Seamless splicer requires 12-15Mb/s (12 normal, 15 sports). More and more stations are going back to baseband out of the splicer and re-encoding or ASI out and rate shaping. There are more and more ways to get bits back into the control of the local Broadcaster. (Harmonic has a need function (in their Prostream 8000 product) we are just getting ready to try at a FOX affiliate...)
CBS strongly URGES the full bandwidth, but more and more folks are multicasting (stealing bits). With latest gen MPEG2 HD encoders, todays 15Mb/s 1080i looks better than 18Mb/s of just 2 years ago...
Remember...this is MASS MEDIA. If 85% of viewers have ~42" or less diagonal viewing, they will not see a change. For the 15% of the 15% watching OTA HD, it still looks impressive.
This is the subjective view of some...still plugging along! Mark On 3/10/2010 2:39 PM, Dale Kelly wrote:
Plus, with DTV, "affiliate" only means that one of the sub channels carries the content of one of the major TV networks. That's all it means. The other sub channels are at the discretion of the station group. Isn't this so?Not always. As I recall:The Fox affiliation contract cedes them control of the entire 19 Mb stream. Perhaps this has changed in the last two years but I doubt it.CBS, due to their concerns about the poor performance of 1080i, restricted what affiliates could do in that area. Given receiver improvements over the years that may no longer be the case, or at least it shouldn't be.Perhaps someone still active in broadcasting can provide current status of network policies.Dale----- Original Message ----- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 2010 8:57 AM Subject: [opendtv] Re: Wha' Happened to the FCC?Craig Birkmaier wrote:That's obvious, Craig. The same way a supermarket can undercut a mom and pop store. It's called buying power. "Local broadcaster" may be nothing more than a local RF outlet of an OTA network.So how would you do this? Let the congloms own all of their affiliates and let existing broadcasters create new national networks?That was one option, but the congloms opted out of that for the most part. The congloms want to be in the content business and buy room on any distribution network out there. It seems. So the "affiliates" are for the most part owned by station groups, are they not? They aren't local yokel operations.Plus, with DTV, "affiliate" only means that one of the subchannels carries the content of one of the major TV networks. That's all it means. The other subchannels are at the discretion of the station group. Isn't this so?And these new networks would have buying power to compete with 6 companies that own (and produce) 90% of everything we watch?Do you think that's what cable and DBS systems do? Do they compete against the congloms? Of course not. The congloms use their services. So why should OTA station groups compete against the congloms? The congloms don't want to own these OTA networks, so there's nothing to compete about.The distribution networks pay for the content, and you have said that these days OTA broadcasters also pay the networks for content. Right? So why can't these station groups, which could (with a rule change) have the same national footprint as DBS and cable systems, do exactly what the MVPDs do? Only on a smaller scale, due to their limited bandwidth?Presumably, if you're an OTA broadcaster, you want to stay in business. Presumably, you don't instinctively cave in to some ludicrous "offer" by the FCC to pick up a lumped sum of money and run. If my presumption that people want to remain in business for the long haul is correct, then OTA broadcasters simply reinvent themselves into just another distribution medium.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.---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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.
-- Regards, Mark A. Aitken Director, Advanced Technology Sinclair Broadcast Group =================================== (410) 568-1535 OFFICE (443) 677-4425 MOBILE =================================== "Let us have faith that right makes might, and that in faith, let us,to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it."
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