[Electronics-talk] turning on SAP: some points to remember

Sat Feb 7 20:47:29 UTC 2009

Hi,

    Seems a lot of folks are confused here about how to turn on SAP.  Let me 
see if I can help a little.  No, I can't tell you how to turn on your 
verison SAP; but, perhaps I can explain a few things which might help you 
determine for yourselves how it can be done.

1.  Analog SA.  Back in the days of analog stereo television, when the 
signal was derived by combining the L+R-r at 2.25KHZ with the L+r-l at 
2.25KHZ, the analog SAP was actually a sub carrier signal placed at 
76.68KHZ.  All these signals rode on the primary carrier frequency of what 
ever television station was broadcasting.  At first, it was just a simple 
switch or button on the remote control.  Later, menus came in and with them, 
the difficulty of switching on the SAP.  Panasonic was one of those 
Television set makers who saw a need for blind people to be able to activate 
SAP without going in to a menu  structure; so, they began building remote 
controls which had a button featuring six dots on it.  Press this button, 
and you turned on SAP.

2.  Digital cable muddied the water quite a bit.  With digital cable, if a 
station was carrying SAP and you were on the digital side (that's channels 
100 and above) you had to activate SAP via the menu structure of the box 
itself.  Why, because now, the television was merely an output device 
whereas the box was the tuner.  Usually, the SAP could be found as part of 
the audio menu under the setup menu.  Mostly, that's where it still is.

3.  It sure doesn't help that how you activate SAP depends on where you are 
in the channel spectrum.    IF you are watching any channel 2 through 99, 
you activate SAP via what ever means your television itself has available to 
you.  This is because the cable company just passes along what ever signal 
they receive.  If there is SAP, you get SAP; but, if not, than no.  This, 
however, is further complicated by the question of whether the cable company 
is actually passing through the SAP for the cable channels.  For local 
broadcast channels, the signal is just passed through; but, if a channel 
like HBO is carried on a channel below 100, the cable company actually has 
to actively pass through the SAP over a special head end unit; which, they 
may or may not have.  Given the soon coming digital switch over, I rather 
doubt that any cable company will be willing to invest the money for further 
active SAP carriage on their systems.  There is one more annoying factor 
concerning channels below 100.  Some boxes block SAP on these lower channels 
and so no matter how hard you try, you just are not going to activate SAP; 
even if the cable company itself is actively passing through the SAP 
channel.  Comcast uses a Motorola DVR which is exactly like this.  Now, if 
you are on any channel 100 or above, your chances of being able to activate 
SAP are actually better.  Why?  Simple.  SAP is activated via the Language 
menu which is under the audio menu which in turn is under the set up menu; 
usually, that is.  This is because the audio is passed through without any 
data stripping.  So, here's what you'd want to look for; provided, mind you, 
that you are watching any channel above 100.

Setup menu
audio submenu
language menu
and sometimes, under this, language audio submenu beneath all this, is the 
English/Spanish submenu.  To activate what we call the SAP, for DVS, you 
usually want the Spanish selection.  In the case of TNT high definition, you 
want the Spanish setting for Spanish, and for DVS, you want Korean.
HTH.

Sincerely,
The Constantly BAREFOOTED Ray

"Old friend, what are you looking for?  After those many years abroad you 
come With images you tended Under foreign skies Far away from your own land"
George Seferis

Phone or Fax::
+1 (985) 360-3375
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Skype Name:
barefootedray

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Bullis" <mabullis at hotmail.com>
To: "'Discussion of accessible electronics and appliances'" 
<electronics-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, February 07, 2009 10:28 AM
Subject: Re: [Electronics-talk] turning on SAP

In most systems I think you turn on sap in your television.
Mike

-----Original Message-----
From: electronics-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org
[mailto:electronics-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Dhunthausen
Sent: Saturday, February 07, 2009 12:15 AM
To: electronics list
Subject: [Electronics-talk] turning on SAP

Dear list,
I recently purchased aVerizon FIOS cable box with service. I can't figure
out how to turn on SAP, and have even had sighted help. If anyone has
experience with Verizon cable boxes, I would greatly appriciate any help.
Thanks

Drew

Drew Hunthausen
714-296-7111
Mailto: dhunthausen at gmail.com
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