[opendtv] Re: DTT tuner design (was Re: Demand for free DTV rising in Australia)
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 6 Jul 2007 09:24:33 -0400
At 12:15 PM -0700 7/3/07, Frank Eory wrote:
If there's anything we need to "get over," it is the notion that OTA
DTV reception will ever be ubiquitous and robust for all American TV
viewers. The best receivers that the mind can conceive will not
solve the problem of the digital cliff and the fact that many TV
viewing environments, locations & antenna systems are on the wrong
side of the cliff. A different modulation system might have reduced
the magnitude of the problem and the number of disenfranchised
viewers -- by trading rural for urban viewers, for example -- but
would not have solved the problems to everyone's satisfaction.
It's time to "get over" the notion that DTV reception is strongly
correlated with NTSC reception. In some cases it is, in other cases
it's not -- because it depends on so many more variables than just
receiver performance. We've been over this so many times. The holy
grail of ubiquitous DTV reception requires a different broadcasting
infrastructure than the one we've got -- independent of modulation.
Here here!
It is very interesting to note what is happening in the real world
OUTSIDE of broadcast television.
The only "Big Sticks" you will find are called satellites.
Down here on Earth, transmission infrastructures are adapting to real
world requirements and the scarcity of spectrum. The only real change
in my lifetime is that the technology has evolved, making it possible
to open up chunks of higher frequency spectrum for some new
applications like cell phones.
But this was not the best solution, just the only politically viable
solution. Unfortunately, U.S. politicians and regulators have been
in the business of protecting the franchises they created in the 20th
century, not the proper allocation of a scarce resource in a manner
that will provide the maximum benefit to the population.
At some point in the future this will change, in part because of
technology and in part because the existing franchisees will be
devalued to the point that they can no longer justify tying up some
of the best spectrum resources for a service that is virtually unused.
When this happens a new transmission infrastructure will emerge that
will use the spectrum far more efficiently to provide services that
people really want. And that infrastructure will be widely
distributed, not a bunch of big sticks that waste spectrum. And the
modulation will be determined by technical not political merit.
Regards
Craig
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