[opendtv] Re: Kennard and Powell to the rescue
- From: "John Willkie" <johnwillkie@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 11 Jan 2009 19:31:50 -0800
So, your "interest" in digital is solely to get 1946 to 1956 studio-quality
video into analog sets? That's pretty much what I think your interest is,
but I wouldn't have used the word "solely."
I can guarantee you that studio quality video has improved significantly in
the past 60 years, and that not a word in any of the various laws,
regulations and FCC proceedings would favor your interest.
Your situation is a bit different than most; you are a television engineer,
not merely someone who plays one on the Internet. I also suspect that you
moved to your present location with marginal analog reception after DTV was
initiated by an act of Congress. And, I know that there was debate back
then whether or how well digital would replicate analog reception. Isn't
this a bet that you lost?
What you really could and should have said was that your bad bet meant that
you couldn't get the weather tonight on digital, so you had to step down to
analog. However, I suspect that there are several ways of getting the
weather, even in bad weather, and several of them are more efficient than
waiting for someone to dispense a bit of weather information to you when
they do it, on a regular schedule.
It sounds to me like you need to subscribe to cable to get the same type of
television reception that others consider to be baseline useable.
You're right about the FCC, of course. The FCC of 1953 is not the FCC we
have today. Of course, the FCC didn't mandate 8-vSB; Congress did, and Bill
"BJ" Clinton signed it into law. Nor does this FCC mandate agricultural
reports for urban areas, or news, or public affairs programming. There are
no limits on commercial content, nor are station proposals evaluated on
whether they propose to pay for an Associated Press newswire. Nor are the
industries regulated by the FCC (save mobile telephones and another here and
there) in an expansion mode. Nor is broadcasting the only way to get
reliable news and information between the various editions of newspapers
that are delivered to homes.
Others, without your knowledge and experience, have bigger violins to play
over the next 40 or so days.
But, me, I'm old-fashioned. I always pay attention to broadcast, satellite,
cable and telephone reception/connectivity issues when I consider moving. I
even try to anticipate how the situation might change based on weather,
topography, climate, and new construction. I learned this the hard way, by
moving, in 1976, to a location where I soon discovered, there was no
possibility of TV, AM or FM (aside from snowy audio from one station)
reception. Fortunately, Adobe Falls did have cable television hookups, and
it was livable, until/unless the Lake Murray dam broke.
By the way, nothing I say should be construed to assert that 8-VSB works
perfectly or anything more than "almost adequate." But, I can receive HDTV
signals that travel more than 120 miles to my home.
John Willkie
_____
De: opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] En
nombre de Cliff Benham
Enviado el: Sunday, January 11, 2009 6:49 PM
Para: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Asunto: [opendtv] Re: Kennard and Powell to the rescue
John Willkie wrote:
It might work for Cliff, but I suspect he would have
serious concerns, because it ain't analog.
You greatly misunderstand my interest in digital television. For me it is
simply a means to an end.
As a collector and restorer of TV sets made from 1946 through 1956, my
interest in digital TV
is solely as a way to get "studio" quality video into them so they display
really great pictures.
When DTV works, it is really great, and the old color sets make very fine
pictures with it.
As to my constant complaining about how well digital doesn't work, I will
not accept the poor performance
of a system that stops me from getting information I want or need.
Digital does not work when it needs to.
Tonight, for instance, I could not get the weather BECAUSE OF THE WEATHER.
But, tuning in on a 10 inch B&W TV from 1948 with a UHF converter and rabbit
ears, I watched the weather from a
local analog UHF station. It was snowy, but the sound was intelligible and I
got the INFORMATION I needed.
Do you 'get' my meaning?
The FCC that approved NTSC color on December 17, 1953, is certainly not the
FCC we have today.
That older FCC would not have approved our present DTV system.
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