Hotel weirdness
 

Richard Tobin wrote:

Paul wrote:

Have you ever got the same room twice? The more you get a new one, the
less chance you have of getting one next time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coupon_...or%27s_problem

Also I guess there are likely to be more guests following him, switching
the TVs back to "stretch to fit" mode ...

Hotel weirdness
 

"Tim Downie" wrote in message ...

I know that hotel TV systems can be odd but the hotel we were in the other
day contrived to supply our room with 5 analogue stations (and no digital
ones) and it was in an area that undergone the digital switchover!
(postcode AB41 6BL).

The TV had a "DTV" menu but it was greyed out and inaccessible.

Presumably they were using a decoder to generate an analogue signal to then
feed their rooms which seems odd given that our TV looked DTV ready so to
speak.

Why would they do this? The only thing I can think of is that most of their
TVs didn't actually have digital receivers built in and that the TV in our
room didn't actually have one either. I'm guessing that the menu was greyed
out because it used components common to other models that *did* have
digital receivers built in. Does this make sense?

Tim


Another reason some commercial systems do this, is to save money sorting out
the dodgy RF distribution system. With most hotel systems I've seen, they
have various "areas" of the hotel which have been extended from the main
system (usually by electricians) and these parts don't really work properly.
The analogue gets through just about, albeit quite snowy. Pushing DVB-T
signals down it would result in constant pixelation in these parts. Much
cheaper for them to just whack in some modulated RF signals and never sort
the problems!

Hotel weirdness
 

On Tue, 06 Mar 2012 17:29:29 +0000
Mark Carver wrote:

Paul D Smith wrote:

Premier Inn seems to use a Freeview box but one which looks like
it's a "hotel model" - no Sky there. That was the environment I
was thinking off.

But if there were Sky, presumably the way to do it now would be to
add additional digital multiplexes where they don't class with the
standard 6 - you would still want to be able to kick the box into
retuning the freeview channels though; you might even need to do
this if you added, or removed, Sky channels.

The Ramada in Colchester has full DTT equipped TVs in each room. I'm
slowly working through the rooms on each stay I have there, and
setting the menu so that 4:3 transmissions are not displayed
stretched. At the present rate of progress my work should be complete
by 2028.


I tried doing that in a Holiday Inn hotel in Chicago, but every time the
TVs were powered down, they lost all the settings that I had changed.
They must have had a default set that reloaded each time they were
turned on, which I can understand in a hotel where multiple kids might
have upset everything, but only if they are sensible default settings.
The most annoying was the default 4:3 aspect on all transmissions,
irrespective of how they were sent out.
--
Davey.

Hotel weirdness
 

On 06/03/2012 5:29 PM, Mark Carver wrote:
Paul D Smith wrote:

Premier Inn seems to use a Freeview box but one which looks like it's
a "hotel model" - no Sky there. That was the environment I was
thinking off.

But if there were Sky, presumably the way to do it now would be to add
additional digital multiplexes where they don't class with the
standard 6 - you would still want to be able to kick the box into
retuning the freeview channels though; you might even need to do this
if you added, or removed, Sky channels.

The Ramada in Colchester has full DTT equipped TVs in each room. I'm
slowly working through the rooms on each stay I have there, and setting
the menu so that 4:3 transmissions are not displayed stretched. At the
present rate of progress my work should be complete by 2028.

And of course, there is bound to be a guest who complains about the
black bars down the sides of the picture so it will be set back to
stretched. One day perhaps I'll understand them.

Hotel weirdness
 

Ah, that reminds me ...
http://www.macfh.co.uk/Macfarlane/Re...ermudlian.html

On Wed, 07 Mar 2012 12:09:35 +0100, Martin wrote:

I used to "adjust" French radiators so that I could actually turn the
tap far enough for hot water to get into the radiators. In Italy I
"adjusted" hotel room thermostats so that the air conditioning came on
at temperatures below 30C.
--
================================================== =======
Please always reply to ng as the email in this post's
header does not exist. Or use a contact address at:
http://www.macfh.co.uk/JavaJive/JavaJive.html
http://www.macfh.co.uk/Macfarlane/Macfarlane.html

Hotel weirdness
 

"Brian Mc" wrote in message
...
Paul D Smith wrote:
: But if there were Sky, presumably the way to do it now would be to add
: additional digital multiplexes where they don't class with the standard
6 -
: you would still want to be able to kick the box into retuning the
freeview
: channels though; you might even need to do this if you added, or
removed,
: Sky channels.

That's not possible! The way that DSAT is transmitted (for Sky or Freesat)
is
DVB-S/S2 using QFSK RF modulation. This is VERY different to DVT-T/T2 and,
more importantly, the COFDM RF modulation scheme used for DTT!

Not possible natively but I can't help thinking that there is a market for a
box to transcode satellite into DVT-T for just such types of situations. I
realise the picture quality will suffer a little but the cost of such a box
will be offset by not having to have satellite-like receivers in each room.

Paul DS

Hotel weirdness
 

Paul D Smith wrote:


Not possible natively but I can't help thinking that there is a market
for a box to transcode satellite into DVT-T for just such types of
situations. I realise the picture quality will suffer a little but the
cost of such a box will be offset by not having to have satellite-like
receivers in each room.

Such things are readily available except for Sky channels.

Bill

Hotel weirdness
 

On Wed, 07 Mar 2012 12:07:59 +0000
Andy wrote:

On 06/03/2012 5:29 PM, Mark Carver wrote:
Paul D Smith wrote:

Premier Inn seems to use a Freeview box but one which looks like
it's a "hotel model" - no Sky there. That was the environment I was
thinking off.

But if there were Sky, presumably the way to do it now would be to
add additional digital multiplexes where they don't class with the
standard 6 - you would still want to be able to kick the box into
retuning the freeview channels though; you might even need to do
this if you added, or removed, Sky channels.

The Ramada in Colchester has full DTT equipped TVs in each room. I'm
slowly working through the rooms on each stay I have there, and
setting the menu so that 4:3 transmissions are not displayed
stretched. At the present rate of progress my work should be
complete by 2028.

And of course, there is bound to be a guest who complains about the
black bars down the sides of the picture so it will be set back to
stretched. One day perhaps I'll understand them.

Ask my wife, she prefers stretched old programmes with squashed people
to watching them in their original size. Weird.
--
Davey.

Hotel weirdness
 

Paul D Smith wrote:
: Not possible natively but I can't help thinking that there is a market for a
: box to transcode satellite into DVT-T for just such types of situations. I
: realise the picture quality will suffer a little but the cost of such a box
: will be offset by not having to have satellite-like receivers in each room.

Depends on cost of course! It was aways said about NICAM sound that, while
DECODER chipsets were cheap, that ENCODERs were very expensive (so VCRs etc
always used discrete channel sound).

I have certainly never heard of a box which could take some (say 6) AV inputs
and assemble a DTT-mux on a set RF channel!

Hotel weirdness
 

Bill Wright wrote:
: Such things are readily available except for Sky channels.

Pardon!!! If boxes to assemble DTT-compatable muxes even exist they most
certainly are NOT "readily available" (and if they DID exist they would
work just fine for Sky!)