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 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways: - Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org - By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line.