[opendtv] Re: 20060807 Mark's Monday Memo
- From: Tom Barry <trbarry@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 08 Aug 2006 15:02:22 -0400
Manfredi, Albert E wrote:
>> - Time Warner Cable of Raleigh reportedly refused
>>to supply a CableCARD for a TiVo PVR, saying they will
>>supply them only for TV sets. This story is from
>>Gizmodo.com, but I've seen it elsewhere, too:
>><http://tinyurl.com/ls69l>
>
>
> At least they are honest. "We will rape you because we know you are
> addicted to the point that you will let us," is how I read this. The sad
> part is, they are correct in their assessment.
>
> CableCard-enabled DVDRs/PVRs and TV sets, much like the upgraded cable
> plants that go up into the UHF range, are great for OTA users. Because
> they create a demand for cable gizmos that are also compatible with OTA
> TV. E.g., before cable expanded its spectrum, availability of wide band
> antenna amps or distribution amps was starting to become a problem. For
> cable, these devices only needed to go up to 450 MHz or so, back then.
> Now they universally go to 900 MHz, which works out great for OTA TV.
> Looks like some cable systems are trying to create a similar shortage of
> standard recording devices.
Does this mean the final nail in the cable card(1) coffin. Or the
beginning of a bunch of new TV's with builtin cable card Tivo? Or some
FCC sabre rattling?
- Tom
>> - DTT reception in my apartment - Today, we tried the
>>DVico FusionHDTV 5 USB Gold. It reportedly uses the
>>5th-generation LG demodulator but doesn't appear to use
>>the same RF front end as the 5th-generation LG box that
>>conquered set-top reception here.
>> We got good reception on many channels with various
>>set-top antennas and got more with a Silver Sensor at the
>>window, but, so far, the LG box is still the only one to
>>be able to receive ALL DTT transmissions reliably with a
>>set-top antenna here.
>
>
> My bet continues to be that LG figured out that in Manhattan they would
> need, in addition to a good equalizer, two ingredients in the tuner that
> no one was selling:
>
> 1. Either a dual-conversion IF or a tuner that actively suppresses IM
> images, and
>
> 2. A tuned RF amp up front.
>
> Since there is plenty of signal strength available where you are, as
> past tests showed, the Silver Sensor is probably helping by improving
> the selectivity of the receiver system, compensating for the
> less-than-ideal tuner. (Assuming here that the Silver Sensor needs
> aiming.)
>
>
>> - Time Warner Cable of Raleigh reportedly refused
>>to supply a CableCARD for a TiVo PVR, saying they will
>>supply them only for TV sets. This story is from
>>Gizmodo.com, but I've seen it elsewhere, too:
>><http://tinyurl.com/ls69l>
>
>
> At least they are honest. "We will rape you because we know you are
> addicted to the point that you will let us," is how I read this. The sad
> part is, they are correct in their assessment.
>
> CableCard-enabled DVDRs/PVRs and TV sets, much like the upgraded cable
> plants that go up into the UHF range, are great for OTA users. Because
> they create a demand for cable gizmos that are also compatible with OTA
> TV. E.g., before cable expanded its spectrum, availability of wide band
> antenna amps or distribution amps was starting to become a problem. For
> cable, these devices only needed to go up to 450 MHz or so, back then.
> Now they universally go to 900 MHz, which works out great for OTA TV.
> Looks like some cable systems are trying to create a similar shortage of
> standard recording devices.
>
>
>> It says that, of 109.6 M TV households, only 15
>>million "homes continue to receive TV over-the-air":
>><http://www.ce.org/Press/CEA_Pubs/1989.asp>
>
>
> Not much news here. The FCC figures claim 94.2M out of 109.6M households
> "subscribed to some form of multi-channel video service," which
> translates to 85.9 percent. As always, this does not include the
> households which use OTA for secondary sets, nor does it include the
> households which combine OTA and, typically, DBS. Which, around here
> anyway, appears to be quite common.
>
>
>> They list 27.7 million U.S. DBS households:
>><http://www.ce.org/Press/CEA_Pubs/2011.asp>
>
>
> Which is still at about 25 percent of households, leaving about 60
> percent to cable. These numbers seem to have stabilized in the past
> several years.
>
>
>>Best Buy's $199.99 price for the Insignia NS-27RTV 27-inch
>>DTV is the lowest price I've seen for a set with integrated
>>DTT reception circuitry, and over the course of the many
>>ads, Circuit City actually ended up charging less for the
>>integrated Panasonic TC26LX60 than for the non-integrated
>>TC26LX50.
>
>
> I told you so, I told you so. Many years ago.
>
> Bert
>
>
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