[opendtv] Re: Is TiVo the bully of DVR design? - patents

Frank Eory wrote:

Maybe I'll file a patent on using 8-VSB modulation and Hyper Light Speed
Antennas to allow 2-way HDTV broadcasting between intergalactic
civilizations, via the use of another dimension. Who knows, maybe they
have more interesting content to watch than we do. And even if their
copyright laws are as onerous as ours, they would have a much tougher
time enforcing them way back here on Earth.

The description in this patent is incredibly confused. It seems not to differentiate between plain old subspace channel communications, which effectively do exceed the speed of light, and attempting to use wormholes for longer distance RF comms. I assume they are referring to wormholes when they talk about "another dimension."

But integalactic comms are still beyond any of these now well-known techniques. You will recall, certainly, that the Starship Voyager, stranded as "closeby" as the Delta Quadrant of *this* galaxy, was beyond range of subspace communications. However, it finally did manage to transmit and receive a few short messages to Earth via wormholes that just happened to form, fortuitously. And those were very weak signals. Didn't seem to be any signal margin left for intergalactic use. Sorry.

So it looks like we're still beyond being able to watch intergalactic TV shows. But not to despair. In the past ten years we've discovered that there are plenty of other planets out there, in this galaxy, even within this quadrant, so there may be quite a few good TV shows to be had within subspace communication range.

Unless, that is, broadcasters become overly paranoid about preventing access across their TV market boundaries. Lucky for us, so far anyway, this hasn't been a big issue in OTA TV.

Bert

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