[opendtv] Re: News: CEA FORECASTS CONSUMER ELECTRONICS REVENUE WILL SURPASS $155 BILLION IN 2007
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2007 16:12:00 -0500
Craig Birkmaier wrote:
> One more thing Bert. The major reason for the long term
> success of NTSC and PAL is that they were able to deliver
> most of the image detail that is important to the human
> visual system.
I think that reasoning is not complete enough.
The reason analog TV succeeded was that it was a big *enough*
improvement over radio, at *good enough* quality, that it was acceptable
in screen sizes *large enough* to work in most dens and living rooms.
But in order to establish itself, TV had to be standardized. Now its
improvement over time becomes highly constrained.
One reason it lasted as long as it did is that it could be compatibly
updated, even though the most fundamental limitations remained. The
analog TV standards were updated several times, to incorporate color,
hifi sound, stereo sound, and other language tracks, but the ultimate
image quality was as limiting to screen size as it had been from the
start.
You finally get to a point where the old standard is just too
restrictive, and this complicated and uncomfortable switch becomes sort
of inevitable. That is what the TV industry is doing now.
And no, this has little to do with "digital" vs "analog," as you persist
in claiming. Proof is abundant of digital schemes that are
excrutiatingly difficult to upgrade, such as IP itself. It's inherent in
the nature of the standards beast.
Analog TVs are limited to providing reasonable images in small sets
only. The fact that people were buying 60" RPTVs using NTSC was pretty
astounding, as I rediscovered at Best Buy when they were feeding analog
TV to the large flat panels in that recent visit I mentioned previously.
The bottom line is that the very best analog TV standard is limited to 6
MHz of video bandwidth, whereas ATSC is limited to 31 MHz. By the
*standards*, Craig, in both cases. Don't be confused between a
limitation caused by a STANDARD and one merely evident in cheap
PRODUCTS.
Bert
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