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(Continued from page 6) Cable or Air? very clever in using the allocated bandwidth to their
and our advantage.
lated using a Quadrature Amplitude Modulation
(QAM) technique.

The meaning of each of these is not germane to this
discussion except for the fact that they are different.
And it is that fact that forces the television manufac- (Continued from page 5) Windows Snip
turer to include both types of de-modulators on the
television. So, all digital televisions are capable of not want to use them. Microsoft promises more op-
using either signal. Most, if not all, are defaulted to tions to come. Be sure to search Google for videos
use the cable signal, probably because nowadays on how to use Windows Snip and Sketch! I am in-
most people receive their television from a cable TV cluding here only the basic options. Click on the Win-
provider rather than over the air. So, if you are a
cord-cutter, you will have to go into the settings of dows logo in the lower-left corner of your desktop
your TV and find the location where “Air” or “Cable” and you will find Snip and Sketch in the alphabetical
is chosen. Once you have made the “Air” choice, list of apps that appear. It is not inside the Windows
you will have to let the TV scan for all of the chan- Accessories folder of apps (where the Snipping Tool
nels in your area. Once scanned, your TV will be set still remains). I recommend dragging this app to your
up for your local, over the air, television channels.
(A cord cutter is someone who has decided to stop desktop screen to always keep it handy. But you can
receiving their television entertainment from their also open it anytime by holding down the Windows
cable provider, which means they no longer get ca- key + Shift key + S on your keyboard. Upon opening
ble channels. They receive over the air television the app, your whole screen goes gray and you will
channels using an antenna, and they stream enter- see the small controls rectangle at the top. Here you
tainment from such providers as Netflix, Amazon select HOW you want to select what you want to snip
Prime, and Hulu, over their internet connection.
Streaming services require a subscription, and there or capture. From left to right you can select a rectan-
are some streaming providers that include cable gular area, freeform selection, the entire window, or
channels.) your full screen. If you select the rectangle, you drag
your mouse on the screen to select whatever you
Now we still have a 6 MHz broadcast channel but, want. As soon as you release your mouse – presto,
because we have digital modulation schemes which
are more efficient than the older analog modulation your selected image has been captured and saved
schemes, the television stations can now fit more on the clipboard to do with whatever you want! You
channels into the 6 MHz bandwidth. That means can open a Word document for example, place your
that where we may have had one analog channel, cursor where you want, and “paste” your clip right in
say channel 8, we now have multiple digital sub- your document. Or you can open the Windows Paint
channels, maybe 8.1, 8.2, and 8.3. In fact, WEDU,
the local educational channel has six sub-channels, app and you can “paste” it there if you want to do
3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5, and 3.6, all transmitted within more editing. At the same time that your snip is
the basic 6 MHz bandwidth (isn’t digital wonderful). placed on the clipboard, you will also see a message
Typically the base sub-channel, the .1 channel is a stating that you can edit, draw, or markup your selec-
High Definition (HD) channel, and the other sub- tion. Click to do that and Snip and Sketch opens in
channels are Standard Definition (SD) channels.
(High or Standard Definition refers to the quality or its own window with its own menu of options. Various
resolution of the picture displayed on the television easy marking tools are available for you to play with
screen. HD is referred to as 1080p or sometimes and try. There are highlighters and markers, and
720p, while SD is referred to as 480p. (The number clicking on the down arrows will open things like col-
is the number of horizontal lines used to create the or choices, etc. Once you have “sketched” on your
picture and the “p” indicates a progressive scan, as “snip” you can save it as a “.jpg”, “.png”, or “.gif” for-
opposed to an interlaced scan that was used for an-
alog TV.) SD is about the same quality as the old mat by clicking on the old floppy disk save icon and
analog TV picture. HD channels will also typically selecting the file type you want. The new Snip and
provide 5.1 audio, but that’s entirely another story.) Sketch is easy to use and very helpful for saving and
So it turns out that the original decision to allocate 6 sketching on any image on your screen for any pur-
MHz for a television channel seems to have been a
pretty good design decision. Or, at least the design- pose. Why not give it a try?
ers of the digital television equipment have been

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