[opendtv] Re: DTT tuner design

  • From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Thu, 5 Jul 2007 15:28:21 -0400

Craig Birkmaier wrote:

> Did you really look at all of the TVs at your Best Buy?
>
> Yes, the LCD panels are there and displayed in a more
> prominent location, however, the 4;3 CRT based sets in my
> store still take up a complete aisle. What is more
> interesting about most of these CRT bases sets is that
> many of these models include DVD players, and in a few
> cases VHS tape transports as well.

There are some of those, even at Target, but it looks to me like they
are definitely on their way out. But the point I was actually trying to
make is that until very recently, all LCD sets of 20" or less were 4:3
(excpet a few 17" ones) and were SDTV. That category seems to be
finished. Now these small LCDs are 16:9 and HDTV, and have the
integrated ATSC receiver. And they cost no more than those recent SDTV
sets.

You seem to have to go down to 15" size LCDs to see 4:3 anymore, at
least at Best Buy. I think this is a new trend.

> As for what people will use sets for integrated
> receivers for...
>
> The research suggests that most consumers are NOT using
> the DTV tuners...

But the research had no way of accounting for the newest small sets. My
thinking is that a fair percentage of them will become secondary sets in
households, so they could get a "higher than 15 percent" representation
in the OTA category. Of course, as I suggested years ago, the receivers
in these sets have to work very well for this to become true. It's
probably more important for these small sets to have good receivers than
it is for the big ones.

> Perhaps this will change if the industry actually
> starts to promote OTA reception. That is, before they
> move all of their most valuable content to the internet
> and pay per view.

The Lovelace piece Mark Aitken posted indicates otherwise, in the UK at
least. I truly wonder whether there are as stark differences as you seem
to think between these markets. Even if we have many here that will pay
for the umbillical hookup, I wonder whether they are also willing to pay
per view on a regular basis. My bet is no. My bet is that these PPV
predictions are no more likely to be true than the ads showing teenagers
lying around in city traffic to watch their TV shows on their cell
phones.

Bert
 
 
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