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QAM gets explained in quick-and-dirty fashion

by Darren Murph posted Mar 25th 2008 at 11:58AM


If you've noticed, quite a few Comcast users have been grumbling over the quality of their HD programming recently, and they're attributing the artifacts / compression to the squeezing of three high-def channels onto a single QAM. Granted, delving into technical aspects typically isn't our bag, but given the constant talk of HD Lite, we figured it prudent to pass along a rough 'n dirty explanation that details why cramming more than two HD channels onto one QAM is a bad idea (in the consumer's eye). Quadrature amplitude modulation, as it's formally known, equals 6MHz of bandwidth, which equals 38.8Mbps of broadband data, which equals thousands of voice conversation, which equals "enough" space for two to three HD nets. Granted, just because three will fit doesn't mean things will look as good as if only two were allocated to one QAM. Quite frankly, we're just scratching the surface in this space, but hit up the read link if you're itching to know more.

Where did "Blu-ray" come from? Adam Sandler knows

by Richard Lawler posted Feb 14th 2007 at 12:53PM

The name HD DVD, while not particularly original is at least pretty clear to anyone familiar with standard DVDs. Fans of Sony's Blu-ray technology certainly get the connection to its blue laser technology, but the average consumer might be a little thrown off. If you need more explanation of where the term "Blu-ray" originated, Adam Sandler -- star of Sony Pictures' first dual-layer 50GB Blu-ray release -- provided his own retelling of the events during a dinner honoring Sony CEO Howard Stringer recently. No matter how seriously you take his tale of a devastating cross-eyed blonde named Blu-ray who rocked Howard's world many years ago in Singapore, we're sure the company's shareholders hope making the name famous won't "destroy" the executive.




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