[opendtv] Re: Disney Suspends Video-On-Demand Trial

  • From: "John Shutt" <shuttj@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2005 16:11:19 -0400

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
>
> The blurb didn't explain what the upgrades, other than to
> say HD content. I was looking for something like "using
> ATSC for transport," or some such. Surely, they can't be
> still thinking NTSC?

Disney's pilot MovieBeam setups used the Dotcast data delivery system, which 
puts digital data on top of NTSC analog signals.

Disney's business model was to install a Dotcast modulator at every PBS 
affiliate.  We had a couple of surveys to determine what equipment they 
would need to provide for our particular transmitter.

Disney must have finally found out that A) their service was way overpriced 
for the number of movies they could deliver (espeically when compared to a 
DVD service like NetFlix), and B) maybe Congress and the FCC were serious 
after all about eventually shutting down NTSC.

> Speaking of ATSC, Randy Tomlinson reviewed the Winegard
> Square Shooter antenna in the current version of The
> Perfect Vision and claimed it was quite good. He said it
> couldn't match conventional antennas for analog reception.
> Analog signal had lots of snow, he says. Yet it was
> remarkably good for DTT, picking up signals from 40 miles
> away in difficult hilly terrain.

I opened up a Square Shooter last year, and it is basically a printed 
circuit antenna.  It's only forte is an extremely high front to back ratio 
similar to a Silver Sensor, which of course minimizes the amount of 
multipath an ATSC receiver has to deal with.  As the multipath load is 
reduced, the lower the S/N required to demod ATSC.

http://www.winegard.com/offair/s2shooter/WC-811.pdf

John


 
 
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