[opendtv] Re: Non-living room HDTV sales rise in US
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2007 07:05:03 -0500
At 10:56 AM -0500 1/11/07, Manfredi, Albert E wrote:
People don't have to consciously say "I want HDTV." They simply begin to
shun what starts looking bad to them, having been exposed to better
technology.
For once I am in general agreement with Bert. Clearly there is no
going back to legacy TV standards and their poor "delivered image
quality."
Where we still disagree is that we are moving from one point standard
(analog composite TV) to another (digital component HDTV). IMHO we
are moving from one to many.
As Mark Schubin and others have pointed out, one size does not fit
all for the multiple venues where video will be viewed in the future.
Mobile TV is not likely to deliver HDTV quality for years, if ever.
The application will dictate the resolution requirements.
We have already seen that a much smaller incremental leap in video
quality - digital component SDTV - has been the driving force in the
transition to DTV around the globe. At the top of the is is DVD,
which has all but replaced VHS as the medium for selling and renting
movies and TV shows. And the recent ongoing thread about the quality
of PAL completely missed the point; 576 line digital component video
is what is driving the DTV transition in Europe, and it is clearly
better than PAL, leveraging the investment in digital component
facilities made by Europeand broadcasters in the '90s.
Apple has sold 50 million movies and TV shows. They started with less
than NTSC quality, and now are offering 640 x 480 digital component
video quality. THe new Apple TV device will also support 1280 x 720 @
24P, but the bandwidth overhead for this format is liekly to minimize
its use for the next few years.
None of this is news. We demonstrated the fundamental principles
behind the delivery of high quality video at ANY resolution in the
early '90s as we tried to influence the US. DTV process to eliminate
the legacy technologies that were the root cause of poor video
quality. Sadly, broadcasters are still stuck with interlace and
59.94, while the rest of the world is embracing the principles we
outlined in 1992.
There is no doubt that consumers will pay for "better" if the
application demands it and the price is fair. There is also no doubt
that we are letting go of the one-size-fits-all legacy driven by a
world controlled by television broadcasters. They are now just
another fish trying to survive in an increasingly competitive ocean.
Regards
Craig
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
Other related posts: