We get mail: Digital TV not HDTV; "This is not a test (match)...
Believe it or not, occassionally, we at FishbowlLA are so tickled by the observations of armchair ichthyologists, that we publish their helpful musings, mostly unabridged.
Our recent rant about Congress’ digital TV freebies-for-the-rich prompted this helpful and insightful response from the former editor of The Hollywood Reporter and frequent “Call Sheet” panelist, Alex Ben Block:
“I enjoy your blog very much but must point something out. The item about the HDTV screwing, as it is put, seems to miss a major point. The legislation being passed by Congress to set a date for the conversion to digital broadcasting is not about HDTV. It may ultimately faciliate the roll out of HDTV but digital TV is not the same thing. Digital TV means that the method of broadcasting the signals will be on the digital spectrum, not the analog. When you have digital TV you may have a high quality picture, but it is not HDTV. It does not have as much electronic information in the signal and it is not the HDTV aspect ratio, which is different from analog or digital TV as we see it. The legislation does not in any way mandate HDTV service, only a conversion to digital broadcasting.”
Thank you, Alex. We stand corrected. (We are also desperately googling ‘aspect ratio’ so we can look smart at our next cocktail party by effortlessly inserting it into party banter.)
And our posting about the beyond-the-grave wheeling and dealing of Kerry Packer, we received this update from Rob de Santos, Chairman of the Board,
Australian Football Association of North America (AFANA):
“FYI: Australian football aka “Aussie rules” has neither test matches
nor scrums. But astute observations in the blog, nevertheless.”
Now if only we could figure out what a “try” is, let alone a “gross punting average,” we’d be downright dangerous, ‘mate.
