TV is rooted in the same concept as movies: Capture and display a sequence of still images fast enough, and the eye perceives smooth motion rather than a succession of individual pictures. Historically, however, TV has handled this process somewhat differently from movies. A TV image, or frame, is a grid of individual picture elements (pixels), arranged in rows and columns.
When I got satellite TV installed at my house a few years ago, I had a regular VHF/UHF antenna put in at the same time so that I could receive high-definition TV broadcasts. Over-the-air was the only game in town for HD back then. Now, with the major cable companies embracing high-def, and with satellite-TV services offering more and more high-def channels, HDTV is easier to come by.
If you're frustrated with the radio programing in your area (and, seriously, how could you not be these days?), the premise of satellite radio is like a dream come true: dozens of channels playing near-CD-quality music, organized by genre, brimming with vitality, and, best of all, almost uninterrupted.
Portable MP3 players have gone from novelty to staple item in four short years. But with popularity has come proliferation, and many MP3 players aren't just MP3 players anymore. A growing number play files encoded in the Windows Media Audio (WMA) and Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) formats as well, and the storage options are many.
Despite all the huffing and puffing over copy protection, making your own audio and video recordings is easier than ever. And for audio in particular, recording quality is also better than ever. The tough part is sorting through all the alternatives - a task we'll strive to simplify here.
