[opendtv] Re: Toward digital TV
- From: Bob Miller <bob@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 16 Dec 2005 21:53:43 -0500
Manfredi, Albert E wrote:
>Bob Miller wrote:
>
>
>
>>And if COFDM had been allowed in 2000 those same retailers
>>would be incentivized by companies like USDTV to offer
>>their services with FREE OTA receivers. There would be a
>>number of such companies and most retailers would be more
>>than happy to make money with OTA just as they are with
>>cable and satellite.
>>
>>
>
>And exactly why isn't this fairy tale scenario happening with
>good latest generation ATSC receivers, then?
>
>If products can only be sold by means of kickbacks or
>(essentially) bribes, what makes DVB-T any more amenable to
>such marketing techniques?
>
>Bert
>
>
What latest "good" generation of ATSC receivers? I can't get any even
after more than a year of trying. I can get a PCI card that then has to
be put in a computer. Too expensive so far. There is no mobile or
portable which was a big part of our plans. LG changed their minds about
making the prototype that we really wanted and are no help in getting
anyone elses STB using the 5th gen chip to work as well.
I have one contact that was going to make an STB with the 5th gen chip
but they dropped out. They now tell me one of their customers might be
induced to make such a receiver for us. It again would not be up to the
prototype we tested. There is now talk of another Korean company that
would have a good solution but that solution is at least 2 years away.
You know you talk about all these lab and field test and call my search
for a receiver a "profession of faith". I suggest that what you are
doing is more a profession of faith.
We are the true test. We WANT to have a business and all we ask is a
receiver that works. Lab test are fine but a simple test in Mark
Schubin's apartment and a few other locations does a lot more for me. It
simply works or it doesn't. And I am NOT rooting for it to NOT work. Ask
Mark Schubin. When I am in his apartment I all but kneel on the floor
and beg him to agree with me that the damn things work better than the
last one. I am the retailer, the customer. In trying to pull together a
business plan that will survive I have to see things as my customer sees
them, the retailer, the investor. I have to take into account whether we
will need a lot of truck runs to customers homes to fix things. What
percentage of off the shelf sales at a retailer will stick. The cost of
receivers is more than the box itself. Or even the installation of an
antenna.
8-VSB has failed miserably all of these test right from the beginning.
It fails all test that I can imagine. And I am trying!!!! Everytime I
here of some new hope I am on the phone looking into it. Not trying to
debunk it.
And then to read your post is just too much. You must live in a parallel
and very strange universe.
Stop looking at the lab test. Start looking at the markets. The real
world. It is not just that retailers want to make a buck on cable or
satellite. It is that they want to avoid hassles and 8-VSB is a hassle.
I guarantee that if we had COFDM modulation in the US retailers would be
happily selling loads of OTA receivers because it would help them to
sell HD sets. It would help them a lot. I would submit that they would
have all their DTV sets tuned to OTA channels all day long.
As I have said before if you are confused now by the lack of interest
for OTA receivers in the US it will only get worse. And all the while
success overseas with OTA COFDM systems, HD and SD, will continue to
mount to some kind of crescendo that finally may let you see the light.
Bob Miller
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