Cliff Benham wrote:
> In a recent post to the list I read that ATSC will provide
> coverage for 90% of the viewers, just as analog NTSC does.
> But the telling statement that followed this claim was that
> it would not be the same 90%.
>
> That says it all.
Cliff, indeed it does say it all. Only the statement wasn't about NTSC
and ATSC!
Perhaps you are referring to this quote:
"BTW, Digitenne promises the same 99% of coverage as analog, only it is
not necessarily the same 99%. Your Mileage May Vary."
It was a comment made by Jeroen Stessen, concerning Dutch DTT.
Quod erat demonstradum.
Bert
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[opendtv] Re: Out of Sync?
From: Jeroen Stessen
Date: Fri, 9 Mar 2007 08:43:45 +0100
Hello,
The way it was here: our transition to off-air digital has happened
overnight in December. The ONLY nnouncements have been some articles in
the newspapers and maybe in some TV guides (the paper agazines), during
the weeks before. And maybe a few ads on public TV, but I don't even
remember those, if any. And then it happened. I have heard no complaints
at all... On the other hand, if the local cable company (UPC) talks
about taking some commercial channels out of the analog package (and
leave them in the digital package, but that was not explicitly said)
then the local newspaper receives thousands of letters complaining about
the injustice of it all. Go figure...
To put the OTA transition into perspective: we had ONLY THREE analog
channels off-air, i.e. the 3 national public channels. Everything else,
i.e. a dozen or so commercial channels aimed at NL plus a dozen or so
foreign stations, has only ever been available on cable and satellite.
So you could lose only 3 channels, and for that you get 4 or 5 digital
channels back, free-to-air. (You get also the provincial channel, and
maybe the next province.) If you get a smart card, and pay a low
subscription fee, then you can get a number of other channels as well,
and you can cancel your cable subscription. So you really get more in
return than what you lost.
BTW, Digitenne promises the same 99% of coverage as analog, only it is
not necessarily the same 99%. Your Mileage May Vary.
The cheapest settop boxes are ?90, but you get the money for the first
box back when you pay the subscription of ?10 per month. For that fee
you can have 3 smart cards registered, so you only pay the hardware for
the 2nd and 3rd TV. Given that a digital cable subscription costs in the
neighborhood of ?20, it seems to be a really good deal.
Until you figure out that satellite reception is even cheaper ! And then
you're talking thousands of channels free-to-air, and a subscription fee
of ?40-50 per YEAR for the majority of the Dutch channels. Which is
mostly needed to prove that you _are_ Dutch.
Best regards,
-- Jeroen
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