Bert Wrote: > Perhaps, although I don't see that incoporating analog UHF > tuners with a similar mandate was any big deal burden to the > CE vendors or the public. Quite the contrary. I don't see the UHF/DTV comparision as being a particularly fitting analogy. The UHF receiver mandate is from a period in time when broadcasting was the only source of TV programming. The UHF service was created to provide additional stations and choices to the public, choices which they welcomed, only to find that the few available UHF set top converter boxes were unwiedly and performed poorly. The only opposition to the UHF service, as I recall, was from the CE industry and perhaps some VHF broadcasters. There was very little economic impact to the CE side, the real investment was made by entrepreneurs who saw a viable future business. On the other hand, the OTA DTV service is a mandate that redefines an entire industry. The public, who are mostly happy with their current TV choices do not generally see the need for such a change and their response has been mostly underwhelming. The CE folks, who understandably follow the money, see little value in OTA related investment and have redefined the DTV transition in non broadcast terms, where product profits are high. The CE companies love the DTV transition, as they define it, while Broadcasters are suffering the inevitable consequences of a transition without an economic engine and the viewers are generally nonplused. I attended the first series of meetings with the agenda of introducing an HDTV capable service into the USA. They were held in Monterey, Ca. and Washington, DC in approximately 1982. The driving force behind this effort was the CE communities vision that it would create their next wave of high end product, After all, it's all about the future growth of a major industry and the UHF issue pales in comparison. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx> To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Wednesday, August 04, 2004 11:25 AM Subject: [opendtv] Re: Barriers eroding to LCD TV adoption > Dale Kelly wrote: > > I had written: > > > For example, how can anyone go on insisting that built-in > > > ATSC tuners must go on costing $200, when stand-alone boxes > > > last Christmas cost that much? It's really bizarre. > > > > That has never been my argument > > Sorry, did not mean to imply it had ever been *your* argument. > I was being non-specific on purpose. > > > though I do think, that since the integrated > > DTV receiver is the result of a mandate which does not have > > support in the > > CE and retail communities, that the product might not closely follow a > > typical successful products development cycle. > > Perhaps, although I don't see that incoporating analog UHF > tuners with a similar mandate was any big deal burden to the > CE vendors or the public. Quite the contrary. > > On the subject of royalties, I'm not sure what the differences > are between low-end digital cable STBs and ATSC STBs in terms of > royalty costs. All I can guess is the 8-VSB delta, which amounts > to what? Is it $16? I can never keep straight what applies to > 8-VSB and what applies to MPEG-2. In any event, it should run > out before too long, no? > > Bert > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways: > > - Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org > > - By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line. > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways: - Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org - By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line.