John, My understanding is, the MHEG decision was pure economics and very likely a poor choice in the long run. The other methods apparently required too much sophistication in the STB which would ramp the price up. I do not know about the upgradeability. DTT does not commence until around March next year so still time to do some tweeking. Freeview DVB-S STBs here are aimed at the bottom rung of the market at the cheapest possible price - but actually still rather expensive initially for what you get. I'm expecting things to improve next year when there will be more competitive choice of STBs available. Regards Barry On 6/28/07, johnwillkie <johnwillkie@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Barry; I guess you missed the point. First, I concede higher visual quality with PAL, although I'm not prepared to concede that AM audio is better than FM audio, and ISTR that PA always had AM audio and FM video, and NTSC vice-versa. Nor was I speaking of "future legacy" issues. The question is, where were such real-world RECEPTION (not presentation) test relevant? The pre-requisite would be availability of Over the Air NTSC and PAL signals at a single point. Otherwise, relevant tests would be "which PAL sets work best in this national (or regional) RF environment? "Which NTSC set works best in that national (or regional) RF environment? John Willkie P.S., So, NZ will be the "big" MHEG market? It's a shame that they didn't see the trends, including DVB GEM/ATSC ACAP/SCTE OCAP interoperability. Hopefully, they have the ability to remotely upgrade if and when … ------------------------------ *De:* opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] *En nombre de *Barry Wilkins *Enviado el:* Saturday, June 23, 2007 1:41 AM *Para:* opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx *Asunto:* [opendtv] Re: Demand for free DTV rising in Australia John, Historically, of course it was relevant. Especially to those who chose PAL and I am sure that for a long time the superior colour fidelity of PAL meant that it was the right decision for those in the convenient position to take it (like NZ). The choice, I am sure, was made purely on the basis of technical superiority, not politics or undue influence. Historically, the US ATSC 8-VSB rather than COFDM choice will be for all time of great technical significance. Why? Because it is one of the few recent occasions in the development of electronic engineering that I can recall that a decision was made to knowingly employ a technically inferior technique when it was known that the benefits of the alternative choice were overwhelming. Of course, for the US public, what you never knew cannot hurt you, so it is not and probably will not be relevant to them. But this forum is not populated by the general public. I would be surprised if most engineers do not have an abhorrence of political or undue commercial influence in the development of the art. Regards Barry Wilkins On 6/23/07, *johnwillkie* <johnwillkie@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: How relevant to anyone is the relative performance of PAL receivers versus NTSC? This is not to say that receivers shouldn't be better in the areas of sensitivity ad selectivity and rejecting interference … John Willkie ------------------------------ *De:* opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto: opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] *En nombre de *Barry Wilkins *Enviado el:* Thursday, June 21, 2007 6:17 PM *Para:* opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx *Asunto:* [opendtv] Re: Demand for free DTV rising in Australia Purely from an academic point of view, I would have thought all you engineering types would always be keen to do up to date comparison testing of what has historically been 2 distinctly different modulation techniques. How do you actually know where ATSC is compared to the latest DVB-T receiver performance if it has not been tested recently. There could be quite a gap or none at all. It would be a sad thing if we just "assumed" that the theoretical or stated receiver specs implied actual performance in the field. As I recall, original assumptions about a theoretical 3dB advantage to ATSC evaporated in real testing -then. Where are we now? regards Barry