[opendtv] Re: --FCC OKs WiFi between TV channels
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 30 May 2004 22:08:22 -0400
At 6:47 PM -0400 5/30/04, Manfredi, Albert E wrote:
>Ah, but it is. We went through this some time ago. ER, Crossing Jordan,
>Enterprise, and a few other shows from NBC and UPN, are in fact
>broadcast in 16:9 over their NTSC feed. Even though the typically
>overscanning NTSC sets make it appear somewhat less than that.
>Remember that thread? Depending on the receiver, we measured anything
>from 14:9 to 16:9 on any given show. The receiver made the difference,
>*not* the show.
If this is the case for these shows, then my apologies for the
mistake. The only question is where does the 16:9 letterbox feed come
from? Is it a separate network feed for the NTSC channel, or do the
local stations create it from the NBC digital network feed(s)?
With respect to John's original question, What I said still applies.
The NTSC viewer does not have any control over the presentation; they
are simply getting 25% less picture...
>All you really need for infinite flexibility is a digital receiver.
>The program stream can be NTSC or anything else. It's the digital
>receiver that allows this "decoupling" to take place.
Thanks Bert. That is the point I was trying to make to John.
The reality is that you could send almost any picture size, aspect
ratio, or frame rate at a digital receiver (up to it's processing
limits) and it should be able to display it.
>
>However, even with all analog transmit-receive chain, the aspect ratio
>of the NTSC feed can be anything the broadcaster wants. The only
>reason broadcasters usually stick to 4:3 is that they know most sets
>out there are 4:3, and that people prefer the screen real estate to
>be used completely.
Anything less than full screen is...well less.
NTSC does not suffer from an abundance of resolution. Take away 25%
of the picture and you are down to 360 interlaced lines. This can
work, as we have seen with DVDs and numerous cable channels that show
movies in letterbox.
But TV also suffers from a bad memory problem...the good old days
when the vertical drive tubes started to fail and you got another
kind of letterbox. This was followed by the FCC blanking police. So
there was some justification in believing that people want those
smallish, low resolution NTSC displays filled with vivid images.
It is also clear that as displays get larger and sharper, people are
expecting them to present original source as intended, not cropped or
distorted to fill the display. The routine use of computer displays
for more than a decade now has conditioned people to a different way
of looking at TV as we move into the future.
>With DTV, that same general concern will remain,
>in spite of any purported "decoupling." Since HDTV productions are
>almost exclusively 16:9, this is where the displays are migrating to
>as well. In that sense, everything is just as "coupled" as it ever
>was.
Just numbers...
Regards
Craig
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