[opendtv] Re: 060707 Free Friday Fragments (Mark's Monday Memo)
- From: Richard Hollandsworth <holl_ands@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2006 17:06:34 -0700 (PDT)
Typo: Feb2007 should have been Feb2009, when every TV will have to be connected
to an STB....unless they have a built in ATSC, CABLE and/or SAT receiver.
However, Feb2007 (or as early as Oct2006?) is probably as good a date as any
for deployment of significant numbers of M-Cards...and the next round of finger
pointing as to why they don't work any better than CC-I in current and new
HDTV.....
Perhaps the CE manufacturers will know enough now to perform more through
integration tests and will work very, very hard to get DVRs COMPLETELY working,
rather than being flooded with returns....something we can't do with our
one-of-a-kind leased DVRs.
Speaking of finger pointing, why single out either the CE or MSOs??? Or even
Congress/FCC who try to respond (without much clairvoyance) to recommendations
from all concerned parties. They are all in this together--the MSOs would like
to think that they control their own domains....but CE engineers will come up
with yet another bright idea several times a year--unfortunately, it takes
several years to negotiate a spec, develop, test, deploy, watch the trouble
reports trickle in and finally fix it enough to limp toward the NEXT BIG
THING....
Meanwhile, they still can't even get the "simple" HDMI interface squared
away...maybe v.1.3 will finally fix it.....(cough, cough)...and get the
Federally mandated Firewire interface working on HD-DVRs, including start/stop
control of the attached D-VHS Recorder....
And then they can fix the other 5% of SATA HDD that doesn't work quite
right...and get digital cable to change channels as fast as they claim SDV
will....
IF ONLY THEY COULD GET THE SOFTWARE ENGINEERS TO WORK ON CURRENT PROBLEMS!!!!
COMCAST probably has it right--stay the course with what more or less works
today and maybe consider a shift AFTER they take a few years to work out the
plethora of bugs in the all new OpSys with dozens of new and unproven
functionalities....
PS: The new OCAP capable, all-digital STBs announced by Motorola, Panasonic and
Scientific Atlanta all include H.264 with IPVT....making it easier to replace
MPEG2 on cable at some future date.....although most interviews with MSOs
indicate that they have NO intention to go ALL digital or replace MPEG2 with
H.264 anytime soon....
holl_ands
=============================================
"Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > The two Keys to
the Kingdom seem to be 1) Switched
> Digital Video (SDV) to more efficiently use QAM channels
> and 2) "Cheap" All-Digital STB and HD-DVR that can be
> used to wean the MAJORITY of cable viewers from Expanded
> Analog to Digital. Even though that means the complication
> of adding an STB for most viewers (which may become less
> of a drawback in Feb2007).
Exactly.
The cable system can migrate gradually from the mix of digital and
analog channel, and can migrate gradually from wasting bandwidth on
simulcast SD and separate HD digital programs. Ditto migrate gradually
to AVC, if that's even such a big deal here.
And as you imply, the cable company can promote, rather than discourage,
the use of cable-ready receivers with CableCard (I take that as being
your mention of Feb 2007), including the use of the new two-way
CableCard upgrade, because people do generally despise STBs.
The cable-ready PVR market *should* be booming, as it is not so
encumbered with legal issues as the built-in cable virtual PVRs are.
PVRs, w/o removable discs, are clearly meant for time-shifting only, and
the FCC and courts *have* said that is okay. So in principle, nothing
should be stopping this. (As if.)
My point: I think your #2 choice becomes the favorite, unless cable
systems insist on making life difficult for everyone including
themselves.
Any reluctance of CE companies to produce the required hardware is in
large part caused by a perception that the service providers are doing
all in their power to render such standard solutions obsolete even
before they make it to market.
That's my perception of reality. (Perhaps "clueless as usual," as our
self-professed experts claim.)
And the really nice part about this WOULD be that these standardized
cable solutions would also work for OTA users. Oh gee. I wonder if that
makes them more or less likely to be implemented.
Bert
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