It’s almost the beginning of July 2006. The Direct to Home (DTH) scene in India is getting ready for the mother-of-all battles. The Subhash Chandra owned Dish TV is going to have a competitor in the Rupert Murdoch backed TATASKY DTH platform soon. Though TATA owns seventy odd percent in the venture we all know where the technical expertise is going to come from.

Newscorp via STAR TV will no doubt be building a strong product for Indian households. Let us not forget that they own and operate BSKYB in the United Kingdom where they are almost considered untouchable in both quality of service and reach. DISH TV too is not sitting still. Only a few months from their launch, they started offering services like Movie On Demand and of course the more recent announcement of the inclusion of extra channels including SONY on their DTH platform.

STAR having stayed off the DISH TV platform with only STAR UTSAV making a token appearance, have made their intentions clear. This year promises to be an all out exciting one for television viewers in the country. Both the players are known to be aggressive. They are not going to pull any punches and surely aren’t taking any prisoners. When BSKYB launched to a lukewarm reception in the UK, SKY started giving the set top boxes free, they also bought all the exclusive football rights for an astronomical amount to bring in the viewers. Free set top boxes plus the only place to … Continue Reading ...

When painting a room some people go old fashioned by using old newspapers to cover the floor. This is the cheap man’s way when doing painting around the house. Besides being this a cheap of doing it, let’s look at it from a practical point of view as well as if this is actually the better way comparing it to using plastic drop cloth.

The advantages of using newspaper to cover the floor are easy to count. Newspaper is cheap and eventually you have it anyway if you subscribe to the daily paper of your home town. You can “borrow” some from friends and neighbors without the need paying for it, too. Newspaper absorbs liquids to a certain degree, too. A newspaper sheet covers a certain amount of floor and you just add additional layers on top of each other to reach maximum protection.

Disadvantages of using newspaper are easy to identify as well. Using newspapers when painting a room can lead to stains on the carpet as an example. No matter how many layers of newspaper you eventually put on top of each other, if you spill a can of paint it will most definitely leak through somewhere. Newspaper is dirty – just grab a few sheets of newspaper and then look at your fingers. In most cases your fingers will show black or grey color from the newspaper. Now imagine you cover an entire room with newspaper when painting and then walk over this several times. Then you … Continue Reading ...

Cathode-ray Tube (CRT) displays have widely been used in televisions and computers for long. The displays have several advantages like wide viewing angles, superior colour resolution and low manufacturing costs. But these displays also suffer from drawbacks like excessive weight and high power & voltage consumption. The configuration of CRTs requires television sets to be virtually as thick as they are wide. Hence the demand for flat panel televisions is increasing day-by-day.

Technologists have developed alternative flat panel display (FPD) technologies to overcome the inherent drawbacks of CRTs. Prominent FPDs include liquid colour display (LCD), plasma display panel (PDP), vacuum fluorescent display (VFD), and electroluminescent display (ELD). A flat panel television display includes a flat panel on which a matrix of cells is formed between two glass substrates. A PCB module drives the panel. There are two types of FPDs – volatile and static.

A LCD provides a richer and higher resolution of colours as compared to the conventional CRT displays. A LCD essentially comprises of two glass substrates that are separated to form a predetermined space into which a layer of liquid crystals is injected. Flat panel televisions are gaining popularity these days as they improve visibility and reduce glare due to reflection of external light.

A FPD is preferred to a conventional spherical panel as it provides higher resolution power. These panels have exceptional colour accuracy and can display up to 16.77 million colours. The FPDs are gaining popularity among the masses as they are light-weight, consume less … Continue Reading ...

By the time they graduate from high school, many of today’s children will have spent more time in front of a TV than in a classroom. One study says that children aged 2 to 11 watch an average of 20 hours of television a week, while their teenage brothers and sisters spend 18 hours a week at the same activity. These numbers mean that TV viewing takes up a big chunk of time for many children. For parents and guardians, this raises concerns about how much TV time children should be allowed to watch, and how it can influence children’s behavior, values, development, and health.

Experts have studied all these questions, and the data they obtain does not just focus on instructional TV or carefully constructed children’s programs. Rather, it deals primarily with grown up prime time shows. The research shows that it is not a good idea for parents and baby sitters to get into the habit of using television as a child minder, since this will result in long periods of unsupervised viewing, and sometimes of material that is not suitable for youngsters.

It is generally recognized that a certain amount of viewing is normal and even good for children, as it can be entertaining, informative and socially relevant. A lot of viewing though offers decreasing returns. In this case, like in others areas, too much of something is not good for youngsters, experts say. Children’s time might be better spent doing things that teach them more about … Continue Reading ...

One of the major concerns of parents these days is that their children watch too much television. Television is no longer just a source of entertainment. It has become a way of life. There is nothing wrong in watching television per se, but if it becomes the over-riding pastime to the exclusion of constructive activities, the effects can be damaging.

Three to 10 year old children do not have the maturity or understanding or differentiate between good and bad programs making it essential for parents to strictly monitor what their children are watching. Good parenting essentials involves ensuring that your children have healthy choices. And at the same time, you have to ensure that the television viewing time of your children is not excessive.

Here are some useful tips for parents who are unable to control their children from watching too much television:

Be a role model

Before telling your child to cut down on television take a close look at your own TV viewing habits. If you spend 3 to 4 hours a day watching sitcoms and soaps, you can’t expect your child to watch television in moderation. So practice what you preach and become a role model to your child.

Involve your child in constructive activities

Get your child involved in some constructive and interesting activity which appeals to him. You can get your child enrolled in dancing, music, swimming, painting, football or any other sport. You can coax your child to learn guitar or any other musical … Continue Reading ...

Introduction

Today television has become a very important part of our daily lives, but particularly so in the lives of our children. As we are aware, these days the greater majority of families, in many parts of the world, have (or have access to) this magical screen.

Television is a very powerful and effective modern phenomena which can influence the shaping of the future for many generations of children in many parts of the world.

Children imitate the action, the spoken word and/or the personality they may happen to be watching, therefore, its influence cannot be underestimated, regardless of the circumstances which the child may happen to be in. This influence can be categorised as either ‘good’ or ‘bad’ for the future development of these children.

Parents and guardians have a major role to play in deciding what channel or program their child can watch, for how long and what part of the day. All these factors are important in deciding the shape of a child’s future within any environment.

Positive and Negative Aspects

Not long ago, the majority of countries had only one or two television channels, not just that, but the viewing time was limited as well as the transmission itself was restricted to a number of hours per day/night.

Today, there are a large number of television channels, and some of these channels specialise in children programs only. Many of these children’s TV channels broadcast from early hours of the morning to late evening (or even on … Continue Reading ...