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Sounds similar to the idea of a food manufacturer developing a new line
of "haute cuisine" targeted at consumers who pay with food stamps. On second thought, SD-only video and stereo-only audio with no recorder isn't exactly the DTV version of "haute cuisine," now is it? Good luck with that business model. I look forward to seeing how this pans out in the marketplace. Can you say "government cheese?" -- Frank Bert wrote: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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.I take it back. The specs for the STBs are available. In short, this is more or less an SDTV STB, A/74 compliant, with outputs NTSC, composite video, and up to S-video, and stereo audio, no recording capability, and no HDTV outputs. http://www.ntia.doc.gov/otiahome/dtv/DTVmanufacturers.pdf Channels 2-69, -5 to -83 dBm dynamic range, PSIP processing, NTSC output on Ch3 or Ch4, composite output, stereo audio outputs, remote control, closed captioning, and generally follows A/74 for the front end, with some exceptions like max input signal level. In general, it looks like they used the LG 5th gen as a gold standard for echo tolerance and noise burst tolerance. Echo tolerance -50 to +50 usec, but reduced to -20 to +20 usec for loud echoes (greater than -6 dB compared with dominant signal). Must successfully receive 30 of the 50 Washington and NYC field ensembles in A/74. Must not glitch in presence of 165 usec loud bursts (-5 dBm) when signal is moderate (-28 dBm). Idle power draw 2W. Automatically goes from "on" to "sleep" state in x hours, default setting 4 hours. No requirement for "on" power specified. No recording capability allowed. Smart antenna input okay. Signal quality level indocator okay. NTSC antenna signal pass-through okay. Smart antenna bundled with STB not allowed. S-video output okay, but no HDTV outputs or digital video outputs allowed. Software updates via A/97 allowed. Not a bad deal. Seems like a decent SDTV STB that should work as well as the better integrated receivers today. I would expect that the SD-only feature would keep most would-be cheaters away. Bert |
