As has often been pointed out to on this list to the point of adnauseam, the
reception problem in England is and was, largely caused by the very low DTV
transmitter power assigned by the government. However, COFDM fortunately has
the capability to rescale and operate reliably under such conditions and,
after their transition, the power will be raised significantly and with
that, the performance level will be rescaled upward. In the interim, their
system is doing very well commercially and the transition is progressing
very well, thank you.
When Sinclair demonstrated high bit rate COFDM using a 50KW transmitter,
which is only low to moderate power relative to U.S. ATSC assignments, the
reception, using first generation COFDM receivers was flawless. I was there
and did everything I could (which is a lot) to break it and was unsuccessful
short of removing the antenna and cable from the receiver (removing the
antenna by itself didn't work). That was eight years ago and that is where
we would have started. Current ATSC design might possibly now have equaled
that benchmark but where is the hardware?
The impulse noise argument at this late date is bogus; it was mostly an
early generation receiver issue that was addressed and will clearly be of no
importance once transmitter power is increased.
Regarding your assertion that the selection of COFDM would have slowed the
OTA transition even more in the U.S. (could it actually go backwards?), I
simply don't have the energy at this time to deal with its convolutions. All
I can say is; regardless of where ATSC design is today, our OTA broadcasting
has possibly reached the point of no return or, missed the boat as Dermot
might say. And that, sadly, is by design.
-----Original Message-----
> From: opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Albert Manfredi
> Sent: Tuesday, January 16, 2007 5:55 PM
> To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [opendtv] Re: Micronas Delivers World's Smallest Digital TV
> Demodulator
>
>
> Dale Kelly wrote:
>
> >Were we to have adopted a solution that worked out of the
> >box and, though it might have also required some relatively
> >minor tweaking, our DTV transition would be many miles
> >ahead of our current position.
>
> I have big doubts on this, for reasons I've repeated below.
> Anyway, the chip
> we're talking about is the Linx Casper design, no doubt tweaked some more
> over the years, first demoed in non-integrated form in early 2002 (CRC
> tested in 04/02). Which means, we could ALREADY have been miles ahead of
> where we are.
>
> 2002, coincidentally, was also the year that ITV gave up trying to make
> their coverage work with 64-QAM. The primary reason being (believe it or
> not) excessive vulnerability to impulse noise, but also other coverage
> problems (complaints from 50 percent of their viewers, I find out now).
>
> Parenthetically, isn't it curious how everything worked
> perfectly, we were
> told, before the reduction in bit rate. (Yes, they did have that out.)
>
> Linx had Casper miniaturized and CRC field tested in early March
> 2003. The
> chip was to have been available in sample sizes by the middle of
> 2003 and in
> quantities by the 4th quarter of 2003. It's now 2007, over three years
> later, and only two months ago we saw our first 5th gen STB, and
> as far as I
> know, we just got the very first ATSC DVDRs announced this month. WOW!!
>
> Oh, did I forget to mention LG's 5th gen which suddenly showed
> up, all set
> to go, also in mid 2003 (CRC tested 9/03)? And then others we
> were informed
> about.
>
> >However, we all know that eco-politics was used to block any
> >opposition to ATSC, but please don't get me started......As a
> >practical matter, I'm past all of that and would simply be satisfied if
> >this manipulation would end.
>
> (Okay, please do not let me get you started.)
>
> I think it's a safe bet that eco-politics were and are still involved, as
> you say. It was LG that made that real plain. And the fact that
> no one else
> came into the starving market to take their place. Linx had the excuse of
> the move to Micronas, at least for a few months.
>
> That can only lead me to conclude that NO MATTER WHAT, we weren't
> going to
> get this transition going quickly. Whatever dark forces prevented
> Linx and
> LG from getting their stuff in STBs and recording devices were surely not
> going to let any COFDM solution get in their way.
>
> I can only think of one scenario where a switch to COFDM would
> have made a
> difference. That would be if DVB-T itself were creating obstacles, to get
> the FCC to switch over. Because anyone else intent on preventing good DTT
> receivers from arriving would CLEARLY not want COFDM. Their aim
> would be to
> slow everything down, not speed it up. COFDM would have been the
> worst thing
> to happen, to these guys.
>
> Bert
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> From photos to predictions, The MSN Entertainment Guide to Golden
> Globes has
> it all. http://tv.msn.com/tv/globes2007/?icid=nctagline1
>
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways:
>
> - Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration
> settings at FreeLists.org
>
> - By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the
> word unsubscribe in the subject line.
>
>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways:
- Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at
FreeLists.org
- By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word
unsubscribe in the subject line.