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GeneralRe: Trump signs executive order to support moon mining, tap asteroid resources Pin
Mark_Wallace7-Apr-20 17:07
Mark_Wallace7-Apr-20 17:07 
GeneralRe: Trump signs executive order to support moon mining, tap asteroid resources Pin
kmoorevs7-Apr-20 4:56
kmoorevs7-Apr-20 4:56 
GeneralRe: Trump signs executive order to support moon mining, tap asteroid resources Pin
Nelek7-Apr-20 10:36
protectorNelek7-Apr-20 10:36 
GeneralRe: Trump signs executive order to support moon mining, tap asteroid resources Pin
Kent Sharkey7-Apr-20 10:38
staffKent Sharkey7-Apr-20 10:38 
GeneralRe: Trump signs executive order to support moon mining, tap asteroid resources Pin
Richard Andrew x647-Apr-20 13:55
professionalRichard Andrew x647-Apr-20 13:55 
GeneralRe: Trump signs executive order to support moon mining, tap asteroid resources Pin
Nelek7-Apr-20 20:13
protectorNelek7-Apr-20 20:13 
NewsHacker brings video to audio cassette tape Pin
Kent Sharkey6-Apr-20 10:01
staffKent Sharkey6-Apr-20 10:01 
GeneralRe: Hacker brings video to audio cassette tape Pin
kalberts6-Apr-20 12:52
kalberts6-Apr-20 12:52 
With 60 db S/N and 20 kHz analog bandwith, according to Shannon, you could in theory squeeze something like 400 kpbs onto the tape. On CC, the channels are totally separate, so you could have twice that bit rate. That is not to be laughed at. If you build your own hardware, you could even use all four tracks, for 1.6 Mbps bit rate. You could even fiddle around with other physical .parameters: When metal tape was introduced, lab prototypes showed a frequency range up to 20 kHz with 60 dB S/N on dictaphone 1/16" tape cassettes (half the CC width) running at 15/16" per second (half the CC speed). For backwards compatibility reasons, physical parameters had to be adjusted. Philips (the CC patent holder) refused to accept any non-standard tape speed, and e.g. pre-emphasis had to be adjusted so that playback of metal tapes on legacy players would return a reasonably balanced sound.

I used 128 kbps videophone in the ISDN days (even 64 kbps!), not exactly claiming that that is was IMAX quality, but a whole lot better than you would think! An essential point: ISDN B channels were fixed bitrate, single-connection channels, wasting no resources on channel contention, reordering of mislaid packets and so on: The pure 128 kbps was available to video and sound, without any restriction. (When IP telephony started to invade Norway, the common rule was that you needed at least a 1 Mbps Internet connection to support an IP phone line - 16 times the 64 kbit rate an ISDN connection would occupy.) That is how a tape works: It is dedicated to a single dedicated video stream, wasting no resources on channel allocation and management.

If we are talking about modern, H.264 or H.265 compressed video, resolution limited to what is visible to the human eye (at normal viewing distance, not when using a magnifier to "prove" that is video is "useless quality") anything in the 1 Mbps range actually provides quite tolerable quality. At least as good as the classical analog SD video. 400 kbps may be somewhat on the low side, but you'd probably be surprised by what can be delivered on that bit rate.

However, don't forget that H.264/265 encoding is not standardized. Only the decoding is standardized. An advanced encoder can find low bit rate encodings that will decode to an artifact free image, while a simplistic encoder may be wasting a lot of bits, yet creating encodings causing a lot of artifacts when decoded by standard methods. We saw this to an excessive degree with MP3: The early, simplistic MP3 decoders required at least 192 kbps to provide a decent sound quality. Today, high quality coders provide significantly better quality at 128 kbps. The same applies to H.26x video: The best encoders (often using patented or company secret tricks to find the most efficient encodings) provide impressing quality, compared to the "naive" encoders.

Don't get me wrong: I certainly do not want "CC video" to be the VHS of the 2020s, only to point out that this project is not as laughable as it at first may appear.
GeneralRe: Hacker brings video to audio cassette tape Pin
Mark_Wallace6-Apr-20 19:55
Mark_Wallace6-Apr-20 19:55 
GeneralRe: Hacker brings video to audio cassette tape Pin
MadMyche7-Apr-20 2:36
professionalMadMyche7-Apr-20 2:36 
NewsGoogle’s Technical Writing Guide Pin
Kent Sharkey6-Apr-20 8:31
staffKent Sharkey6-Apr-20 8:31 
GeneralRe: Google’s Technical Writing Guide Pin
Greg Utas6-Apr-20 9:07
professionalGreg Utas6-Apr-20 9:07 
GeneralRe: Google’s Technical Writing Guide PinPopular
Mark_Wallace6-Apr-20 9:54
Mark_Wallace6-Apr-20 9:54 
GeneralRe: Google’s Technical Writing Guide Pin
CHill607-Apr-20 6:33
mveCHill607-Apr-20 6:33 
GeneralRe: Google’s Technical Writing Guide Pin
Mark_Wallace7-Apr-20 10:05
Mark_Wallace7-Apr-20 10:05 
GeneralRe: Google’s Technical Writing Guide Pin
CHill607-Apr-20 22:14
mveCHill607-Apr-20 22:14 
GeneralRe: Google’s Technical Writing Guide Pin
Nelek7-Apr-20 10:33
protectorNelek7-Apr-20 10:33 
GeneralRe: Google’s Technical Writing Guide Pin
Mark_Wallace7-Apr-20 23:06
Mark_Wallace7-Apr-20 23:06 
NewsWork flow of diagnosing memory performance issues – Part 0 Pin
Kent Sharkey6-Apr-20 8:01
staffKent Sharkey6-Apr-20 8:01 
GeneralRe: Work flow of diagnosing memory performance issues – Part 0 Pin
Mark_Wallace6-Apr-20 20:00
Mark_Wallace6-Apr-20 20:00 
NewsWindows 10 security: Change your password to a PIN, says Microsoft Pin
Kent Sharkey6-Apr-20 8:01
staffKent Sharkey6-Apr-20 8:01 
GeneralRe: Windows 10 security: Change your password to a PIN, says Microsoft PinPopular
Greg Utas6-Apr-20 9:05
professionalGreg Utas6-Apr-20 9:05 
GeneralRe: Windows 10 security: Change your password to a PIN, says Microsoft Pin
Brisingr Aerowing6-Apr-20 12:03
professionalBrisingr Aerowing6-Apr-20 12:03 
GeneralRe: Windows 10 security: Change your password to a PIN, says Microsoft Pin
Mark_Wallace6-Apr-20 20:02
Mark_Wallace6-Apr-20 20:02 
GeneralRe: Windows 10 security: Change your password to a PIN, says Microsoft Pin
David O'Neil6-Apr-20 15:41
professionalDavid O'Neil6-Apr-20 15:41 

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