[opendtv] Re: 050615 Wolfsson's Wednesday Words (Mark's Monday Memo)
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 18 Jun 2005 10:11:17 -0400
At 4:57 PM -0400 6/17/05, Manfredi, Albert E wrote:
>First, let me quibble with "expensive." It was only
>months ago that folk were claiming built-in ATSC
>receivers would cost over $300. Months later, that
>supposed price is reduced to $100. By 1/1/2007, my
>prediction, from about 4 years ago, of $35 already
>appears way too high (given that stand-alone STBs
>will supposedly be close to $50 by then).
Show me even one ATSC receiver that is only $100 more than an
equivalent monitor/NTSC receiver. They don;t exist, or they are fire
sale units, or the manufacturer is taking a smaller margin on these
units. Go to a store Bert and check out the prices on HD products
with integrated receivers. You will find that the premium is
typically $300 or more.
You can keep trying to tell us that the premium is $100, but you
cannot support those arguments in the real world.
Show me an ATSC STB that costs only $100. Or even $200. yes you may
find a Hisense/USDTV receiver for $199 - they built a ton of these
things that they are now trying to unload in non-USDTV markets.
>
>Second, the agreement was that along with these ATSC
>tuners would also come the digital cable front end.
>So the cost of this built-in receiver would be offset
>by savings and convenience of being rid of the cable
>STB. In the future, even interactive features will be
>included, even if at first it's only one-way cable.
>That should cover a large segment of the buying
>public. And, of course, there's no one chasing the
>DBS guys away either. These non-ATSC parts are
>voluntary agreements. So the majority of TV buyers
>will benefit (unless you really like the extra box).
Including a cable ready tuner was a nice band-aid for the ATSC
problem. It did not cost much, but it is perceived as being much more
valuable than an ATSC tuner. This should tell you something Bert.
But there's are still problems Bert. The built in cable tuners don't
allow access to many cable services or a PVR, which is becoming a
very popular feature with digital cable subscribers. And they are
useless if you choose to subscribe to DBS instead of cable. And in a
few years, when cable and DBS have moved everyone to AVC compression
these built-in tuners will be almost as useless as the ATSC tuners
that the consumer never used.
>
>Third, "for the vast majority of us who will NEVER
>benefit from a deploying air bag, why do we have to
>spend hundreds of extra dollars on each car we buy?"
Because when you need one, the airbag works. Probably saved my wife's
life when a van blew a stop sign and hit her nearly head on.
>It's because (in the case of ATSC) we supposedly will
>benefit from having all the extra RF spectrum
>available for emergency services or other toys we all
>want.
That spectrum was to be returned five years ago Bert. What happened?
By now I would think that you would understand that what the
politicians say and what they want are not the same thing. Why go to
all the trouble to create the system, order the FCC to create rules,
then within three months, make those rules meaningless?
It's called special interests Bert. The DTV "transition" has never
been about building something. It has always been about protecting
something.
>Have you noticed how PC motherboards these days have
>Ethernet, modem, sound cards, etc., all built in? Not
>long ago, each of these cost upwards of $100.
Yes. that's because these features found popular acceptance in a free
marketplace.
You can't say that about ATSC tuners.
Regards
Craig
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