[opendtv] Re: Why Analog NTSC reception will be around for awhile longer.
- From: Richard Hollandsworth <holl_ands@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 31 Jan 2006 16:11:02 -0800 (PST)
1. Analog shutdown is (at least) three years away. And Analog shutdown date
could slip.....again...and again...
2. Watching OTA NTSC is nowhere near dead....as has been discussed ad nauseum
wrt CEA's erroneous undercounting schema.
Many people don't want to pay for a ATSC STB or the expensive monthly service
fees for Cable or SAT....especially if they have been receiving OTA stations
for many years....for FREE. And some don't want the hassle of rewiring their
house.
2. And as Mark pointed out, there are many TV stations that are not available
in DTV.
This is especially true along the Mexican border.
Mark's recent Monday Memo gave a link to MSTV letter to FCC re Qualcomm's
incomplete interference analysis of MediaFlo to CH54/55/56 TV stations.
Note (20) reports that "45.5 percent of the 1.7 Mil Hispanic households in
Los Angeles DMA rely exclusively on OTA reception and a far larger number rely
partially on OTA reception".
This is understandable not only because it is FREE, but also because half
these stations are not on Cable or SAT.
Note that most of the ethnic/religious stations in L.A. have an ATSC
counterpart
Here in the San Diego/Baja-Norte MetroPlex, there are 2 Mil people above the
border and about that many below---many of whom are bi-lingual---and many of
whom only speak one or the other language.
TWC-SD and COX-SD offer some Hispanic channels, but about half of the local
Ethnic/Religious channels are missing from the lineup.
Although there is an extra cost Hispanic language tier for Cable and SAT
carrying various national channels, the DirecTV local channel offering only
carries one Hispanic language channel imported from L.A. and none from Dishnet.
So in San Diego, there is total reliance on OTA for local Hispanic channel
reception---most of which is not yet available via ATSC.
3. Many HDTVs and Projectors have been and continue to be purchased as
Monitors, without any tuners. This is still significantly lower cost for SAT
and cable DVR users.
Many current owners of an SD-DVR/Tivo for either NTSC OTA, NTSC Cable and/or
SD-SAT reception have purchased ATSC STBs in order to add HD-Local stations.
I only purchased an OTA STB, because TWC-SD still refuses to carry the local
WB-HD station.....a not uncommon problem on both Cable and SAT.
If the STB doesn't have NTSC capability, then you have to add a 4 dB loss RF
Splitter to either their HDTV or perhaps an old VCR. The resultant 4 dB loss
in Noise Figure can severely affect ATSC reception.
4. Transition of LP and Translator stations from analog to digital has been
intentionally held up by lack of channel freqs....and perhaps SFN (Distributed
Transmiter) technology delays and problems.
Hence, most LP and Translator transition to digital is not likely to occur in
mass before Feb2009.
5. We must always remind ourselves that the marketplace consists of many
different kinds of users. What makes sense for a DCR HDTV owner might not make
sense for a Monitor HDTV or HD-Projector owner. And what you are looking for
will depend a lot on what you already have or expect to get: whether a
pre-existing OTA antenna or a Cable STB/DVR or any of several SAT systems.
<holl_ands>
========================================================
Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
At 9:09 PM -0500 1/30/06, Albert Manfredi wrote:
>Richard Hollandsworth wrote:
>
>>In the dozens of spec sheets and app notes that I've read,
>>I've never seen a separate RF/IF Tuner Module just for NTSC.
>>They all show a common RF/IF Tuner.
>
>Even so, it seems that if nothing else, two demods operating at the same IF
>can create leakage. But also, as long as NTSC is still on the air, and as
>long as we see evidence of co-channel interference between NTSC and ATSC
>stations that are not adequately separated, it seems that a combined
>ATSC/NTSC receiver would be more vulnerable to self noise than an ATSC-only
>receiver.
>
Why include an NTSC receiver, especially in the boxes that the
government is going to subsidize? The set to which the box is
attached most likely has one anyway, and there will be no need for
the NTSC tuner when the transmitters are turned off.
Regards
Craig
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