[opendtv] Re: White paper from CEA
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 1 Nov 2005 08:04:40 -0400
At 12:39 PM -0500 10/31/05, Manfredi, Albert E wrote:
>I won't dispute that back in 2001, when the decision
>on RF standards was up in the air, everything came to
>a halt. But that's a long time ago. And as we have
>discussed here, the NAB at the time did not go for a
>known quantity, COFDM, but preferred to wait on the
>unknown, i.e. the improvement of 8-VSB. And the FCC
>went along with the NAB.
Nothing came to a halt Bert. The FCC did not relax ANY of the
deadlines for stations to get ATSC on the air. The only thing they
relaxed was the rules related to operating at minimum power levels
during the transition, a demand from broadcasters to help them keep
the power bills down in the early years.
If ANYTHING, the NAB and the broadcasters were tickled pink with the
battle over COFDM. They were already doing NOTHING to promote the
transition, and this gave them some breating room to keep doing
nothing.
>So here we had indications that a properly
>functioning suppressed carrier scheme could be
>designed, with the advantages in spectrum efficiency
>and power that have been well known to radio
>engineers since the 1920s, and certainly by the
>1930s.
You still don;t get it Bert. There ARE NO ADVANTAGES in spectral
efficiency and power levels with ATSC...
Only huge disadvantages.
ATSC continues the tradition of poor spectral management that was,
unfortunately, necessary when analog TV was commercialized in the
'40s and '50s. The whole point of this transition is that we now have
the technology to use the spectrum more efficiently, and to develop a
digital transmission infrastructure that would be vastly more useful
to the American public than the NTSC infrastructure it is to replace.
Instead we have an infrastructure that does not even replicate what
was possible with NTSC, and it continues the misguided practice of
using high-powered big sticks, which are the ultimate offenders of
spectral efficiency.
Sorry Bert, but you cannot win this argument. Big sticks are just a
technique to tie up vast amounts of spectrum. Whether they work or
not does not matter, as the real distribution networks for TV content
today are cable and DBS.
>I'd say by then at least, the broadcasters should
>have had enough rekindled interest to occasionally
>mention their DTT streams? Other than the HDTV banner
>at the beginning of prime time shows, I see nothing
>about the transition, from broadcasters. Nada.
Surprise, surprise.
And you will continue to see nothing.
>
>Two days ago, I happened to be browsing around a
>Target store before the movie started. I looked at
>the TV section. No mention of ATSC. I looked at the
>DVDRs for sale. Only NTSC tuners built in. This is
>crazy. The DTT transition is still a best kept
>secret.
It's not a secret Bert. It is just being ignored, because it is the
equivalent of selling a 1965 Ford Falcon versus a 2006 Honda Civic.
The DTT transition takes what was a sub-optimal TV broadcast system -
NTSC - and makes things worse.
>
>The market demand for DTT is supposed to be created
>by the broadcasters. I would expect the retailers to
>*respond* to this market demand, not to create the
>demand on behalf of broadcasters. Broadcasters should
>go in assuming that retailers are clueless.
This is one of the accurate statements I have seen from you Bert.
But the retailers are far from being clueless. They fully understand
the opportunity to sell people up to services that compete with OTA
broadcasts, and they are often provided with financial incentives to
do so.
Put yourself into the shoes of a car salesman.Would you rather be
selling that '65 Ford Falcon or a 2006 Civic?
Regards
Craig
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