About six weeks ago, America went digital with television, as we all are aware. How are we doing with the conversion process? Contrary to the dire predictions that tens of thousands of kids would never see Sesame Street again and seniors (that would be us baby boomers...) would never find out where the people of Lost are actually lost, the DTV, digital television, conversion is going pretty well and the over 55 baby boomer group gets the best report card. Gearlog says only about 1.1 percent of the U.S. population is behind the eightball, so to speak, which means 98.9 percent...

Looks like the next cool thing is going to be solar powered home theater. Richard Glikes, ultra tech guru and exec director at Home Theater Specialists of America (HTSA) is all over the Internet with his favorite green living home technology. The state-of-the-tech system is powered with solar energy provided by roof-mounted panels that produce, in sunshine, 700 watts of power per hour. Engadget says it should run things for nearly a full day without help from the traditional power grid. Electronic House magazine online reports it a little differently, saying the panels will provide 19 hours of viewing pleasure per...

Let's get down to some basics - a quick 101 course in gadgets. What are the slickest, most popular and what do they do? Read on, Baby Boomer and let us introduce HDTV, smartphones, GIS and GPS. We're doing this strictly in the interest of economic stimulus - when you understand it all, you can go buy it all, right? HDTV - a micro-primer HDTV means High Definition Television. HDTV (or simply HD) and DTV (Digital Television) are not the same. On June 12, 2009 all US TV broadcasters were required to complete the switchover to DTV equipment (which didn't go...

A company called SiBeam picked up $40M in backing for their push to bring wireless high definition to the marketplace. High definition wireless will surely be the next big thing in home technology - or any other technology. What is it? High def wireless will allow users to shove hulking high definition data like movies and video, for example, from one component to another, at home, without cables. You'll be able to send this data from your portable video camera to your TV. No wires. From iPod to computer. No wires.  CNET's wildly popular podcast of interminable length, Buzz Out Loud, kicked...

Here's a little more insight into TV's changing bandwidth - the frequencies at which television receives a broadcast signal. As of June 12, we all know, TV broadcasters will switch from analog signals to digital. When that TV conversion happens, it will be difficult, if not impossible to receive channels lower than 7. Why? The most popular and most productive TV antennas are geared toward channels 7-51. Channels located below 7, like Chicago's CBS affiliate channel 2 or Fox 5 in New York, will change their frequencies to fit in that range. Grant Whipple, TV guru at...

I have written about this analog to DTV conversion until my eyes are blurry so I'm going to let Florence Henderson - Carol Brady of TV's Brady Bunch - have the last word on DTV conversion. Pointing you to CrunchGear's recent article, I'll tell you the Florence Henderson guide is pretty cool. Use the above link and scroll down to the second paragraph where the writer links you to Carol Brady's guide. It's a safe Pdf file and worth the read if you have any concerns about the coming broadcast television change over. I got a  kick out of the tone...

    There's a movement afoot- some people are dumping pricey pay TV services in favor of free digital over-the-air signals - broadcast TV just like Grandma used to do, only better. Winegard, long established maker of TV antennas supplied us with some samples to try out, after I told them I hadn't even been close to a TV antenna in 20 years. The first thing we found out was that installing an antenna is pretty much one of the simplest things we've ever done. The instructions packaged with the antennae weren't the best ever written, but a person with rudimentary knowledge...

TIVO is cool, but costly - it's not really an answer for folks trying to reduce entertainment budgets while the economy is trying to stay afloat. I noticed, today, that TiVo has a relatively new digital video recorder that can be used with cable and antenna inputs. Sweet! I thought. I can tune in those free off the air channels with awesome video quality, AND I can have those great DVR features too. Then I read the fine print. TiVo wants me to pay a subscription fee or the box won't work. Granted, it's cheaper than cable or satellite, but...

Why would we want to pay for television programs when we can get high definition programming free and with crystal clear picture? Trapped in a cable/satellite contract conundrum? Me too. When I lost my full time job to the economic crisis, I had to look for new ways to save money. My satellite HDTV service was an easy mark. Over the years the cost of this service has become a huge drain on the budget, but television in our home is considered a necessity. With just a little research, I re-discovered the Winegard venerable plain old antenna. It turns out that...

Here are some bright spots in the slow economy. If you don't have buckets of money laying around you're likely looking for ways to save money and trim the budget. We've talked about VOIP,before. It's coming of age, so have another look. And then dig in to Amazon's new on demand downloads of movies and TV. Amazon just rolled out their latest subscriber program last week and it rocks. I think they need to reduce the cost of the TV episodes, but the selection is terrific and the technology right on. If that isn't enough, Netflix has their instant downloads, unlimited...