[opendtv] Re: DTT tuner design

  • From: Tom Barry <trbarry@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Fri, 06 Jul 2007 12:22:21 -0400



Craig Birkmaier wrote:
> There is ONE stark difference. In the U.K there is support for a viable
> FTA platform by the government, the television industry and the public.
> There is no viable option for free TV here, unless you are willing to
> accept the limited content that is offered OTA. Apparently you are, but
> you are part of a dying breed of consumer. What is more to the point is
> that the next generation of TV viewers are much more likely to use the
> Internet for TV. My son does it all the time now, as do many other young
> people I work with.

I am personally willing to settle for only the limited content offered (in most cities) OTA, supplemented by various Internet sources. But even then as a cable broadband user I still find the cheap cable lifeline unencrypted QAM service a better deal for those same stations, just for the reliability.

- Tom

At 3:28 PM -0400 7/5/07, Manfredi, Albert E wrote:

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.


They offer a 20" 4:3 panel on the web site. But I'm not sure how recent a trend this is. It's been happening with laptop computers for several years and for most LCD computer displays. The beauty of LCD is that you can cut up the large glass panels in any shape you want.

The big problem with widescreen TVs at smaller sizes is the even smaller size of dominant 4:3 content or the need to distort the content to fill the screen. I strongly suspect that most consumers are buying 20" or larger LCD panels to get something at least as large as the old set they are replacing.


 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.


I guess this goes back to the debate about the number of sets that are in use that are not connected to an umbilical service. Frankly, I cannot see that anything is changing here. If the consumer was already using a small set for off-air reception, then they may do the same with a new LCD panel. But I doubt that most consumers are trying to use antennas again.

In fact, there is a significant difference with the new sets that makes it less likely that the internal tuners will be used. Most small CRT based TVs came with integrated antennas as well. I have not seen an LCD panel with an antenna. The chances are fairly good that reception might not work with an integrated antenna anyway.

My daughter bought a 32" LCD set with integrated tuner. We can receive OTA broadcasts via a cheap radio shack antenna, but it must be placed in the window in her room to get sufficient signal margin for the reception to be stable. Back in the family room and kitchen the signal is simply too low to use an integrated antenna.


 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.


There is ONE stark difference. In the U.K there is support for a viable FTA platform by the government, the television industry and the public. There is no viable option for free TV here, unless you are willing to accept the limited content that is offered OTA. Apparently you are, but you are part of a dying breed of consumer. What is more to the point is that the next generation of TV viewers are much more likely to use the Internet for TV. My son does it all the time now, as do many other young people I work with.

It is not a question of whether people are willing to pay for TV. That's a done deal. The question is whether people will continue to fork out $40 - $100 per month for an "all you can eat" service, even as they are spending another $25-100 per month to buy/rent movies. At some point it becomes more attractive to buy just the stuff you want, rather than paying through the nose for stuff you don't watch.

This has already happened for me and many other consumers in the market for music. It is far easier, and now cheaper, to download just the stuff I want from services like iTunes. It's just a matter of time until the same will be true for TV.

Regards
Craig

P.S. I played with an iPhone yesterday. I loved it an my wife couldn't imagine why anyone would want one. She is happy with a phone and an iPOD. She can't imagine what she would do with e-mail and the Internet on a mobile device. The kids get it and want it. I'm waiting for version 2.0 and hopefully another carrier than AT&T.



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Tom Barry                  trbarry@xxxxxxxxxxx  



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