[opendtv] Re: Democrats Air Concerns About Analog Switchover
- From: "John Willkie" <johnwillkie@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 17 Nov 2006 14:31:10 -0800
It's truly incorrect that multipath is much of a problem with current
set-top boxes from a wide number of vendors. These are the boxes that will
be bought by those that need them. There was much problem with earlier
sets, which were bought by "early adopters" who complained -- and correctly
-- widely.
It's also truly incorrect that multipath causes digital pictures to look
worse than analog broadcasts. With digital, you either get the signal or
you don't; there is no grainy pictures. Sometimes, there can be a drop out
that causes a picture to jumble up for a moment or three. This is so bad
that the pictures are unusable.
I'd truly recommend that you buy a converter shortly before you need one,
and only after you have seen the unit in operation at a home near yours.
The good news is that the multipath problems are largely confined to urban
locations where there are strong signals and many reflections from
buildings.
For the most part, if you can get good analog reception now, you will be
able to get crystal-clear digital reception. Indeed, if the broadcaster is
at full power, you should be able to get digital reception where you cannot
now get usable analog.
John Willkie
-----Original Message-----
From: opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Gregory J. Ward
Sent: Friday, November 17, 2006 1:55 PM
To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [opendtv] Re: Democrats Air Concerns About Analog Switchover
John Shutt wrote me a very nice explanation and background to
introduce me to the issues I didn't know about, such as the
auctioning of bandwidth to raise money for the gov't.
I've heard that digital HD broadcasts as they're currently deployed
have lots of trouble with multipath, and in fact look worse than
standard resolution analog broadcasts. I'm all in favor of broadcast
if the results are nice. What I'm not keen on is buying a converter
to get lousy reception when what I had was fine before.
-Greg
> From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Date: November 17, 2006 1:40:06 PM PST
>
> Gregory J. Ward wrote:
>
>> I'm new to this discussion, but why do we even need digital
>> broadcasts? What's wrong with requiring people who want HD
>> to get cable?
>
> "Let them eat cake."
>
> The real question is, why do we need cable to distribute broadband
> one-to-all communications, when this is more efficiently done without
> any cables?
>
> Bert
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