MEMBERSHIP

It would be appreciated if when you move, or change your email address, that you let us know.

Go to the Javea Computer Club at www.javeacomputerclub.org Home Page. At the foot of the page click on "Membership"and send us an email of your new details.

Hands-on Wordprocessing in June

On Tuesday June 6th at 10.00 am we begin a Hands - on Wordprocessing course for beginners. Bring your laptops along if you use them! This course will consist of 4 weeks. Each week there will be 1 hour of formal instruction followed by 1 hour of hands-on exercises. Members only!

TIPS AND TRICKS

If any members have discovered new software, tips or tricks, or anything relevent to computers and you would like to share the information with your fellow members, please contact one of the Committee Members. We are always pleased to have something new to share with others.

This is your Club and we are always looking at ways of keeping you up to date.

HIGH DEFINITION TELEVISION UPDATE

HIGH DEFINITION TELEVISION WILL SOON BE A REALITY – ARE YOU HD READY?
by Ted Adams

With the delayed public launch of Sky HD TV now scheduled for the end of May, early June, it is worth recapping the benefits of the new HD Service.

Firstly, HD TV is the world-wide future of TV viewing, with pictures four times as sharp and clear as current TV standards, giving you cinema quality in your own home. Picture refreshment using the Progressive Scan system eliminates ‘comet’s tail’ effects on your screen. HD TV also comes with Dolby Digital 5.1 discrete surround sound, to add depth and realism to concerts, sports, plays and documentaries. Via the Sky satellite for us in Spain, Sky, BBC and ITV will all be broadcasting in high definition shortly. With the BBC offering us the FIFA World Football Cup in HDTV in June 2006. This new visual experience is the future of television.

Sadly, Britain once again, lags behind much of the rest of the world. HDTV broadcasts began in Japan, the USA, Korea and Brazil several years ago, and after a slow start, HDTV is booming in these areas. The reason why the Sky launch has been delayed, is due to the worldwide demand for the vital MPEG4 compression chips.

Viewing in HD is an entirely new experience. Watching football, expect to be able to read the manufacturer’s name on the player’s shirt collar, with every blade of grass visible. And with stadium surround sound, only the bad meat pies, tepid beer and queues for the smelly toilets are missing!

Sports lovers will be able to view their favourite sports from their armchairs as never seen before on Sky Sports HD. The BBC will be broadcasting FIFI 2006 in HD, free-to-air on the Sky platform

Nature films from Discovery Channel and National Geographic are spectacular. Don’t be surprised if you cower behind your chair when the lion roars. Plays from the BBC and films from Sky Box Office and Sky Movies HD will virtually take you to the theatre. Rock and classical concerts, from Artsworld and Performance, come to life with the added advantage of surround sound. No longer are the performers a dot in the distance, they are right in your living room.

How then to receive these new channels from Sky and BBC? Firstly, an HD Ready flat panel display of at least 37inches, either Plasma or LCD is required to do justice to the superb programme content. Your existing dish, if you are currently viewing most of the programmes most of the time, should be adequate, but you will require a new double LNB and additional downlead.

You will need a new MPEG4 digibox, cable of receiving standard and high definition broadcasts, supplies of which should start coming to Spain late May and June. These boxes also contain a Personal Video Recorder, to time-shift one programme while you are viewing another.

Finally, even the most modest speaker surround package will add greatly to the ‘being there’ experience, or you could incorporate sound into your existing Hi Fi.

Sky are telling us that the HD experience will add £10.00 per month to existing subscriptions, although you will only be able to receive HD programmes within the Sky package you currently subscribe to. Of course, BBC and later ITV HD programmes will continue to be Free-to-Air via the Sky satellite.

In addition to those channels being broadcast on the Sky platform, Euro1080 continues to be the only high definition programme broadcaster with a very wide range of programme material. They too are switching to the MPEG4 format and will be making new Digiboxes available within the next two-three months. Existing Euro1080 viewers will continue to receive programmes for at least another 18 months. The future of High Definition TV in Europe is spectacular, with ASTRA whose satellites beam most of our TV programme, confident that within four years, there will be 100s of HD channels, many of which will be available to us in Spain.

High Definition DVDs. The DVD Forum backed by Toshiba-NEC are launching new Hi Definition DVD discs, and Sony are launching their own version, known as Blue Ray, or BD discs. Both say they will have players and discs in the marketplace, initially in Japan and USA by mid 2006, with Europe before Christmas 2006. Your HD Ready plasma or LCD will be able to display both or either of these formats when they come to Europe.

Ted Adams