[opendtv] Re: Food for thought
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 16 Feb 2007 17:35:52 -0500
Dave Bittner wrote:
> In a way, though, with so many consumers viewing their content
> through some kind of set top box, be it cable or DBS, isn't the
> conduit for upgraded codecs already in place?
Of course. In the case of cable and DBS, what controls the urge to
upgrade incessantly is their own costs. They do obviously charge the
subscribers through their monthly fees, but they can't let those
increase even faster than they already are. So that limits the upgrade
frequency.
For OTA, consumers have to upgrade on their own, so this is somewhat
more problematic.
> The folks left out in the cold are the OTA viewers using
> built-in tuners, but they could buy a new tuner "box" if the
> codecs advanced significantly enough that broadcasters decided
> to switch, certainly for much less than the cost of a new TV.
I agree. I think all integrated sets have baseband inputs anyway, so
periodic upgrades via the STB route are the way to go.
But, you know, there are apparently a lot of cable customers who only
want analog basic cable because they do not want to use the STB provided
by cable company. So this STB aversion is not going to go away just
because someone has a nifty new codec. I think it will be an ongoing
problem. But I agree that the upgrade path does exist.
Bert
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