}

Replacing television and radio

1999/08/01 Waliño, Josu - Elhuyar Fundazioa Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

I recently returned home to my friend Moflo to start the second part of my practical course. As you will remember, through my home computer I worked with him the possibility of using the phone and fax to empty the office he had in his previous home. On this occasion I had a better goal: to throw radio, television and the music chain in the trash, because the work that all these instruments do can be done by the computer and better than these. When I told my friend that, every time I received and started sending faxes, the computer flashed and to talk on the phone I had to go down to the lower bar. Thank you very much!

I struggled to get this job done because your home phone didn't work (amazing! ), and I had to leave to his home.When I went to Moflo's house for the first time because of a strange illness that seems to be ill, then I was making a long journey and, finally, when he appeared in his house by surprise, I had the door deteriorated and could not open me. As I am willing to do anything for my friends, I walked through the window to do my job. I think I was still sick because I saw him white and white.

Anyway, I started working. First I threw the music string in the trash and while my friend played with the wall head I tried to explain the reason: nowadays any computer (whether PC or Mac) can play the normal audio CD. It is enough for the computer to have a CD-ROM reader and sound card. But in addition, in the computer world there is an audio format called MP3. This format, well known today (especially on the Internet), is a special audio compression format. This allows to include 12 audio CDs on a CD. However, audios saved in MP3 format can only be heard by computer or by special devices enabled for this, and for this a special program is needed that can be received free of charge from the Internet. I recommended two things to my friend: What has spread most on the Internet is WinAmp (www.winamp.com), but I especially like Sonique (www.sonique.com). Everyone will see it. All information about this format can be found at www.mp3.com.

All this is fine, but what I wanted to pull from the music chain to ruin, Moflo drew me again! 'And how do I listen to old records, tapes and radio? '. Given their negative attitude I tried to explain that the albums and the tapes were going out of fashion, but I didn't want to pay attention. Then I explained how to listen to the radio using the computer.

Listen to Internet
Radio

Undoubtedly, the main advantage of the Internet is its worldwide connection. The same goes for radios. Many radios around the world have already started broadcasting their online broadcast, that is, through the Internet. Just connect to your website to listen to the broadcast. This does not help us listen to Euskadi Irratia, because it certainly comes out expensive, but if we want to hear Radio Caracol from Colombia, for example. Microsoft has foreseen shortly the importance of radio on the Internet and has therefore added to the Explorer 5 a toolbar to listen to the radio. However, the radios that can be heard from the MSN website are relatively rare. In order to listen to the radios that broadcast in Spanish, or from the State, it is preferable to go to www.jet.es/jrcastro/. Here you can listen to the State and South American radio stations, including Euskadi Irratia.

Most of these radios broadcast live over the Internet and other new recordings. In most cases you will need the Macromedia RealPlayer 2.0 to be able to listen to the radio, since most stations use the Microsoft RealAudio or Windows Media format, but these can be easily taken from the Internet.

After explaining it to my friend, he was calmer. I still did not convince myself of their old records to throw them, but I was on my way. Just in case, I changed the subject and started explaining how to watch TV through the computer. Thinking it would be difficult to throw the TV in the trash, I put a candy in his mouth: You can watch Canal+ for free on your computer! News The dream of football enthusiast!


Watch TV and Canal+ by computer

On the Internet you can listen to radios from all over the world.

This is a common question about whether the computer screen can be used to watch TV. Not directly, but there are several cards that serve for it. By placing one of these cards on our computer we can watch television and in many cases listen to the radio. Most cards also have remote control, and there are also cards that include Teletexto. Therefore, with this type of cards we can use our computer as conventional television, and more, as they also have the possibility of zooming and other options that do not have conventional televisions. In addition, they are not usually very expensive, since they cost between 10,000 and 25,000 pesetas.

Many of these cards are on the market. The AverMedia card (www.avermedia.com) can be recommended because it is valid for Mac and PC. This card meets all the above requirements (zoom, remote control, etc.) and also output to the video. To recommend a teletext card we can recommend Easy TV (www.bestbuy-int.com).

As we have said, there are many similar cards. I recommended my friend for a reason: Because they have Chipset BT-878. This chipset is an improvement in the BT-848 and its difference with other Chipset is to offer the possibility of tuning them in the Canal+. When I said this to my friend Moflo, I started listening for the first time all afternoon. With Canal+ tuned through the TV card, it can be easy to decode the signal using different programs that can be received from the Internet. Depending on the type of computer and the type of card there are different programs, but keep in mind that you need an image decoding program and an audio decoding program and that most of these programs are in German. You can find more detailed information in each case and access many of these programs at http://members.tripod.com/~canalplusgratis/.

More TV is one of the programs that are used to decode Canal +.

If you do everything I have said correctly, you will not receive faxes, you will have to go to the street booth to talk on the phone, listen to the music booth by car and you will not see more television, but I am sure that you will be happier getting rid of all these junks. Besides, by the time all these programs take from the Internet and set them up correctly, you will have the obsolete home computer and you will have to buy a new one losing the previous configuration, but do not worry because the computer is so.

Gai honi buruzko eduki gehiago

Elhuyarrek garatutako teknologia