[opendtv] Re: EETimes.com - DVB ponders next-gen terrestrial DTV standard
- From: "Albert Manfredi" <bert22306@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 05 Mar 2006 14:58:16 -0500
Bob Miller wrote:
>Early adopters of OTA DTV went there for one thing, HD.
>They can't wait in many cases to get to cable or satellite
>for the same content and drop OTA ASAP.
Not necessarily drop OTA ASAP. I have *three* neighbors, I mean adjacent
neighbors, with DBS and OTA combined. For the simple reason that they want
as much HD as they can get. And another neighbor with cable. And another
with OTA-only, via loft antenna, who probably couldn't care less about HD.
Point being, early adopters want all the HD they can get, and dropping OTA
is not the objective. If they prefer to "drop OTA," it is only to eliminate
one of possibly three antennas they have. (My brother-in-law uses an indoor
antenna for the OTA part, so he doesn't much care to drop it.)
>A big ongoing topic on AVSForum, yes I can still read and post
>to AVSForum, is when will local stations be on cable or satellite
>in HD. You could argue that 8-VSB reception is driving people
>away from OTA. In fact I do argue that.
There are many different types of customers. Some, like me, are perfectly
happy with the OTA choice of HD not to want to subscribe to cable or DBS.
And if multicasts give us a few more options, so much the better. Others
believe that more is more and must have 150 channels to choose from. That is
the majority, but so what? The world is not composed only of wild-eyed,
unrepressed fanatics, you know.
>No again for arguments sake you drop part of what I said
>and then make an invalid point. I said they are totally
>immersed in multicast must carry. That is different from must
>carry since it involves more programming and for which they
>should want to maximize their capacity. AVC is very important
>but not until they have multicast must carry sewn up. Until
>then they will keep a low profile IMO
So we agree that AVC is secondary at this point in time. Thank you.
>Then the double whammy of bad receivers and the need for
>MPEG4 will offer the chance to change everything and, yes,
>delay some more.
Except that, just as I predicted many years ago, CE manufacturers are not
about to embed bad receivers in their brand new displays. Do you remember
those discussions, where the "common wisdom" on here was that everyone would
install the cheapest possible ATSC receivers just to meet the FCC mandate?
Well, it's not happening that way. Why would any major CE vendor want the
reputation of the guy with the crappy receivers?
Instead, at least so far, it looks like CE vendors are attemting to obsolete
all older gear as fast as possible, by selling only old and more expensive
technology in ATSC separate components, and mostly in "no-name" boxes
(except Samsung). And only selling the good stuff in highly integrated
packages, including the built-in PVR idea. This might change before 2009,
who knows. So if AVC will become a big deal down the line, it can simply be
added to ATSC, as the propsed standards already explain. And the CE vendors
will happily cash in on another round of obsolescence.
At least we finally seem to agree that AVC is a secondary issue at this
time.
Bert
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