception as well. The old VHF antenna still on the shingles of my roof won't work at all for UHF digital. So I hosted a UHF antenna onto a 15 foot pipe anchored to my chimney and even at that I can't get anything in the summer. After the tree leaves fall I can get most of the stations in the winter though.

I'm afraid thats about as tall as I can go with the antenna before I get into trouble with wind problems. I don't think the neighborhood will approve of a bigger tower than I have either.

I bought a LG DVD recorder with the complete digital tuner...NTSC/ATSC/QAM. It is true HD via the HDMI connector to a LG LCD with HDMI input. No HD on the component outputs.

My local Comcast passes the local over-the-air HD with varying success. Some days better than others. Not sure if they are fiber connected or just off-air themselves at the local head-end. No ESPN, HBO HD, but enough for me.

Dave A

I started 1st grade in September, 1983 and my school still had several of those 23" tube type RCA Mural TV's with all the jacks on the back. All program material was on U-Matic videotapes (machines were Sony). They finally got a VHS machine in '87 and we thought we were big time! All of this equipment was housed on roll around metal carts. Then, around '89; all the rooms were outfitted with 20" Magnavox sets connected to an elaborate CCTV system. I think the Magnavox sets are still in use. BTW, we also had a bunch of those old tube type Califone record players. I talked to a friend of mine that works for the school district and all that stuff was trashed years ago, according to him. It's a shame that they'd rather throw good old stuff away instead of offering it to someone who would enjoy it.

Note the quotes. Words were not mine. But the article noted the sat/cable companies were bitching about not having enough time to upgrade/switch their facilities from grabbing local analog channels they now carry, to their local digital equivalents.

Also, I strongly suspect that much of the lousy digital reception we now experience will go away once the analog channels are turned off and stop interfering with 8-VSB they skip in on top of during the summer. Hope so anyway.

Pete

Hope the Auction goes well !
 

For the $15 Billion or so the FCC will get, I would have gladly paid my fair share to keep things the way they are. At 300 million citizens at $50 a piece the whole auction is a scam; just so Verizon can pod er, broadcast their music videos.

I have the same fridge in my garage. It's full of my rolls of unexposed filmstock. Every year my city has a "throw anything of any size you want in a big pile on the curb and we will pick it up and dispose of it for free" Well, as you might guess, this becomes a scavenger's dream. On the way home one weekend, my wife and I spied this fridge on the sidewalk of a house at the end of our block with a "WORKS - FREE" sign taped to it. She liked the styling so much she asked me to go get it and bring it home. I took the utility dolly, walked over to the house, put the fridge on it, and wheeled it home where it sits to this day. I did splice a new cord onto it and install a new rubber gasket on the door. It never really made any noticeable difference in the power consumption of our home. I guess it's because it's a liquid, what is it ammonia? being pumped through the coils? I can hear sloshing when the motor turns on.

Anyway, the reason I came into this thread. I saw this article in the local paper today: http://www.siliconvalley.com/ci_6817408?nclick_check=1

I remember those Califone record players too. I started first grade in 1973 and back then, we still had the old Setchell-Carlson 21" B&W school TV sets. I also remember we used the old Bell & Howell 16mm movie projectors wiht the old films from Coronet, IIRC, you can download some of that old stuff at www.archive.org. When I got to juniour high about 1979 or so, we started to see VHS VCR's and the like. As to the old stuff, it is a shame it did get trashed. :( BTW, anyone remember filmstrips where you turned when you heard the "ding" from the record/cassette? ;)

Off-topic, but since I brought it up...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...lor2/frdge.jpg

My 1949 Kelvinator. Inside is as nice as the outside.

There is a better chance you find David Suzuki inside of it, than of him convincing me to trash it for some Chinese junk! :D

Carmine, that is a BEAUTY!:thmbsp:I still have to get a 50's refrigerator someday ... but everytime I have money to put my hands on one, a 50's TV set appear ... and since 50's TVs are rarer than 50's refrigerators ( where I live ) I keep postponing the acquisition of a vintage refrigerator.

Yes, I remember those little filmstrips (and the projectors) that had the soundtrack on a record or cassette. I found one of those little projectors from the '50's or '60's awhile back. I also remember our school watching Rudolph on large movie reels on the last day of school before Christmas vacation. And, I remember seeing a tube type Wollensak reel to reel recorder being used when I was in the 10th grade. My current teacher friends are telling me that most everything is on some sort of digital format. VHS and audio cassette tapes are almost a thing of the past.

We had those in high school back around 1970. One kid who worked the projector had to advance the filmstrip when the record sounded the beep. Once, in the auditorium, we had to watch some lame presentation about college admissions, and some kids could accurately reproduce the beep and that would cause the kid working the projector to advance the filmstrip too early. Eventually he'd run out of filmstrip... :D

Yep, we had those same record players-the same "Filmo" filmstrip projectors. U-Matic vcrs until the mid-80s. Locally, at least, that stuff didn't get tossed but was sold at annual surplus auctions. I wish I had taken the time to attend them now. I'm sure all that good old stuff is now gone. I do have one of my high schools old 16mm Kodak projectors-it went through a couple hands between the surplus auction and me. What I really wished I had was the clean Zenith Chromacolor that Mr. Sanders had-or the Panasonic open reel video recorder sitting next to it.

We had U-Matics as well. Also, when I was in grade school, 3rd grade (1975/76), I remember the class I was in watched the Peanuts Christmas special that was taped on an old Sony 1 inch reel-to-reel VTR and the TV was black and white. BTW, did you get some old 16mm films too?

Having graduated highschool in 1998, is it sad that I too remember the "turn slide at beep" projectors?

I have one projector with a built-in phonograph; I think it even advances the film automatically when it hears the beep, but I can't remember.

I do have a stash of 16mm stuff. Nothing from my school, but some that came out of a library and some other cool stuff.

Not if you were 58 years old! :)

Sorry, couldn't resist a lame joke...

Hi folks:

from the New York Times:

... At the same time, in the face of an F.C.C. edict that will
terminate all analog broadcasting in 2009 — the so-called
“analog sunset” — a wild bunch of television fans are also
insisting on a retro aesthetic: old color shows on old color
sets. Those who appreciated the turquoise and lipstick red of
the early sets, which used different phosphors than later color
televisions, have clustered online. On YouTube, a poster called
TeslaMaster has gone so far as to upload a video of a restored
1956 RCA television showing an episode of “Bonanza.” One catch:
the online video is, of course, digitized; to catch “Gunsmoke”
or “Bonanza” as they would have appeared in the 1950s, you’ll
need to restore an old RCA set yourself. ...


http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/11/ma...-medium-t.html

- Eckhard