[opendtv] Re: News: DTV Boxes Could Cost $1 Billion
- From: "John Shutt" <shuttj@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 27 Jul 2004 12:28:42 -0400
Nowhere in the mandates from congress, nor in FCC proceedings, did the issue
of "equal in performance" to NTSC become a criteria for the adoption of
ATSC. In fact, in the very early years (pre Sinclair Baltimore tests) it
was assumed by all parties that ATSC would replicate grade B contour
performance, and no more, to fixed indoor receivers. In other words, if a
viewer was satisfied with watching a snowy sub grade B picture, they were
not guaranteed the ability to receive ATSC at all. Mobile reception was
never a criteria for the ATSC system, even though it clearly was part of the
NTSC system.
Sinclair's arguments were that even in areas of high signal strength, the
performance of ATSC receivers was so poor compared to the European COFDM
system that in order to maintain a viable OTA broadcast industry we should
change emission standards. It was only AFTER the Sinclair petition that
people here realized that a digital television system even COULD replicate
NTSC reception vis-a-vis low signal level (via hierarchical modulation),
portable and mobile reception, and dropout free reception using simple
indoor antennas.
Only after the questionable testing of ATSC and DVB-T by the MSTV did
broadcasters come up with a list of "criteria" that included portable and
mobile, and that was addressed with the ATSC's recently adopted E-VSB
standard.
Regards,
John Shutt
----- Original Message -----
From: "Nick Kocsis" <kocsis_nick@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> You have brought up an interesting question as to how the consumer who has
> already bought into the current 8VSB receiver technology, whether
> integrated into the TV itself or a set top box, would have a claim against
> the FCC for having adopted a standard for DTV that has been proven to be
> substandard (i.e. not equal in performance to NTSC).
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