[opendtv] Re: News: DIRECTV Sued Over HDTV Picture Quality
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 26 Sep 2006 09:00:46 -0400
At 11:36 AM -0400 9/25/06, Manfredi, Albert E wrote:
Craig Birkmaier wrote:
This brings up another interesting point.
What is the relative cost of adding a computer and DVD drive
to a display versus an ATSC/cable ready tuner?
Something like 20:1.
You've got to be kidding. Complete computers with LCD panel displays
are selling for less than $500 today.
A Mac mini retails for $599, and will connect directly to most HD
displays via DVI (Apple is showed an HDMI connector on the iTV
prototype that will retail for about $300).
An HDTV capable iMAC (24" LCD panel) retails for $1,999, and it
includes: a Superdrive that is capable of burning DVDs; a 250GB
drive; 1 GB of memory; Wireless-G and Bluetooth; and a remote to run
Apple's Front Row "lean back" interface. It has a 1920 x 1200 display
resolution.
Dell gets $800 for a similar LCD panel display.
Maybe you just made a typo, as the actual difference between a full
computer implementation and an ATSC tuner is more like 2:1. And with
the computer you can play and possibly burn DVDs, and will have an
integrated DVR.
> What is the perceived value of that computer to the consumer
versus the TV tuners?
Depends. If you're talking guys trying to impress their friends with
their 50" plasma rendition of Monday Night Football, I'd say the low-res
Internet streaming media version would be a let-down.
You can add any kind of tuner to a computer based device as well.
Cable, DBS, Telco IPTV etc.
ATSC too for that matter, but why bother?
You have a rather biased view of what is possible via Internet
downloaded video. Streaming media is still relatively low res, but
this is primarily a bandwidth constraint today. With a 3 Mbps pipe
you can deliver better than SDTV quality today in real-time.
Clearly, any shift to Internet delivery of traditional TV content
will depend on the appropriate infrastructure to support it. It is
also clear that both the cable guys and the telcos are moving to such
an infrastructure. I feel very confident in predicting that it will
be possible to deliver HDTV quality content without the need to
negotiate carriage with the "walled gardens" in less than a decade.
You really need to start thinking OUTSIDE the traditional integrated TV box.
Regards
Craig
P.S. I found the following Cringley column about Apple's iTV
prototype to be an interesting perspective...
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20060922.html
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