I had to top the outrageousness in your post, didn't I? HDTV wasn't
mandatory in 1996, nor 2006. I watched about 50 hours of floor and
committee hearings in the mid-1990's and I never heard a single person
suggest that HDTV be mandatory. Indeed, more than a few politicos
suggested that HDTV should be forbidden because HDTV sets would be too
expensive. Some of those same politicos are now 'concerned' about how
the DTV transition will affect seniors.
So, there has NEVER been even a HINT officially that HDTV be made
mandatory. (There were mid-stage discussions in that direction among
FCC staff, but they went nowhere.)
Do you see the outrageousness of your caution?
You are, in large measure, warning them about something that a) will
not affect them and 2) which they will not care a whit about even if
they did know about it. Now, you and I might care about pixel count
and color depth, but most people just want to watch TV, and the only
situation where I can imagine that going digital will result in
lower-quality video from analog, except when the new set is smaller
than the old, and even then, it's only "possible."
What you are doing is not unlike, when a friend shows you his new car,
you respond with "why did you buy that? You could get into a crash!"
There's a simple reason for people to buy 16x9 tv sets. TV is going
to that format, and if you buy a new wide-screen digital set, your
picture will be taller because you won't see the black bars at the top
and bottom of all those popular prime-time dramatic programs. I
believe I mentioned in hereabouts first in early 2000
What's your nit to pick with that? Should I have said "effective
picture will be taller?"
John Willkie
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*De:* opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] *En nombre de *Cliff Benham
*Enviado el:* Wednesday, September 26, 2007 7:39 PM
*Para:* opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
*Asunto:* [opendtv] Re: Incentives for buying integrated DTVs
johnwillkie wrote:
So, somehow it's news to you that there is no HDTV requirement, Cliff?
No, I have known about it for a very long time. As I stated at the
bottom of what I wrote, this was a note originally posted on
Audiokarma in May, 2006, for consumers who may not have been aware.
Could you provide a link to a government document published in the
last 12 years that even suggested that it might be desirable to
mandate HDTV broadcasts?
Can you?.
Come to think of it, I don't see how, under the U.S. constitution you
can force broadcasters to do anything. You can grant them a license,
but you can't force them to use it. Heck, even paying income taxes is
putatively voluntary.
Do you think that failure to broadcast HDTV 24/7 should be punishable
by death? Or, is this one of those circumstances where even Allan
Dershowitz would approve of torture?
You are outrageous.
John Willkie
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*De:* opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
[mailto:opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] *En nombre de *Cliff Benham
*Enviado el:* Wednesday, September 26, 2007 12:33 PM
*Para**:* opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
*Asunto:* [opendtv] Re: Incentives for buying integrated DTVs
John Shutt wrote:
The US is doing it with $40 STB coupons, presumably from 'money'
received selling off the spectrum.
Pity that the US is so narrow minded that they only allow the subsidy
to be used for a government approved STB, not to offset the added cost
of an ATSC tuner in an integrated set.
John
Exactly.
The only set top boxes covered by these coupons decode ATSC but just
down convert it to NTSC and output analog stereo sound, composite and
S-Video only. *No Y, R-Y, B-Y, no 480p, 720p or 1080i, and no 5.1 Ch,
SPDIF or TOSLINK.* The specs are here:
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/otiahome/dtv...ufacturers.pdf
<http://www.ntia.doc.gov/otiahome/dtv/DTVmanufacturers.pdf>
I have yet to see any of these 'coupon offer' set top boxes for sale
/anywhere/, and from what I have read none are being manufactured yet.
They seem to be vaporware at this point.
Also, there is NO legal requirement for any broadcaster to transmit
HDTV signals. The only broadcast required by law is a digital version
of the same standard definition signal that the broadcaster is
currently sending out in analog NTSC.
Further, the cable and satellite companies do not want the general
public to know about free over the air digital broadcasting because it
cuts into their income. Some cable companies have even threatened
broadcasters with pulling their ads from the station if they promote
their free OTA channel number in their broadcasts.
Do any stations anywhere promote their digital TV channels? Not in the
Philly area. Most people have no idea what's coming in 2009.
I am saddened by the current state of affairs in broadcasting.
~From my post to Audiokarma, May 2006, and still true today so far as
I know.
