[opendtv] Re: Brazilian SBTVD STB ready for Christmas
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2007 15:57:08 -0500
Jonas wrote:
> Someone may say that, even then, the price of converters
> designed between 500 to 1000 reais (279 to 550 dollars),
> are very expensive,
That was a tradeoff very deliberately made by the Brazilian government,
though. The cost of what could have been existing DVB-T or ATSC STBs,
most of them being for SD-only output initially, would have been well
below $100. But what Brazil is getting for these higher prices is part
of the development activity in the new DTV standard (modification of the
Japanese ISDB-T system). In a sense, it is a tax on Brazilians to help
develop their own industry and academic programs.
And if there is some sort of government assistance program for these
STBs, then that tax becomes progressive.
But this was well understood from the beginning. And as production ramps
up, prices should drop as they have done elsewhere.
> Even in the United States, country where the law of the market,
> the government will deploy a plan of subsidies to help the poor.
The way I see it, at least in Brazil that government handout is going to
feed its own industry and universities (and I'm sure some goes to Japan
too). This is more comparable to the US defense industry, where tax
revenues used to pay for defense fund industry and academia mostly
inside the US itself. On the other hand, the taxes that fund the ATSC
STB $40 rebate program are going mostly overseas, where these cheap STBs
will be made. So it becomes another form of foreign aid.
It will be interesting to see just how much demand there will be for
these SD-only STBs, in the US. Judging from people's buying habits now,
it might not be high. Unless people buy them just because they are cheap
and subsidized, which some individuals find oh so hard to pass up.
> If manufactured converters capable of operating both in ISDTB-T
> as in dPAL-M, business investment turn faster, so that the
> final price of the converter can be accessible to the entire
> Brazilian family in less than ten years.
Presumably, TVs will continue to be manufactured with the internal PAL
demod until all analog transmissions are shut off. So I'm not sure why
the STB also needs the analog demod. Just have a bypass switch in te
STB, allowing the analog TV to use its own analog demod. Although that
should not be a major roadblock, either way.
Bert
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