John Shutt wrote:
Bert, Occam's razor. Australia has a ton of boxes. They're a
DVB country. Italy has tons of boxes. They're a DVB country.
The UK has tons of boxes, too. They are a DVB country. The
United States has very few boxes. They are an ATSC country.
John, let's see. In the UK, people drive on the left. In Japan, people
drive on the left. In Malaysia, people drive on the left. It must be
that in all countries with 50 Hz mains people drive on the left.
I suppose that if you keep telling yourself that the LG 5th gen
prototype was "cold fusion," you can continue to believe this fairy
tale. For the rest of us, me anyway, this excuse of yours sounds just
like that: an excuse. If broadcasters believe it, failure is sure to
follow. The proverbial self-fulfilling prophecy.
Much more plausible, instead, and staying away from silly conspiracy
theories (even if there is some truth to them), is that in those
European countries that have successful DTT, broadcasters have put
together an attractive DTT package without being browbeaten into
submission by the cable companies. Somehow, they managed to offer a
meaningfully different service compared with the analog. And somehow,
the cable and DBS businesses haven't prevented them.
CE manufacturers see this and respond accordingly.
Over here, thanks to said intimidation, the broadcasters offer over DTT
not much more than what they offer as NTSC. And CE manufacturers see
that too. If there is a difference, it is that DTT offers HD. So if
you're going to buy an HDTV set, you get the built-in ATSC (no STB
needed), and the retailer will lure you into an umbillical service to
boot.
That sounds a lot more plausible than your story. And DTT languishes.
Remember how sure everyone was that integrated ATSC sets would cost
"hundreds" more than monitors? They don't, at least not in the sets that
have to comply with the mandate. Follow the price curve as you go from
small monitor LCDs to large integrated sets and tell me where this big
price spike caused by the ATSC receivers is visible. I wouldn't continue
to insist on old theories that don't hold up.
Bert
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