[opendtv] Re: Mobile DTV test
- From: Bob Miller <bob@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 17 Apr 2004 21:56:39 -0400
Ahh you want history.
First the first.
8-VSB was first transmitted over the air with digital data on July 23rd
1996 and was received using a spectrum analyzer since there were only
two decoders in existence at the time. One of those was used on July
30th to receive an image.
DVB-T's first over the air transmission was in the UK in April 1995
over a year earlier. OFDM and later COFDM had been around since the mid
sixties but in the late eighties it was being proposed for digital TV in
Europe. Professor William Schrieber of MIT, who was involved with the
whole DTV process in the US, introduced COFDM to the FCC in the early
nineties. The FCC first stated that the premise of COFDM was impossible
but later sent someone to look at it who reported back that the US was
way ahead of Europe.
BTW I was told by a senior FCC engineer after the 2000 hearings where I
suggested that COFDM worked well in the canyons of Manhattan that what I
witnessed was impossible. He declined to witness a demonstration however.
In frustration Schieber orchestrated a seminar on COFDM and invited
principles from all the labs working on COFDM to MIT to present their
work to the FCC, and all those working on the DTV transition in the US
in October of 1992. NO one showed up.
The US process was already a closed loop of "if its not invented here
forget it" insiders as of October 1992. This would frustrate Schieber
later when the excuse that there were no 6 MHZ COFDM receivers off the
shelf to say that if the FCC or anyone had listened earlier there was no
problem getting 6 MHz models. You just need to engineer the tuners. The
fact that the US had tuned out any info on COFDM for years is a real
lame excuse after the fact. And in fact there were 6 MHz COFDM receivers.
The fact is that the US glommed onto 8-VSB early and never looked
anywhere else.
In 1995 as the FCC was making the decision for 8-VSB the computer
industry belatedly suggested that to lock into what would soon be
outmoded technology was a mistake. I think it was here that the hurry up
was in full force. The group that was about to fix our modulation for an
indefinite period saw the handwriting on the wall. If they didn't fix it
very specifically and quickly they all stood to lose a lot as things
like COFDM and progressive complicated things. For example the same
month that the FCC adopted the final rule making for 8-VSB, July 1996,
the first progressive 720p camera was introduced.
Reed Hundt was one of the only ones pleading for caution suggesting that
no standard be set since this would lock us in just as the various
technologies were destined to explode. One result of this argument was
the bi-annual review of the standard.
If early on in say 1995 the US had been open minded or had just paused
for a second and said is there anything else COFDM receivers and
technology would have been available for testing against the best we had.
The biggest problem with the US transition was that everyone involved
was in a big hurry to sell a lot of HDTV sets, transmitters and
receivers in the near term.
Harris which strongly supported 8-VSB ran into the broadcaster inspired
FCC low power initiative. LG ran into the brick wall of consumer and
retailer rejection of the OTA receiver and I believe suffered in the
sale of HDTV sets also. How many HDTV sets where sold to watch DVDs? How
many were sold because of OTA broadcasting of HDTV?
In the short term which has become the long term, Harris didn't sell as
many full power transmitters as they would have liked and LG surely
didn't' sell as many 8-VSB receivers or HDTV sets as they would have
liked. 8-VSB backfired on the whole transition. Now the CEA doesn't even
want to support mandatory 8-VSB receivers because they perceive the
opposite now, 8-VSB receivers in HDTV sets will actually IMPEDE sales.
That is the most ironic part of the transition. The CEA that first
adamantly and ignorantly fought for 8-VSB because they perceived that it
would mean strong sales and now they believe the opposite.
If COFDM had been taken seriously back in 1995 on or even if it had been
allowed in 2000 or January 2001 we would be a lot farther along in the
DTV transition in the US and much farther along with HDTV in the US and
worldwide. A market for HDTV COFDM receivers in the US in 2001 would
have propelled the entire world toward HDTV in all its aspects, low
priced plug and play receivers, content and just overall confidence in
the whole process.
COFDM and 8-VSB were neck and neck though the development process up
till 1999. 8-VSB was never way ahead and was more likely behind and was
not addressing one of the main RF problems, multipath, which was the
main focus of DVB-T. At ANY point in that time frame an investigation of
COFDM would have been a good thing for the US to do.
John may be remembering the canard that there were no COFDM receivers
with 6 MHz tuners in late 2000 for testing when he says "What about the
fact that there was no
COFDM equipment available when they were testing this component of the
standard?". That was BS. I had three different receivers with 6 MHz tuners then
and Pace said that they would make up receivers ASAP at the hearings in the
summer of 2000. The no receivers was one of many canards that the 8-VSB
proponents were throwing around.
When I say no DVB Group support from Europe I mean that many of their
members are CEA members also and they were under great pressure to stay
out of the US argument which they did.
So where is the manipulation? Do you have a different version?
Bob Miller
John Golitsis wrote:
>I love the way you manipulate history! What about the fact that there was no
>COFDM equipment available when they were testing this component of the
>standard?
>
>Was DVB-T even in the works when the decision on modulation was made in the
>US??
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Bob Miller" <bob@xxxxxxxxxx>
>
>
>>It was because there were no royalty bucks for ATSC if they adopted
>>COFDM. Sorry.
>>
>>...and the lack of support from the DVB-T side.
>>
>>
>
>
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways:
>
>- Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at
>FreeLists.org
>
>- By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word
>unsubscribe in the subject line.
>
>
>
>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways:
- Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at
FreeLists.org
- By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word
unsubscribe in the subject line.
Other related posts:
