[opendtv] 8VSB Still Not Working
- From: "Stephen W. Long" <longsw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 06 Jan 2005 00:44:12 -0500
A month or so ago I received an interesting briefing from a company that
wanted to use ATSC / 8VSB to deliver data to fire departments and other
first responders. They had no clue about who they were briefing (my
history, etc.), other than my current title. Their business plan was for
the fire engine to get all the way to the site of the fire where they would
stop then they would be able to receive data about where the fire was. I
gently pointed out to them that once the fire department got to the fire,
they kind of knew where the fire was and would not wait around the fire
engine for data to arrive - firemen tend to run into the fire first thing
when they get there. The point to the story is, as thick as these folks
were, even they knew they could not receive 8VSB data while the truck was
moving (they must have tested their system prior to deployment - what a
concept).
To quote a lawyer from my swimming with sharks experience a few years back,
ATSC is great, it works 75% of the time for fixed locations. To which my
boss's boss responded, we tend to like communications channels to work
somewhere in the high 90s.
I am now also enjoying HDTV via my DirecTV HDTV receiver, which also has an
integral OTA ATSC decoder. Lots of signal strength for my Fox channel
(signal bars full strength), but I can not watch it at all - the picture
breaks up so often that it makes any sports program (Redskins football,
etc.) too painful to watch (pain on multiple levels), so I have to watch
Fox via SDTV satellite, no OTA HDTV for me. I know why the reception is so
bad - a one story hill behind my house causes a large standing reflection,
which we noted long ago when my house was one of the ATSC DC test sites.
8VSB does not work for me, never has, never will. I also can not receive
the local digital UPN station. The signal strength swings from 0 to 80+
every couple of seconds, which never gives the decoder a chance to lock up
and display a signal. So back to DirecTV for UPN at my house, no HDTV Star
Trek Enterprise for me.
The COFDM proponents lost the political fight several years back, but they
were still right - 8VSB was a poor choice for our nation. Isn't it a
wonderful irony that 8VSB was added to the ATSC specification as a bone to
the last US TV manufacturer, which was subsequently sold to a foreign
company who now owns the patents on 8VSB. Simply lovely.
It was cool to read Voom is going to add hundreds of channels of satellite
based HDTV. It is cool to get local traffic and weather on my XM satellite
radio now, and they even have emergency channel provisions now in case
things go stupid. Maybe the most cynical people I heard during the
8VSB/COFDM wars were right all along - the choice of 8VSB was a method to
kill over the air TV so everyone would move to cable and satellite then the
OTA spectrum would be sold off once and for all. If all of the HDTV is
over satellite, and now the last uses for local service (local traffic,
weather, and emergency broadcasts) are replaced by satellite service, why
would we need local OTA digital service anymore? Inquiring minds want to
know.
To my old friends on this list, hello, I've been away for awhile, busy
fighting a couple of wars recently. But my duties are changing soon, and I
am thinking about getting back into the digital Motion Imagery game. Watch
this space.
At 12:50 PM 1/5/2005 -0500, you wrote:
>At 12:42 PM -0500 1/5/05, Manfredi, Albert E wrote:
>> > But NONE will be able to receive ATSC on
>>> portable or mobile receivers).
>>
>>Are you willing to put money on that?
>>
>
>Yes.
>
>Regards
>Craig
>
>
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