[opendtv] Re: As analog shutdown nears, antenna reality emerges

  • From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Fri, 13 Jun 2008 14:39:08 -0400

At 1:36 PM -0700 6/10/08, dan.grimes@xxxxxxxx wrote:

Depends on how you define a "red herring."
See: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignoratio_elenchi>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignoratio_elenchi
By that definition, perhaps it is the argument itself that is the "red herring"!
But certainly within the populations centers (i.e., cities) the common antenna in use is, in fact, an indoor antenna. One cannot deny that there will be strong issues with the perception of receptibility based on the indoor antenna! 

I am reminded of several things here.
1. The unbelievably poor video quality I have witnessed people watching in their homes on sets with rabbit ears. Snow, ghosts, various forms of electrical interference...
2. The studies done by HBO on encryption. They found that people would "watch" a movie with sync bars or other impairments in the pictures if there was good audio. They also found that if you take away the audio people would not watch video with a good picture. Note that analog TV uses FM audio that generally works, even when the picture is lousy.
3. For those who endure some level of picture impairment with analog today, many will not have enough signal to receive DTV broadcasts reliably.
4. A demonstration at the FCC (~93-94) during the ACATS process with a mock living room and a TV that showed how much better ATSC would look than NTSC. The NTSC pictures were VERY snowy and had multiple ghosts. Makes one wonder what they knew then... 

Regards
Craig


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