[opendtv] Re: DEA-what? was: Re: Re: News: DIRECTV Sued Over HDTV Picture Quality

At 5:41 PM -0400 9/21/06, Manfredi, Albert E wrote: 
Bottom line is that if analog TV goes off the air, ATSC will have to
take its place. All the fancy protocols they're considering aren't
essential to the basic mission of informing the public. What I think is
essential are protocols that allow consistent info to be disseminated
simultaneously over all mass media.

Even NTSC is the "back-up system" in this country when it comes to emergency information. The primary system is radio. It is ubiquitous, there are plenty of cheap portable and mobile receivers, and the radio guys, at least in this town, do a far better job of keeping people informed and providing emergency information. The TV guys are too busy showing us satellite and radar images of the storm that just took out some neighborhood, or standing up in 100 mile an hour winds to prove...what?

Well, let's not get too pompous about this. NTSC is also not the best
system for homeland security, right? These are supposed to be low-cost
commercial solutions which in a pinch are re-purposed to disseminate
emergency information. No one pretends that they are systems built and
optimized from the ground up for emergency services. They are clearly
not. If they were, they would not be affordable by the masses.

But a properly designed terrestrial broadcast system for bits would provide all of these services, and would by virtue of proper design be highly redundant. See my response to your other post in this thread.


I figure, if I can use my rabbit ears to pick up several stations from
several diffent directions (check), and each one can transmit multiple
subchannels (check), and the subchannels can present radar pictures with
warnings about bad stuff sent in real time (check), that's not a bad "in
a pinch" system. Heck, even if all DC stations go off the air, I can
still receive Baltimore.


And when your power goes out


Along with AM/FM radio, battery operated.

Bert 

You are making the case here Bert.

Regards
Craig


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