[opendtv] Re: (No Date: Tue, 28 Sep 2004 10:30:37 -0400

  • From: Tom Barry <trbarry@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sat, 02 Oct 2004 08:04:55 -0400

Craig Birkmaier wrote:

 > I suspect that the manufacturers are just going to see how far they
 > can push this, until the FCC decides to enforce the regulations.
 > Perhaps by Christmas, as Mark Aitken suggests, we will see more
 > models with tuners as the next generation chips begin to be available.
 >
 > Watching and waiting...
 >

I suspect that a very large consideration by the manufacturers in this 
decision is the expected rate of customer returns, and that depends upon 
whether the receivers can be expected to work satisfactorily for the 
average buyer.

With previous generations of chips you might expect buyers to be 
disappointed if they tried to them use only a set top antenna. 
Supposedly with the new Zenith gen 5 chips this will not be the case, 
but we don't really know yet.  And we also do not know how much 
Zenith/LG will be charging for those chips.  Is it more?

I think the answers to the above might determine what percentage of sets 
are just monitors next year, though the push to add cable card support 
should also increase the ATSC receiver percentage.

BTW, if HDTV's start appearing that really do work with set top 
antennas, I wonder if that will increase the return rate of those that 
don't since there then will be something to compare.  It could create 
some de facto receiver quality standards.

- Tom



> At 1:31 PM -0400 10/1/04, Bob Miller wrote:
> 
>>Isn't it true that at the moment the requirement is 50% of sets above
>>36" must have an ATSC tuner? If so the manufacturer can still have 50%
>>of their units with a NTSC tuner. There is no reason for monitors with
>>NO tuner yet. Once the 100% requirement is in place we will see what
>>manufacturers intend. In the meantime "DTV" sets with NTSC tuners are
>>surrogates for "MONITORS" no?
> 
> 
> Yes. Monitors as far as anything digital as a source is concerned - 
> but just big TVs as long as the source is NTSC or analog cable.
> 
> Just for the record, here are the FCC tuner mandates from their order:
> 
> Receivers with screen sizes 36" and above -- 50% of a responsible 
> party's units must
> include DTV tuners effective July 1, 2004; 100% of such units must include DTV
> tuners effective July 1, 2005;
> Receivers with screen sizes 25" to 35" -- 50% of a responsible 
> party's units must
> include DTV tuners effective July 1, 2005; 100% of such units must include DTV
> tuners effective July 1, 2006;
> Receivers with screen sizes 13" to 24" -- 100% of all such units must 
> include DTV
> tuners effective July 1, 2007;
> TV Interface Devices (videocassette recorders (VCRs), digital 
> versatile disk (DVD)
> players/recorders, etc.) that receive broadcast television signals -- 
> 100% of all such
> units must include DTV tuners effective July 1, 2007.
> 
> According to these rules, 50% of all sets 36" or larger must have 
> ATSC tuners today. This is not even CLOSE to being the case. Walking 
> through Sears, Best Buy and Circuit City in the past two weeks I can 
> say with reasonable certainty that less than 10% of the affected 
> models they are currently offering have ATSC tuners; what's more, 
> these are in the MOST EXPENSIVE sets, which represent a smaller 
> portion of the total sales volume.
> 
> I suspect that the manufacturers are just going to see how far they 
> can push this, until the FCC decides to enforce the regulations. 
> Perhaps by Christmas, as Mark Aitken suggests, we will see more 
> models with tuners as the next generation chips begin to be available.
> 
> Watching and waiting...
> 
> Regards
> Craig
>  
>  
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> 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:

  1. Home
  2. opendtv
  3. Archive
  4. 10-2004