[opendtv] Re: News: Those licenses will soon be worthless...

  • From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "OpenDTV (E-mail)" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 22 Apr 2005 16:05:00 -0400

Tom Barry wrote:

> It is indeed very strange.  At the risk of the various
> jokes about my paranoia I will admit that it is very
> easy to postulate one or more entities that really
> really do not seem to want working ATSC receivers on
> the market.   But even given that I just can not
> imagine who would stand to gain that much from it that
> they (whoever) would pressure others to not make
> working receivers.

Sometimes I think maybe Craig was right all along. If
you look back far enough, back to the late 1990s, you
can "show" that it ain't ATSC per se that some dark
conspiracy opposes. It is DTT in general, in the US.

The evidence is "clear."

First, relentless opposition to COFDM, in those days
where good 8-VSB receivers hadn't yet even been
demonstrated in a lab.

In 2002, finally a promising new approach for 8-VSB, only
to have that delayed for years by that company being
sold. Maybe that sale should have been predictable, given
how open they were in describing their breakthrough
scheme. We should have seen Linx chip receivers by
mid-2003 latest. Now they're lost in limbo heavens knows
where.

In 2004, another inexplicable delay of another good
design, with mysterious bull sh*t excuses about the cost
of the HD outputs being too high. Even the rationale
sounded ludicrous.

This year, boxes which should have worked turn out to
be no better than 2nd gen boxes from 5 years ago.

Opposition of COFDM, for the royalties lost to patent
holders of 8-VSB, might have been a viable explanation
before 2002. But what on earth has the excuse been after
that?

Craig thinks broadcasters want to keep all their spectrum.
A marginal DTT + analog simulcast system is a good way to
do that. If the OTA broadcasters are really responsible,
congressional action to stick with the 12/31/2006 NTSC
cutoff date should put a stop to that conspiracy. Faced
with the imminent demise of analog, broadcasters would be
foolish to continue crippling their only remaining OTA
option.

Another possibility is of course the pay TV distributors,
now with telcos joining their ranks. They too would
oppose a good DTT system. Force everyone to use pay TV.

I tend not to believe the speculation that the
conglomerates prefer their stuff go on pay distribution
systems, because if they did, they wouldn't continue
putting good new prime time shows as FOTA programs. So it
seems unlikely that conglomerates are in cahoots with the
cable companies, even if they own some of them.

Hey, I have an idea. Let's keep that 12/31/2006 date and
see if suddenly good receivers bust through the logjam. If
they do, Craig's idea is right. It was broadcasters
wanting to keep all the TV spectrum. But if the logjam
persists, then the problem must have been the pay TV
services wanting to grab all TV viewers.

Bert
 
 
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