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Speaker 1: Get in touch with technology with tex Stuff from dot Com.

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Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm Jonathan Strickland,

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Speaker 1: and today I'm doing a rare solo show. I don't

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Speaker 1: tend to do these, but as our office is preparing

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Speaker 1: to move, everyone is in crunch time and no one

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Speaker 1: was really available to jump in with me, which is

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Speaker 1: completely understandable. So I thought it would be a good

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Speaker 1: opportunity to look through the listener mail see if there

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Speaker 1: was something that I could tackle on my own, and

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Speaker 1: I found a great one. This email comes from Daniel

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Speaker 1: from Kentucky and he says, Hi, John, I hope your

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Speaker 1: time at CS was terrific. I did have a topic

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Speaker 1: suggestion for you all that came to my mind when

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Speaker 1: I was hooking up the TV I got for Christmas.

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Speaker 1: I'd like to think I'm tech savvy, but my head

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Speaker 1: spins when I'm asked what's the difference between different connectors

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Speaker 1: like H D, M, I, R C, A V G,

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Speaker 1: a USB, A V slash, F, etcetera. Like most consumers,

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Speaker 1: I don't really know the difference outside of being told

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Speaker 1: one device requires another connector. It would be informative if

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Speaker 1: tech Stuff covers the most common connectors, trying to explain

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Speaker 1: the differences and why certain ones were adopted and later discarded.

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Speaker 1: It had certainly helped my understanding of the issue. Well, Daniel,

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Speaker 1: that's what this episode is all about, Guys. We're gonna

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Speaker 1: look at TV connectors and kind of demystify things, explain

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Speaker 1: what all the different ones are, at least the ones

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Speaker 1: that you're most commonly going to encounter with televisions these days.

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Speaker 1: I'm even looking a little bit beyond the United States

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Speaker 1: with a couple of these. So there's gonna be some

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Speaker 1: connectors I'm going to mention that people, depending upon what

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Speaker 1: region they're and may never have seen and may never encounter.

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Speaker 1: But I thought it would be fun to kind of

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Speaker 1: go through them all. Now, I'm gonna begin with analog connections. Now,

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Speaker 1: analyot connectors transmit video signals through continuously varying the voltage

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Speaker 1: across that connection. That's how they generate the images you see.

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Speaker 1: And you've got different elements that make up an image.

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Speaker 1: The brightness of the screen and the color. Those are

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Speaker 1: the two main ones. But uh, there're synchronization issues as well.

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Speaker 1: There's a lot of stuff that has to come through

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Speaker 1: for you to get video and of course audio is

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Speaker 1: another component. Some of these connectors also carry audio, some

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Speaker 1: of them carry video only, and you have to use

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Speaker 1: a separate connector to get audio into your television or

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Speaker 1: from your television to some other component like an amplifier.

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Speaker 1: So let's begin with one of the most common, the

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Speaker 1: radio frequency connectors, are F connectors. That's the oldest way

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Speaker 1: to transmit video signals to your television using radio frequency power.

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Speaker 1: And these are coaxial cables. Now you might wonder what

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Speaker 1: does coaxial cable mean. We've seen coaxial cables you probably

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Speaker 1: are able to imaginin one off the top of your head,

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Speaker 1: but what does that actually mean. So the term coaxial

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Speaker 1: actually means that you have a a form linear form

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Speaker 1: in this case, because it's a cable that has uh

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Speaker 1: multiple substances that are all aligned along the same axis. Ultimately,

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Speaker 1: this means that you've got kind of a concentric circles.

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Speaker 1: So you have a core and then an outer layer,

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Speaker 1: and then a layer even further out from that, and

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Speaker 1: then whatever you know, it can keep going as many

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Speaker 1: times as you need, depending upon what you're doing. With

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Speaker 1: co axial RF cable, you're talking about essentially three main

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Speaker 1: layers and then a coating. So you have a wire

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Speaker 1: conductor as the core of the cable. Around that is

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Speaker 1: the dielectric, which is an insulating medium, and around that

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Speaker 1: is the outer conductor. Then on the very outside you've

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Speaker 1: got the protective layer that coats the cable and make

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Speaker 1: sure that it doesn't get damaged, it doesn't end up

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Speaker 1: causing interference with other cables, it doesn't get interference from

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Speaker 1: other things that's insulated somewhat. Uh So, the physical dimensions

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Speaker 1: and the material you use to make those different layers

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Speaker 1: is what determines the impotence and the attenuation of the

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Speaker 1: cable at different frequencies. What does that mean. Impotence is

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Speaker 1: the effective resistance of an electric circuit or component to

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Speaker 1: alternating current. That's dependent upon the combined effects of ohmic

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Speaker 1: resistance and reactants. And I could go into more detail,

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Speaker 1: but really that could be its own episode to go

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Speaker 1: into the basic terms of uh of electricity and voltage

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Speaker 1: that sort of thing. If you guys think that, that

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Speaker 1: would be a really fun or interesting podcast, right to me,

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Speaker 1: and let me know, I'll be glad to go through

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Speaker 1: that and kind of explain what all those terms mean

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Speaker 1: because they can be pretty confusing if you're not familiar

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Speaker 1: with them. Attenuation, on the other hand, that refers to loss,

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Speaker 1: in this case signal loss frequency loss. So in an

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Speaker 1: ideal situation, if you have a cable and you're putting

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Speaker 1: a signal into the cable, you know you're putting a

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Speaker 1: certain amount of energy into one end. Ideally you would

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Speaker 1: get the same amount out on the other end. But

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Speaker 1: that's not the way the world works. We actually lose

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Speaker 1: some of that power that goes into the cable, and

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Speaker 1: the longer the cable, the more loss you tend to encounter.

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Speaker 1: Other factors also play a role, including the materials you use.

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Speaker 1: So this is where a lot of those high end

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Speaker 1: cable manufacturers really try and and sell their products. They

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Speaker 1: say that the materials they use are much higher quality

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Speaker 1: and you're going to suffer much less loss as a result.

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Speaker 1: While that might be true over great distances, in general,

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Speaker 1: for the average consumer, the length of cables that we

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Speaker 1: typically need somewhere in the three to nine ft range.

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Speaker 1: It's really negligible. It's it's not really detectable unless you're

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Speaker 1: talking about super cheap cables that don't have very good shielding,

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Speaker 1: in which case you could get a lot of interference.

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Speaker 1: So in the US we use the F connector, which

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Speaker 1: is standard in many parts of the world, although there

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Speaker 1: are other types of connectors as well, and a lot

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Speaker 1: of the old peripherals that you would connect to televisions,

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Speaker 1: like older video game consoles, connect through an URF connector.

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Speaker 1: It's also used for terrestrial antenna and cable connections. And uh,

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Speaker 1: you know it's called OURF radio frequency connectors because it's

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Speaker 1: actually using radio frequency power. Um, that's that's the key

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Speaker 1: to that. It's pushing those radio frequencies through a cable

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Speaker 1: as opposed to through it through the air. Now, next,

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Speaker 1: the next most common that I would say you you'd

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Speaker 1: encounter on the back of an average television is composite video,

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Speaker 1: also known as r c A connectors. Now, this is

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Speaker 1: a video connector. Typically it's yellow. You'll also find it

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Speaker 1: usually next to red and white r c A connectors.

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Speaker 1: The red and white, however, are for audio. The red

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Speaker 1: is for the right channel and the white is for

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Speaker 1: the left channel. Sometimes it's black not white, but it's

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Speaker 1: still the left channel. The yellow connector is just video.

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Speaker 1: Composite video is an analog video transmission cable. It can

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Speaker 1: carry video at standard definition resolution, but not higher. So

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Speaker 1: you're not going to get high definition or beyond using

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Speaker 1: this kind of these kind of cables UM, and all

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Speaker 1: the video information is encoded on a single channel. UH.

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Speaker 1: That means that the quality of that picture, it's probably

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Speaker 1: not gonna be as high as using alternate means of

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Speaker 1: delivering a signal to your TV. UM. That's where a

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Speaker 1: lot of the other connectors that came up have kind

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Speaker 1: of gotten the advantage, at least in the marketing world

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Speaker 1: by being said to be greater quality. Like S video

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Speaker 1: or separated video. Now that's a connector that carries two

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Speaker 1: encoded video signals. One is for the brightness or essentially

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Speaker 1: black and white, and the other is for the color

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Speaker 1: of the image. UH. The cable also transmits in standard definition,

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Speaker 1: but it's better video quality than composite it's just not

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Speaker 1: at high definition levels of resolution. So a lot of

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Speaker 1: people got confused about that. When S video first came out,

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Speaker 1: including myself. I was not familiar with S video and

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Speaker 1: this was when really your three options were composite video,

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Speaker 1: S video, and component video. Those were the three main ones,

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Speaker 1: and UH, S video looked like it was pretty easy

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Speaker 1: because it was one cable, although it only carries video,

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Speaker 1: not audio. Um so you'd have to use separate cables

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Speaker 1: to get audio to and from your television. Uh So,

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Speaker 1: if you were hooking up a VCR, for example, you

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Speaker 1: would need to have audio uh our c A connectors

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Speaker 1: to get that to your TV. Well s video like

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Speaker 1: it was easy because it was a single video cable

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Speaker 1: and it was supposed to be higher quality than composite,

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Speaker 1: but it wasn't really explained well at least not to me,

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Speaker 1: that it wasn't high definition. It was still standard definition.

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Speaker 1: So yes, it was technically a better picture, but it

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Speaker 1: wasn't a higher resolution. Moving on with more analog choices,

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Speaker 1: we've got v g A or video graphics array. Now

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Speaker 1: this is not common on a lot of TVs, but

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Speaker 1: there are some televisions that have it. Cables that are

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Speaker 1: v GA cables have three rows of pins. There are

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Speaker 1: fifteen pins total on the connectors. It's meant to connect

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Speaker 1: a PC and a display together, so not necessarily a television,

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Speaker 1: but some form of video display like a monitor. But

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Speaker 1: some TVs do have them, and they allow for the

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Speaker 1: transmission of analog display resolutions to a television and it

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Speaker 1: could carry high definition resolutions to the display, So this

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Speaker 1: one could actually do a higher resolution and say S

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Speaker 1: video or composite. Then we've got component video. These are

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Speaker 1: the red, green, and blue connectors that you might see

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Speaker 1: on the back of some televisions. And you might think

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Speaker 1: that those different colors indicate that each cable carries only

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Speaker 1: one color to the TV, because if you are familiar

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Speaker 1: with the way television's work, you know that there pixels

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Speaker 1: and TVs are made up of subpixels of red, green,

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Speaker 1: and blue, and that it's the combination of red, green,

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Speaker 1: and blue in different ways that creates the various images

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Speaker 1: we see on television and the different colors we see

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Speaker 1: on television. So surely component video that's red, green, and

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Speaker 1: blue carries those colors, right, Not exactly. The green connector

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Speaker 1: is actually in charge of carrying the video image in

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Speaker 1: black and white, so the brightness as well as the

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Speaker 1: synchronization data. The other two connectors carry the color information,

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Speaker 1: but essentially green is left up to the brightness as well.

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Speaker 1: It's another analog video cable, but this one can carry

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Speaker 1: signals of up to ten a DP or higher, so

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Speaker 1: this is truly able to give a high definition video

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Speaker 1: feed to your TV, and honestly, it's the kind that

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Speaker 1: I perfer over all others, and I'll explain why in

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Speaker 1: a little bit. But I need to talk about one

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Speaker 1: other analog connection that is not found here in the

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Speaker 1: United States. This is one that if you are in

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Speaker 1: the U S you probably have not seen one of these,

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Speaker 1: but if you live in Europe you probably have, and

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Speaker 1: that is Scart S C A R T. So unless

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Speaker 1: your TV is an old set from Europe, you're not

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Speaker 1: gonna see this. It was another analog transmission cable. It

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Speaker 1: has twenty one pens and carries both video and audio

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Speaker 1: and originated in France, which is why it's full name.

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Speaker 1: And please forgive me because I'm going to butcher. This

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Speaker 1: is the Sindicat de Constructors da Pereal Radio. Should roll

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Speaker 1: my arm on that one radio Receptors the Televisiere And

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Speaker 1: for all of my French speaking friends out there, um

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Speaker 1: monsieur mid Dame Jean Papa France maroismon. Alright, So those

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Speaker 1: are your analog connections. Those are the ones that are

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Speaker 1: going to create the video through varying that voltage. Then

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Speaker 1: we have digital connections. Now these deliver video as a

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Speaker 1: bit stream so essentially zeros and ones. Right, this is

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Speaker 1: not a variable voltage delivery system. It's purely digital. Now,

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Speaker 1: there's a common misconception that digital these days is better

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Speaker 1: than analog are Some people go the other way, saying

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Speaker 1: analog is always better than digital. The digital is better

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Speaker 1: than analog argument goes something like this. It says, since

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Speaker 1: televisions these days are digital devices, they're not analog TVs.

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Speaker 1: We have digital TVs now. If you're buying a new

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Speaker 1: one anyway, and since a lot, if not most, if

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Speaker 1: not all, of the main ways we get content these

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Speaker 1: days is also digital, then you want to have digital

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Speaker 1: connectors and digital cables so that you never have to

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Speaker 1: convert from digital to analog and back to digital again.

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Speaker 1: So in other words, if I'm watching a Blu Ray

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Speaker 1: and I want to connect the Blu Ray player to

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Speaker 1: my TV, I should use a digital cable because that's

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Speaker 1: a digital form factor or digital format rather. Uh, And

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Speaker 1: then it'll go through a digital cable to my digital

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Speaker 1: TV and never have to convert to analog where I

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Speaker 1: might have some signal loss or artifacts or some other problem.

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Speaker 1: That's the common misconception. Uh. The reason I call it

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Speaker 1: a misconception is not because of the conversion issue. That

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Speaker 1: really is a thing, but conversion issues are a thing

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Speaker 1: with pure digital as well, because every form of digital

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Speaker 1: uh information that will go to your TV is encoded

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Speaker 1: in a different way, and these different encodings mean that

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Speaker 1: they have to be decoded. You actually do have digital

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Speaker 1: to digital conversions. Uh. It's it's not like every television

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Speaker 1: can show every digital format and its native resolution. In fact,

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Speaker 1: it's trying to show any type of data to the

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Speaker 1: TV's native resolution, which often means it has to upraise something.

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Speaker 1: In other words, it has to add an extra information

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Speaker 1: to make up for the fact that the resolution of

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Speaker 1: the incoming stream is not the same or is lower

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Speaker 1: than the native resolution of the TV. That with that

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Speaker 1: in mind, sometimes we get bad digital to digital conversions.

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Speaker 1: There's digital error correction that's supposed to mediate this, but

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Speaker 1: occasionally you get a set or a series of components

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Speaker 1: that don't work so well together and it's it's a

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Speaker 1: disappointing experience. So, in other words, just because we're moving

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Speaker 1: to more digital formats and more digital sets, it doesn't

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Speaker 1: necessarily mean digital cables are automatically better than analog. On

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Speaker 1: the other side of this is the idea that analog

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Speaker 1: is always better because digital is a series of zeros

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Speaker 1: in one, so it's always going to be a step

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Speaker 1: let type thing. It's always gonna have these these sharp

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Speaker 1: drop offs at some point, no matter how large a

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Speaker 1: uh bandwidth you're talking about, At some point it is

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Speaker 1: either a zero or a one, whereas an analog system

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Speaker 1: is a continuous signal, and therefore it is much more

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Speaker 1: natural and free flowing, and you're going to get a

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Speaker 1: much more warm or or satisfying experience from it, which

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Speaker 1: maybe in the very earliest days of digital was true

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Speaker 1: when we weren't really good at encoding, or we weren't

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Speaker 1: using very good samples bit samples, But these days it's

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Speaker 1: it's pretty much a bogus argument. I mean, there's we've

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Speaker 1: reached a point where it's beyond the ability for a

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Speaker 1: human to perceive the difference, assuming that you're using well

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Speaker 1: calibrated equipment. Obviously, if you were to take one system

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Speaker 1: and not calibrate it very well, and you took another

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Speaker 1: system and calibrated it extremely well, you're gonna notice the difference.

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Speaker 1: But assuming a level playing field, you aren't really going

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Speaker 1: to notice that difference. So really comes down to personal preference.

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Speaker 1: So why did I say I like those, uh those

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Speaker 1: component cables so much as opposed to digital ones. Well,

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Speaker 1: here's another thing that separates analog from digital. It's the

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Speaker 1: potential for dr M measures such as high bandwidth Digital

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Speaker 1: Content Protection or HDCP. Now, this is a form of

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Speaker 1: copy protection that was created by Intel, and it's meant

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Speaker 1: to prevent the copying of digital audio or video content

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Speaker 1: across various devices. So, for example, let's say that I

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Speaker 1: have a Blu Ray player again, and let's say I've

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Speaker 1: got a device that can burn to Blu Ray, and

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Speaker 1: I am a dirty, nasty pirate, and I decide I

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Speaker 1: want to steal in a movie and distribute it on

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Speaker 1: my own, or make copies, real cheap copies and sell

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Speaker 1: them on the street. So I go out and I

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Speaker 1: buy a copy of my favorite Blu Ray, which is

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Speaker 1: of course Bio Dome with Polly Shore, and I put

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Speaker 1: it into the system and I start making copies of Well,

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Speaker 1: I could just end up ruining the market obviously, and

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Speaker 1: then Paul Shore would never experience that great career comeback

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Speaker 1: that we're all hoping he has in the very near future.

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Speaker 1: Uh So HDCP is meant to counteract that. It's supposed

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Speaker 1: to prevent people from either sending hd CP content to

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Speaker 1: unauthorized devices or two devices that have been hacked to

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Speaker 1: allow for copying materials. So, in other words, if I've

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Speaker 1: got my Blu ray player and it's h d CP compliant,

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Speaker 1: and I've hooked it up using something like an HDMI

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Speaker 1: cable to another another peripheral, another system, in order to

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Speaker 1: try and copy the material that's being shown on that

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Speaker 1: Blu ray player or being played by that Blu ray player.

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Speaker 1: But because of that HDCP protection, it won't go to

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Speaker 1: my hacked system or my unauthorized system, and I won't

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Speaker 1: be able to make those copies. I'm prevented from doing it. Uh. However,

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Speaker 1: it's not entirely true. There's a hacked master key to

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Speaker 1: h d CP that was leaked way back in two

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Speaker 1: thousand ten. So technically you could end up with a

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Speaker 1: computer that has this on it, and you could end

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Speaker 1: up recording stuff from other devices, and and you're using

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Speaker 1: this master key, it fools the whole system into believing

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Speaker 1: that you're using an authorized device, so there's no problem. However,

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Speaker 1: this would essentially just record whatever was playing at that

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Speaker 1: time on the Blu ray player or whatever other media

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Speaker 1: device you happen to be talking about, it would not

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Speaker 1: get the entire experience. So if I were copying that

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Speaker 1: that Blu ray, I would get the movie, but I

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Speaker 1: wouldn't get the menus, I wouldn't get the added material.

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Speaker 1: It would just be whatever was playing at that time.

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Speaker 1: So there are other ways to actually hack or decrypt

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Speaker 1: the protection on disks. Then that's pretty much what pirates

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Speaker 1: concentrate on rather than just making a direct copy, because

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Speaker 1: most people want the full experience as opposed to just

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Speaker 1: the film. Although I don't know why. I mean biodom

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Speaker 1: by itself obviously a work of art, uh At any rate,

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Speaker 1: it's this DRM that has had a lot of people

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Speaker 1: who prefer to have unfettered kind of control of their

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Speaker 1: electronics up in arms. They disagree with it. They want

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Speaker 1: to have a device where they can do whatever they

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Speaker 1: want with it, especially if it means something like burning

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Speaker 1: a copy of a a movie you own, or a

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Speaker 1: music disc you own, whatever it may be, in order

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Speaker 1: for you to have a backup for your own purposes.

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Speaker 1: We have in the United States as established that personal

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Speaker 1: backups are not a copyright violation you can do that. However,

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Speaker 1: this is the sort of technology that prevents people from

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Speaker 1: doing it. So while it's not illegal for you to

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Speaker 1: make a backup copy, it is it can be illegal

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Speaker 1: for you to circumvent the technology that prevents you from

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Speaker 1: doing that, which is kind of crazy. And that's why

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Speaker 1: a lot of home theater enthusiasts prefer the analog set

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Speaker 1: up where you don't have this dr M issue. Then

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Speaker 1: with things like hd M I, which i'll talk about

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Speaker 1: in a second. That being said, we're seeing that a

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Speaker 1: lot of a lot of systems, a lot of peripherals,

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Speaker 1: a lot of television sets don't necessarily support these methods anymore,

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Speaker 1: and you have to use things like h d M I.

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Speaker 1: So we're kind of being pushed into that world whether

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Speaker 1: we want it or not. Go figure alright, So there

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Speaker 1: are other things that can limit your ability to use

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Speaker 1: your devices if you're using something like uh a connector

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Speaker 1: that has hd C P on it subsort of HDCP

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Speaker 1: protection associated with it, for example, a limit on how

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Speaker 1: many devices you might be able to hook up two,

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Speaker 1: or how many displays you might be able to hook

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Speaker 1: up to a single device. And this might not sound

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Speaker 1: like it's a big deal, and for most consumers it

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Speaker 1: probably isn't. But imagine that you own a sports bar

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Speaker 1: and as part of the sports bar experience, you want

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Speaker 1: to have televisions up all around the bar that are

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Speaker 1: tuned to different channels to show the various sporting events

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Speaker 1: that are going on at any given time, and you

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Speaker 1: have them all connected to a satellite receiver. Well, if

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Speaker 1: you're using something that has HDCP protection on it, which

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Speaker 1: is sort of like saying a t M machine, uh,

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Speaker 1: you are limited to how many of those devices you

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Speaker 1: might be able to hook up to that satellite box.

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Speaker 1: For example, a lot of the really popular ones have

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Speaker 1: a limit of sixteen displays, which is a lot. I mean,

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Speaker 1: if you were a regular consumer, that would probably more

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Speaker 1: than enough. I don't know anyone personally who owns more

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Speaker 1: than sixteen televisions, but if you have a large restaurant,

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Speaker 1: that might not be enough. And there are plenty of

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Speaker 1: people who have said you could be doing everything legally.

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Speaker 1: You know, you could be following all the rules, but

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Speaker 1: the technology itself has artificial limitations put into place to

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Speaker 1: protect against copyright violations, and it's affecting people who aren't

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Speaker 1: even committing any sort of copyright violation. Okay, so that

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Speaker 1: was a long preamble to get into the digital side,

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Speaker 1: but it was important. And I should also say that

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Speaker 1: while I prefer analog for those purposes, my own home

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Speaker 1: system uses h d M I because I've got everything

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Speaker 1: running to a centralized receiver to control things, and h

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Speaker 1: d M I was just easier than having all these

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Speaker 1: other analog cables that could get tangled up with each other.

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Speaker 1: So maybe I'm a hypocrite, maybe I'm lazy. I'm probably both.

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Speaker 1: Let's look at digital connectors and cables. First. There's display port,

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Speaker 1: which is gonna sound weird to anyone who is pretty

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Speaker 1: familiar with televisions because there are very few TVs that

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Speaker 1: actually have a display port connector. In fact, the only

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Speaker 1: one I am personally aware of is the Pana Sonic

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Speaker 1: TC L six five W T six hundred And yes

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Speaker 1: I did read that off, because I can't just rattle

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Speaker 1: it off from the top of my head. There may

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Speaker 1: be others out there, but that's the only one I'm

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Speaker 1: familiar with anyway. Display Port connectors are usually meant to

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Speaker 1: connect various components to computer monitors, not to televisions. The

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Speaker 1: display board cable can carry audio as well as video,

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Speaker 1: which means it is useful for TVs. Your typical computer

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Speaker 1: monitor doesn't have audio associated with it. Some do, but

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Speaker 1: the typical ones don't. It also has the optional implementation

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Speaker 1: of HDCP and includes DPCP also known as display Port

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Speaker 1: Content Protection, which was designed by Phillips. So it's a

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Speaker 1: greater bandwidth than h d M I could actually move

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Speaker 1: more data in the same amount of time as an

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00:24:09,920 --> 00:24:13,520
Speaker 1: hd UMI cable could or HDMI connector could, and it's

401
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Speaker 1: also royalty free, which is unlike hd M I. There

402
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Speaker 1: is a hefty fee in using h d M I.

403
00:24:20,200 --> 00:24:22,200
Speaker 1: If you're a manufacturer and you want to incorporate it,

404
00:24:22,680 --> 00:24:24,480
Speaker 1: you've got to pay the price in order to do it,

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Speaker 1: whereas display port you don't. Strangely enough, though, display port

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Speaker 1: is not the common connector that you find on televisions.

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Speaker 1: That could change in the future, but hd M I

408
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Speaker 1: has such a strong presence in the market right now

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Speaker 1: it would really surprise me if that did happen. Next,

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Speaker 1: you have d v I or Digital Visual Interface. Now

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Speaker 1: this is our hybrid entry. Technically, depending upon the connector

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Speaker 1: and the cable, it can carry both analog and digital signals.

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Speaker 1: It doesn't carry audio typically, although I've heard their variation

414
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Speaker 1: on this. It's a common standard in computer displays, but

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Speaker 1: can also be found on many televisions, and it can

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Speaker 1: carry uncompressed digital video. Hd CP integration is optional on

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Speaker 1: d v I. Finally, we've got h d m I

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Speaker 1: High Definition Multimedia Interface UH. This also can transmit uncompressed

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Speaker 1: video data, but it has the ability to include compressed

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Speaker 1: or uncompressed digital audio as well. Hd M I can

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Speaker 1: carry signals electrically identical to d v I, so you

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Speaker 1: can have an adapter to switch from d v I

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Speaker 1: to h d M I without loss and signal quality,

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Speaker 1: which is useful if your television doesn't have a d

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Speaker 1: v I input, but you're using equipment has a d

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Speaker 1: v I output but no h d M I. So

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Speaker 1: let's say I've got a DVD player and there's a

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Speaker 1: d v I output. That's an option, but I don't

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Speaker 1: have an h d M I output. My television, however,

430
00:25:54,400 --> 00:25:57,920
Speaker 1: only has HDMI inputs but no dv I input. I

431
00:25:57,960 --> 00:26:01,480
Speaker 1: could use an adapter and it because the they're running

432
00:26:01,560 --> 00:26:06,160
Speaker 1: on electrically identical signals, I could use this without any

433
00:26:06,359 --> 00:26:11,280
Speaker 1: worry about signal loss or any conversion issues. Hd MY

434
00:26:11,400 --> 00:26:14,320
Speaker 1: two point oh is capable of transmitting up to four

435
00:26:14,440 --> 00:26:18,040
Speaker 1: K video at sixty frames per second. And one cool thing.

436
00:26:18,240 --> 00:26:20,879
Speaker 1: If you have hd MY cables that are high speed,

437
00:26:21,160 --> 00:26:25,280
Speaker 1: that's that is they're called category two cables. Your future

438
00:26:25,320 --> 00:26:28,720
Speaker 1: proof for u HD. You don't have to purchase four

439
00:26:28,840 --> 00:26:32,720
Speaker 1: K hd MY cables. Category two cables will be completely

440
00:26:32,800 --> 00:26:36,119
Speaker 1: capable of carrying that signal. I'm sure there will be

441
00:26:36,240 --> 00:26:39,560
Speaker 1: companies that market four K hd MY cables saying you

442
00:26:39,680 --> 00:26:44,639
Speaker 1: want to have the best experience possible, don't buy into that.

443
00:26:45,200 --> 00:26:48,720
Speaker 1: Category two will suit you just fine. Hd CP is

444
00:26:48,960 --> 00:26:53,480
Speaker 1: mandatory and official hd MY technology. And finally, I wanted

445
00:26:53,480 --> 00:26:56,280
Speaker 1: to talk a little bit about other audio ports that

446
00:26:56,400 --> 00:26:58,920
Speaker 1: you might see on the back of a television. So

447
00:26:59,000 --> 00:27:01,639
Speaker 1: there are two typical digital audio ports that you can

448
00:27:01,680 --> 00:27:04,600
Speaker 1: find on TVs. One is the digital audio r c

449
00:27:04,840 --> 00:27:08,280
Speaker 1: A port, which is typically orange. Now the it's gonna

450
00:27:08,320 --> 00:27:10,680
Speaker 1: look a lot like those other r c A connectors.

451
00:27:10,760 --> 00:27:13,879
Speaker 1: I was talking about the uh, the yellow, red, and

452
00:27:13,960 --> 00:27:18,800
Speaker 1: white ones that you would associate with composite video. And

453
00:27:18,920 --> 00:27:22,240
Speaker 1: then the two audio channels. In this case, it's a

454
00:27:22,440 --> 00:27:25,600
Speaker 1: single channel, or not a single channel, but a single

455
00:27:25,840 --> 00:27:29,280
Speaker 1: connector and it's digital audio, so it would be a

456
00:27:29,359 --> 00:27:31,200
Speaker 1: higher quality. You probably want to use that if you

457
00:27:31,280 --> 00:27:35,320
Speaker 1: have the option. But there are also are another type

458
00:27:35,480 --> 00:27:39,800
Speaker 1: of audio port that's digital that you can use, and

459
00:27:40,040 --> 00:27:44,960
Speaker 1: that would be the optical digital audio port. So that

460
00:27:45,080 --> 00:27:48,880
Speaker 1: requires a special optic fiber cable that sends audio signals

461
00:27:48,920 --> 00:27:52,480
Speaker 1: through pulses of light. The exact same information is being

462
00:27:52,600 --> 00:27:55,640
Speaker 1: sent with either type of cable. It's just in one

463
00:27:55,720 --> 00:27:59,360
Speaker 1: it's electrical impulses and the other it's uh it's photons.

464
00:27:59,400 --> 00:28:02,440
Speaker 1: It's essentially, you know, light pulses, but it's the same information,

465
00:28:02,520 --> 00:28:05,639
Speaker 1: it's just transmitted in a different way. Optical cables have

466
00:28:05,800 --> 00:28:09,600
Speaker 1: some advantages over the UH the the r c A

467
00:28:09,680 --> 00:28:13,000
Speaker 1: connectors type being that you don't have to worry about

468
00:28:13,000 --> 00:28:18,000
Speaker 1: outside interference radio interference, although again, unless you're talking about

469
00:28:18,040 --> 00:28:21,960
Speaker 1: a super long cable that has really poor shielding, you're

470
00:28:22,000 --> 00:28:24,200
Speaker 1: probably not going to suffer any signal loss with your

471
00:28:24,640 --> 00:28:28,160
Speaker 1: digital audio UH. So it's not like it's a measurable

472
00:28:29,359 --> 00:28:33,359
Speaker 1: UH advantage with optical fiber, unless again you're talking about

473
00:28:33,520 --> 00:28:39,520
Speaker 1: huge distances, because optic fiber doesn't have any loss over distance. However,

474
00:28:39,600 --> 00:28:41,920
Speaker 1: if you do bend an optic fiber cable, you can

475
00:28:42,000 --> 00:28:44,800
Speaker 1: end up damaging it and that could cause some issues.

476
00:28:45,400 --> 00:28:48,480
Speaker 1: But uh, you know, I I wouldn't necessarily say one

477
00:28:48,840 --> 00:28:51,000
Speaker 1: has advantages over the other. I would say it all

478
00:28:51,040 --> 00:28:54,960
Speaker 1: depends on what your equipment can use. So if all

479
00:28:55,000 --> 00:28:59,600
Speaker 1: of your equipment just has optical ports and no digital

480
00:28:59,640 --> 00:29:03,960
Speaker 1: coat sports for your audio, then obviously you need to

481
00:29:04,000 --> 00:29:06,280
Speaker 1: go optical. You don't have any choice in the matter.

482
00:29:07,080 --> 00:29:10,200
Speaker 1: So that's that's the range of the various types of

483
00:29:10,600 --> 00:29:14,360
Speaker 1: connectors you're going to find on your typical televisions. There

484
00:29:14,440 --> 00:29:17,040
Speaker 1: are some others that can pop up now and again.

485
00:29:17,520 --> 00:29:19,160
Speaker 1: You there are some things that you might find like

486
00:29:19,240 --> 00:29:24,160
Speaker 1: a USB port, which I think Daniel mentioned that in

487
00:29:24,320 --> 00:29:29,160
Speaker 1: his email. USB obviously is the universal serial bus. That's

488
00:29:29,240 --> 00:29:31,520
Speaker 1: the the one that we're all familiar with. It's on

489
00:29:31,880 --> 00:29:37,040
Speaker 1: all our computers, it's on lots of the various mobile devices,

490
00:29:37,120 --> 00:29:40,280
Speaker 1: though we tend to use different connectors for that, like

491
00:29:40,440 --> 00:29:45,360
Speaker 1: micro or mini USB. But that's something that can carry

492
00:29:45,440 --> 00:29:50,080
Speaker 1: both power and and data um too. So it's a

493
00:29:50,280 --> 00:29:53,240
Speaker 1: useful system, but it's not one that I think most

494
00:29:53,280 --> 00:29:56,320
Speaker 1: people associate with televisions. It can be if you have

495
00:29:57,040 --> 00:29:59,760
Speaker 1: images on a thumb drive, you might be able to

496
00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:02,440
Speaker 1: display it on your television. There are a couple of

497
00:30:02,920 --> 00:30:06,600
Speaker 1: thumb drive like devices that can plug into USB ports

498
00:30:06,800 --> 00:30:12,080
Speaker 1: on a television that give it extra capabilities, like Roku.

499
00:30:12,840 --> 00:30:15,479
Speaker 1: They have a stick that you can plug in through

500
00:30:15,560 --> 00:30:20,480
Speaker 1: the USB port that gives your television roku uh capabilities.

501
00:30:20,560 --> 00:30:23,440
Speaker 1: It's pretty cool, but I don't often think of that

502
00:30:23,440 --> 00:30:26,800
Speaker 1: as a connector, and that might just be my bias

503
00:30:26,920 --> 00:30:29,800
Speaker 1: and play because I don't tend to use it. I

504
00:30:30,000 --> 00:30:34,360
Speaker 1: use hd M I almost exclusively because it's the easiest.

505
00:30:35,240 --> 00:30:37,760
Speaker 1: So that's a rundown. If you have any questions on

506
00:30:37,840 --> 00:30:39,800
Speaker 1: any of those, if there's anything you would like to

507
00:30:39,880 --> 00:30:43,640
Speaker 1: know more about with that kind of information, or you

508
00:30:43,760 --> 00:30:46,720
Speaker 1: just want to hear about some other type of technology

509
00:30:47,600 --> 00:30:50,800
Speaker 1: or a company or a personality in tech, maybe there's

510
00:30:50,840 --> 00:30:53,760
Speaker 1: a specific person you would like me to interview. Any

511
00:30:53,840 --> 00:30:56,640
Speaker 1: of these things, you should contact me let me know

512
00:30:56,760 --> 00:30:59,200
Speaker 1: what you think. I'm eager to hear from you. Our

513
00:30:59,240 --> 00:31:03,160
Speaker 1: email address is tech stuff at how stuff works dot com.

514
00:31:03,720 --> 00:31:07,720
Speaker 1: You can also always drop me a line on Facebook, Twitter,

515
00:31:08,280 --> 00:31:10,760
Speaker 1: or Tumblr. The handle it all three is tech Stuff

516
00:31:11,040 --> 00:31:14,920
Speaker 1: H s W and We'll talk to you again. Released

517
00:31:14,960 --> 00:31:20,080
Speaker 1: it for more on this and bathands of other topics.

518
00:31:20,240 --> 00:31:21,680
Speaker 1: Does it, how stuff works? Dot com