[opendtv] Re: Incentives for buying integrated DTVs
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2007 17:35:32 -0400
Cliff Benham wrote:
> John Shutt wrote:
>>
>> 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.
>
> 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>
There is a certain logic that would allow Americans to spend their two
$40-per-set coupons on any DTV set they want. But then again, Europeans
are far more comfortable with this kind of mild Euro-socialism than
Americans are. (Although Finland had *no* govt handouts of any kind for
their just-completed transition.)
And also, consider this: would CE manufacturers have been quite as
aggressive in developing the new, low cost and good performance ATSC
chips, had the coupon offer NOT been tied to specific hardware? Probably
not. Or would the CE manufacturers instead have preferred to let these
coupons go toward a migration away from FTA TV, to new digital cable and
DBS gear?
I can just see it happening. OTA customers, wanting to buy "whatever it
takes" to be compatible after 2/17/2009, would be steered, coupon in
hand, directly to the DBS and cable counters. Do you doubt this? While
the same could in theory happen in Italy, I don't see any DVB-C
integrated sets for sale, and about 75 percent of households use OTA TV.
> 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 are supposed to appear on 1/2008. We'll see. By the way, Zoran has
recently announced this "green" chip specifically aimed at those
coupon-priced SDTV STBs:
http://www.zoran.com/Zoran-Demonstrates-ATSC-Set-Top
It's in the same family of their SupraHD processors combining demod and
decoder in one chip, but this one only outputs SDTV. The demod in this
family of chips was touted as the first to exceed all A/74 guidelines,
if you recall. Their reference design uses a Thomson tuner. I assume
that's the tuner the CRC used when they tested this chip, to report that
all A/74 hurdles were passed with flying colors.
But I concur with your other objections.
Bert
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