[opendtv] Re: Dueling Statutes?

At 4:45 PM -0400 3/28/08, Manfredi, Albert E wrote:

Lost in this thread is the fact that Microtune had not a single word to
say about any "dueling statutes," or anything about NTSC bypass at all.
Microtune was complaining about the fact that some of these coupon boxes
do not pass the NTIA performance requirements over the entire TV band.

The paragraph I quoted above is where the article jumps the tracks and
goes off on another tangent.

Here is the Microtune letter to the NTIA:

http://www.microtune.com/news/2008Articles/MTLetter.pdf

Bert
Microtune is in a very precarious position in all of this. They COULD say many things about these boxes...
For example, they could point out that the boxes that use their tuners COULD HAVE provided fully integrated analog reception at NO ADDITIONAL component cost. The only cost would have been the NRE to add the ability to use the analog tuner that is being bypassed in the boxes that use the Microtune chip.
The NTIA comments that John posted prove that the CBA and other organizations DID NOT drop the ball. The NTIA dropped the ball, in large part because they were not qualified to handle the assigned task. They approached this task as a bureaucracy would, not as a manufacturer would in trying to develop a product to meet the market requirements.
As for John's comments about "first generation products," this is not even true. DTV STBs have been available for years. We have had numerous threads discussing the performance of these boxes as each new generation is offered to the marketplace. And the guts of these boxes have been integrated into DTV receivers for several years. The lowest cost approach would have been to allow manufacturers to take the NRE from existing products and transport it to the boxes for this program. Instead, the NTIA wrongly assumed that ANY feature not absolutely required would make these boxes more expensive - just the opposite is actually true - it took additional resources to develop these crippled boxes...
And by the way John - my first generation iPhone is a remarkable product, as was my original Mac in 1984. That first generation Mac, as was the case for the first generation 8086 PC, was underpowered and lacked the resources to do most of the things we expect of a PC today. What made that underpowered Mac remarkable was the path that it defined toward the GUI that we all use today. On the other hand, the iPhone takes all that we have learned about computing and blends that with breakthrough technologies that make it possible to use a tiny handheld device for applications that are relevant to the needs of consumers.
Yes John, it IS possible to build highly functional first generation CE products. 

Regards
Craig



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