[opendtv] Re: News: Nielsen Gives Fuzzy Picture of HDTV Penetration
- From: "John Willkie" <johnwillkie@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 7 Nov 2007 13:22:05 -0800
"ALL" Us broadcasting was in color in 1966? This is an absurd statement,
unless you visited all US tv markets in 1966.
ABC News was offered in color in 1967 or 1968 for the first time. Peter
Jenning's first round as network news anchor in 1966 was in black and white
in most markets. (There was the little matter that outside of the NYC/DC
axis, there were only two color-capable paths in the AT&T cables that
transmitted all network programming.
There were many reports even at the network level that were offered in black
and white.
I can't speak of all US TV in 1966, but in 1967 the first San Diego TV
station offered local news in color, and not all the reports were offered in
color.
San Diego too parochial for you? In 1968, KTTV/11 aired many hours of
locally-produced programming in black and white, including the Joe Pyne
Show. The kids show they aired out of their Boston station was in color.
KHJ-TV started color in mid-1968, IIRC.
All prime-time network programming was in color in 1966.
Now, on to the next absurdity. I notice the vague term "high-fidelity" as
pertains to FM broadcasts.
" all broadcasting was high fidelity maybe even longer ago than that."
Actually, very little FM was in high fidelity until after the FCC dropped
the simulcast rule in 1972 or so. Maybe you think that am content carried
on FM magically became high fidelity? When the rule permitting simulcasting
fulltime was adopted (first limited to 12 hours per day), some FM
broadcasters decided to compete on quality. But most FMs at the time were
co-owned with AM stations, and all the content was AM-quality.
Perhaps you have bad ears, a bad memory, or make grandiose statements
regardless of the facts, or some combination of these items.
Then, you go back to TV, which is not your forte. It's kind of hard to
imagine how " virtually all TV audio was high fidelity" was high fidelity in
the time frame you provided. The first step was AT&T installing (at no
increase in cost) diplexers in TV stations that had true 15k response, but
the installation of that gear only enabled better than 5k response in the
circuits, not that the higher-quality signal was transmitted to homes.
(AT&T's action was a stop gap to try to halt erosion to satellite
broadcasts)
But, the absurdities don't end there. "virtually all TV audio was high
fidelity" by the mid-1980s. That's funny? How did they deliver that high
quality audio, when their exciters couldn't handle stereo until the FCC
permitted it in 1986, and the uptake only came about when gear was replaced
in due course.
I know: I talked to the vendors with the first high-quality audio encoders
(Broadcast Electronics). They didn't sell well because nobody just wanted
an outboard BTS encoder; each year the display was smaller and smaller,
until they didn't bring it to NAB 1990.
By 1992, most San Diego TV stations transmitted BTS audio. For many, it was
the first time they could transmit better than 5k audio. DC (where I lived
in the 1980's) didn't even have the MAJORITY of TV stations broadcasting in
BTS when I left on December 16, 1990.
I won't deal with your conclusions, since your hit rate is so low. I
suspect that the only thing you have ever been correct about on this list
(current, historical or future prediction) has been the LCD issue.
Trumpeting that singular feat, chump, is a sign of an inferiority complex.
John Willkie
-----Mensaje original-----
De: opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] En
nombre de Manfredi, Albert E
Enviado el: Wednesday, November 07, 2007 12:49 PM
Para: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Asunto: [opendtv] Re: News: Nielsen Gives Fuzzy Picture of HDTV Penetration
Craig Birkmaier wrote:
> So all broadcasting is tending to HDTV?
>
> WOuld you care to venture a guess as to when all broadcast
> programming will be delivered in a wide screen HD format?
>
> It took several decades for ALL BROADCASTERS to produce
> everything in color.
By 1966, in the US, all broadcasting was in color, except for the
occasional old movie. Similarly, on FM radio, all broadcasting was high
fidelity maybe even longer ago than that, except for the occasional old
recordings which you can hear even today.
By the mid to late 1970s, virtually all TV audio was high fidelity, even
what came out of the national networks. virtually all TV audio was high
fidelity
Doesn't mean that all TV sets could make use of color, hifi sound, or
stereo sound, but that's how virtually all stations were broadcasting
the majority of their shows. And over time, most TV sets could make use
of these advanced features.
That's the trend for DTV as well. Slowly, HD takes over more and more of
the shows that were once only SD. Even our local news, from WUSA-DT, is
wide screen and HD these days. Even if you think that news isn't
"worthy" of being HD.
It doesn't matter whether absolutely 100 percent of all material
broadcast will be HD. What the trend will be is that virtually all
stations and all program types will migrate to HD, simply because people
will notice the fuzzy images of SDTV increasingly, as they buy new sets,
and these people will start tuning out the SD shows.
Oh yeah, and the aspect ratios will trend to 16:9 as this happens. Not
some infinite variety of aspect ratios. For instance, 14:9 will be
phased out, as people buy up 16:9 TVs and quit buying 4:3 TVs, as they
have already done.
> Today, most, but not all, broadcast programming from the
> major networks is produced in HDTV. It is still predominantly
> a Prime Time phenomenon, along with a relatively high
> percentage of network sports broadcasts.
Remember just a couple of years ago, when I said that LCD TVs would take
over and CRT TVs would drop out? And how you insisted that most TVs sold
were still CRTs? It's the same thing on this subject. Trends, Craig.
Bert
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