[opendtv] Re: News: Reps. Barton, Stearns Offer Alternative DTV Bill

  • From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sun, 1 Feb 2009 09:19:28 -0500

At 5:41 PM -0500 1/31/09, Albert Manfredi wrote:
This climate reminds me of the early days of the Reed Hundt FCC, where every cotton-pickin' nay-sayer managed to throw wrenches into the works and slow things down. Whether it was so-called Table 3, the 16:9 aspect ratio, having HDTV at all, layered coding with a 720p24 base layer, any number of nuisance complaints caused a traffic jam.

Your recollections are a bit off the mark.

I found the Hundt FCC to be highly receptive to input, especially about the potential consequences of the DTV transition. They were quite savvy about what was happening with the Internet and the potential for computers to become the core of future entertainment devices. I now this because of the many meetings we had with staff to educate them on these subjects.

They were also well aware of the fact that the whole DTV standards process was being run by the CE industry with the willing complicity of broadcasters. Frankly, at the time most broadcasters DID NOT believe that any of this would actually happen, and they were happy to let the CE guys foot the bill, winking and nodding all along the way.

What they WERE NOT willing to do was to expose the fraudulent nature of the process. We would point out important aspects of decisions that were being made and they would raise flags with the Advisory Committee, forcing them to at least address these issues. Actually, Hundt's predecessor, Al Sikes, was taking actions to keep things from being railroaded through by the advisory committee. His FCC actually did some constructive things, specifically forcing the advisory committee to develop a digital standard, and to evaluate all proposals based on their interoperabilty with computers and digital networks.

Hundt's FCC DID NOT slow anything down. The Advisory Committee and the people actually developing the standard were the ones who slowed things down. The Grand Alliance bought more than two years while the proponents battled inside the ATSC to get their IP into the standard. This was the most corrupt period of the process, when it was nearly impossible to have any public input on the decisions being made.

And then there was the final insult when they added interlaced SDTV to the standard after spending the previous 7-8 years refusing to even discuss the possibility of multicasting or including an appropriate SDTV standard.

It was not Hundt, but Commissioner Ness who handled the "negotiations between CICATS and the ATSC proponents. She understood the issues and did her best to try to resolve things in a manners that would benefit U.S. TV viewers. Because of her efforts, and the agreement that was reached between CICTS and the ATSC, the ONLY change made to the ATSC standard when adopted by the FCC was to eliminate Table 3. Unfortunately, the ATSC and Broadcasters then simply ignored the agreement, making table 3 a defacto standard.

Bottom line, the FCC chose the path of least resistance, knowing that they did not have the resources to actually develop a standard internally. But they chose poorly, by allowing the folks who would most benefit from the standard to develop it, and compounded this mistake by mandating that ATSC tuners be incorporated into every new TV.

Unfortunately, this is the way Washington works.

The "good" news is that none of this matters. Broadcasters managed to extend the life of NTSC by two decades, and claim a degree of political control over the REAL emerging digital infrastructure - the Internet.

The FCC needs to be shut down. It does NOTHING anymore to benefit the citizens.

Regards
Craig



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