[opendtv] Re: Spectrum Repacking Looms for TV Broadcasters
- From: Albert Manfredi <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 3 Apr 2010 19:11:49 -0400
Craig Birkmaier wrote:
> Only the government cheese boxes were affordable
> and they were subsidized to the tune of $30
> billion.
Where did that come from? I remember their purchase by consumers being
subsidized, not their production. The price point was a market price. And they
initially went for $39.99 on up to about $70, IIRC.
In addition, the cost of the built-in receiver was, just as I had said all
along, completely negligible by 2007, and certainly by now. Unlike what all the
hand-wringers (including the CEA) were wailing about. "At least $200 added to
the price!!" What BS.
> it is still VERY DIFFICULT to find ATSC set-top
> boxes in the U.S., and there are few if any with
> advanced features.
If you mean PVRs, I agree. And that has absolutely NOTHING to do with cost and
everything to do with overarching greed. The PVR I own costs less than $300,
probably more like $250 by now. Or do you think that Funai has some sort of
secret formula that no other manufacturer knows how to duplicate?
> Perhaps one reason it took so long to get
> affordable ATSC boxes that actually worked here
> in the U.S. is related to the complexity of the
> receivers?
Of course not. We went through all of this years ago. The "complexity," as you
call it, is all in one chip. That chip became available in a truly successful
form, and in large quantities, in 2003. Yet it didn't seem to find its way into
STBs until what? 2007? Wow. Amazing how it was being built into TV sets for
that many years, yet nothing for stand-alone STBs or PVRs. Right, that was
caused by "complexity." Greed, Craig, Greed, with underhanded deals and
kickbacks.
> The DVB-T boxes did not need the complex
> equalizers that had to be built to make ATSC work.
Everything comes at a price, Craig. The REASON why COFDM can get by with simple
equalizers is that they depend instead on dozens (2K) or 100s (8K) of full
power carriers. Where 8-VSB uses only one attenuated carrier, and the better
8-VSB receivers, since the 2nd gen, have been able to receive the signal even
with the carrier fully suppressed.
Is it so hard to understand that if you can accomplish this feat successfully,
there are advantages to be had?
> Once again Moore's Law came to the rescue
As it always does. Weren't you the one championing Moore's Law when it came to
H.264/AVC? So, it was good then, but we shouldn't want it to apply in this
instance?
> So new DVB-T2 receivers will also support the
> earlier DVB-T modes.
Yes, and you can just as easily build a DVB-T2 receiver that also supports
8-VSB. Matter of fact, DVB-T2 does make use of better equalization than the
original DVB-T receivers did, so this benefits everyone. IIRC, it was
STMicroelectronics that may have introduced the first good equalizer in its
DVB-T chips, which greatly enhanced their performance.
> The world is now ready for HD. We subsidized the
> development.
The US market pushed the development, yes. The US market introduced HD when the
rest of the world (and you) were dead set against it. HD started becoming
affordable for the masses way back in 2002 or 2003, and the large production
quantities created by the US market obviously made it more affordable for
everyone else too. The naysayers did not help in this process, that's for sure.
Bert
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