Poor Cable Tv Audio

No Remote Camera? Don't Sweat It, Skype It

It was a Saturday in early April when Tom Casey, a retired American Airlines pilot and now television commentator on aviation issues, got an urgent call from MSNBC. A Boeing 737 had a rupture in its fuselage and had made an emergency landing in Yuma, Ariz. Due to rapid depressurization, passengers had passed out. Casey was needed at the MSNBC studio immediately to explain to viewers what had happened.

But Casey was out of town — visiting a friend’s home in Redding, Conn. — and couldn’t come immediately to the network’s studio in Manhattan. Quickly, he was asked, was he near a computer that could do Skype video calls? Yes, there was a Skype-equipped Dell computer in the library, he was told.

Within minutes, Tom Casey was on-the-air, being interviewed about the airliner’s problem by weekend anchor Alex Witt. As other members of the household watched Casey live on MSNBC from the next room, they couldn’t believe the high quality of the interview coming from the PC in the library of their home.

"When the ... spot wrapped," Casey said, "I said to the producer on the phone...,'The studio television camera now knows how propellers felt when they saw the first jet engine'.... It's as close to pure magic as anything I've ever seen."

MSNBC was doing what hundreds of television stations now do every day. They use free Skype video calls as inexpensive and quick ways to connect with people for news interviews throughout the world.

MSNBC uses generic Windows PCs connected with Barco’s Folsom ImagePro HD ($7,499) and Analog Way’s Broad Scan HD ($6,250) scan converters. These converters can take any video on a computer screen and convert it for broadcast use.

Though full-featured and high-priced scan converters such as the ones used by MSNBC have been around a long time, there is now a new generation of lower cost, more specialized devices for broadcasters that target Skype-to-air phone calls, YouTube videos, Google maps and other common computer-generated video. Some of these devices support Apple’s iPhones and iPads and some don’t.

Among the latest generation of products aimed at TV news operations are the low-cost Matrox Convert DVI and Convert DVI Plus converters, and the higher-priced BrightEye Mitto series converters from Ensemble Designs. Each is defined by capabilities, features and price.

Matrox targeted the $1,000 price point when it introduced the Convert DVI converters last year. “Broadcasters in the United States got hammered the past few years,” said Dan Maloney, Matrox’s technical marketing manager. “We feel a $1,000 price point is a magical number for broadcasters.

Poor TV Sound - DoItYourself.com Community Forums

Thanks for the recent replies. I had a DVR problem and was out of commission for awhile, but back now. The RCA television states that the audio output does not work unless you are in antenna mode and not HDMI mode from DVR. That Audio output is intended for a sound system. I am now going to try connecting to the Component Audio Output from the DVR, but suspect that even if it works I can only adjust volume of DVR output and not TV output..I'll post results.

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