Bob Miller wrote:
You might be right about the Dutch DTT transition but
how would you know already?
Originally, as reported by Donald on here, the Dutch DTT system was
supposed to receivable indoors everywhere, with simple indoor antennas.
But when push came to shove, reality reared its ugly head, and that plan
got dropped.
I'm just saying that this vague talk about easy reception everywhere,
bandied about by marketers from way back in the '90s, is just marketing
hype. Any system IN PRINCIPLE can achieve that, but in practice it costs
a lot of money.
Radio has been able to achieve that, thanks to its much narrower
bandwidth and comparatively high power. But radio isn't magic either.
Which is why HD Radio, when in hybrid mode anyway, is no longer
receivable as easily as analog, with simple indoor antenna. The power
drop imposed on the digital part of the spectrum, 23 dB in hybrid mode,
is too much for easy reception.
The first indication of hype is when the perpetrator makes these utopian
predictions without clearly explaining the tradeoffs, i.e. the costs.
One-sided overly rosy descriptions are always a tipoff.
So this is the perfect test, almost, of your theory
of why the US OTA is dead. You claim it is because we
are heavily cabled for one thing.
Jeroen already explained the situation. The cost of decent DTT in the
Netherlands is HIGHER than the cost of DBS. To get beyond the 4 or 5
FOTA stations their DTT offers, you need to pay 10 Euro per month for
DTT, for a couple dozen programs, local and foreign. That 10 Euro covers
up to 3 TV sets.
Cable costs about 20 Euro, so maybe DTT will gain over cable. BUT, the
other option is a zillion from DBS, for only 50 Euro per YEAR. How do
you compare 120 Euro per year for reasonable choice over DTT, with 50
Euro per year for DBS? Sounds like they want to push DBS uptake, to me.
Which is the ONLY reason we have this garbage modulation.
You sound like such a broken record. The modulation got fixed well
enough that it doesn't matter anymore. The business about retrans
consent and must carry is probably valid, but you keep harping on what
makes no difference.
Bert
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