With so many other ways to set the time on electronics, there's little need to rely on the local public broadcaster anymoreMichael Wilson still uses a video cassette recorder but is having trouble setting the time:
While I love my TiVo (TIVO), I still sometimes record things on my VCR—say, the entire Oscars show, even though it has a low probability of actual replay. Everything worked fine until the recent change to daylight savings time. That change did not happen on my VCR. The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) has a contract for providing the extended data signals for all automatic time-set VCRs. It used to be very accurate. I contacted my local PBS station and they apologized. They changed the time, but made it three minutes and 14 seconds fast. A subsequent contact has had no result. Neither has an e-mail to PBS. Does anyone else care? I'd love my VCR to go back to the old reliable accurate time.
The public broadcasting transmission of time signals has become something of an orphan technology, largely because there are now so many other sources for time information and because the main users, VCRs, have been retreating into obscurity. Still, that's no excuse for the station that is putting out the time signal to not get it right.
Read More
