Today’s car DVD players are a big step up from the players of just a couple of years ago. They can do things, in other words, that the basic DVD players of just several years ago couldn’t come close to doing.

In North America, these players make use of a digital video signal different from signals broadcast in other parts of the world, making answering the question “Car DVD player mysteries: What is ATSC?” somewhat important.

ATSC is the abbreviation of “Advanced Television Systems Committee.” In short, it is the standard for digital broadcasts that replaced the old NTSC standards for analog television and video broadcasts.

In June of 2009, the United States became the first country in North America to stop broadcasting analog signals and shift to completely to the digital ATSC signals. Canada will follow suit in 2011 and Mexico by 2021.

Basically, most devices equipped to receive and then display digital television signals?especially mobile devices like car DVD players?will feature the ATSC method and industry standard for doing so.

Analog television signals have almost completely disappeared these days in North America, though Mexico will lag behind for another decade, and ATSC as the standard was agreed upon not too long ago, though it was first developed in the early 1990s.

The ancestor to ATSC is actually the HDTV (”high definition television”) standard that many of us have grown used to over the last decade.

It is a big improvement over HDTV standards, as a matter of fact, in the way it can produce wide screen images and even surround sound using certain Dolby Digital sound improvement technologies. In effect, it is being used to sharpen picture and sound in even small screen devices such as car DVD players.

The way that it can do this in something like a car DVD player’s display screen is because there are a number of “subchannels” that can be supported by the device that makes use of ATSC technology tuners. Additionally, these new standards can also be thought of as the ways in which the common MPEG video streaming format is controlled by a device with ATSC.

In effect, ATSC controls the digital video broadcast stream by “modulating” the digital signal so that a great deal of information can be sent along at once and then decoded quickly at the other end (the car DVD player, for example).

Around the world, there are several other standards for digital video broadcast of television signals. The most common and widespread is DVB-T, which is found widely in Europe and the British Commonwealth in addition to several Asian and South American countries, so keep that in mind before buying a player.

It is easy enough to figure out if the device that is going to be purchased has ATSC as its primary decoding system by looking at the box or going to the ATSC website and looking at the map of where in the world ATSC is the standard.

For North America, especially the United States and Canada, more and more of these devices are being produced, so it is a sure bet that any new device will feature this broadcast decoding tuner. So then; for those considering going for one of these players, knowing a bit about how they decode signals can come in handy, it seems.

Author: Rose Li
Source: ezinearticles.com

There are two different kinds of car insurance companies that you can go with. We will discuss the difference between traditional and direct motor vehicle insurers.

Traditional Car Insurance Brokers

A traditional car insurance broker will deal with you through an insurance broker. An insurance broker is a sales and client relationship management person who has been appointed by the car insurance company to deal with clients. The insurance broker will assist you in choosing the right car insurance policy for your individual needs. The insurance broker develops a personal relationship with each of their clients, therefore building trust in the insurance company. If you are dealing with an actual person at your insurance company, you will feel more secure and looked after. The insurance broker will earn commission from your premium, leading some people to believe that their premiums are therefore more expensive because of this.

Direct Car Insurance Brokers

Direct insurers are car insurance companies that have decided to cut out the middle man to save money on commissions. By dealing directly with the client without going through brokers or intermediaries, they are saving money. These kind of insurance companies have to use excellent marketing tools to grab the attention of the public, as they do not have sales people contacting the public. They usually use media outlets to contact the public, such as television, newsprint, magazines and radio advertisements. The direct insurer then has a call centre where the client can contact them. All their details are then captured through someone at the call centre and then the policy contract is drawn up. A commission fee is paid to the call centre agent, but this fee is once off, not like the broker’s commission which is paid every month.

So how do you determine which insurer will be better, and will save you more money. It can seem like a direct insurer will be a wiser financial decision, but you also have to consider that sometimes the money they have saved on brokers commissions has been spent on marketing. Advertising is a VERY expensive business, and the direct insurers have to have a huge budget for that.

Regardless of which insurer to go with, you just need to ensure that you have done enough research. Compile as many insurance quotes as possible so that you can make good comparisons. Speak to your friends and family about who they are insured with. Ask them for their honest opinions. Remember that your insurance needs are unique, and you could pay less for your individual needs with one type of insurer than the other, whereas it may not be the same scenario for someone else.

Author: Danny Aaron
Source: articlerich.com