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

  • From: Eory Frank-p22212 <Frank.Eory@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "'opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx'" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Thu, 14 Oct 2004 12:24:23 -0700

From: "John Willkie" <johnwillkie@xxxxxxxxxx> 
To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> 
Date: Wed, 13 Oct 2004 19:02:07 -0700 


>So, were the decision made to adopt DVB in the U.S., there might be some
>advantages in the modulation model.  Indeed, I was talking a few months back
>with a high-ranking engineering executive at CBS, someone who is a lurker on
>this list, and he admitted that there are some advantages in COFDM
>modulation over 8-VSB.  He said that he would never say such a thing
>publicly, but we were "among friends."

There are many such individuals who feel the same way but "would never say such 
a thing publicly."

>However, adopting DVB in the U.S. would, absent a WHOLESALE revision of the
>DVB-SI spec, result in U.S. television stations becoming passive
>retransmitters of network programming.  That might work in Europe, but in
>the U.S., Canada and Mexico, local stations are federal/state constructs:
>most of the programming is created elsewhere, but localism is an important
>component.

IIRC, nobody every seriously proposed "adopting DVB in the U.S." The debate was 
strictly about the modulation. In principle, the DVB-T modulation scheme or 
even a uniquely U.S. COFDM scheme could have been incorporated into the ATSC 
standards in addition to or in place of the 8-VSB modulation scheme. Nothing 
else (PSIP, Table 3, etc.) need have changed.

>And, what's really at play in the modulation wars -- even going back to the
>1920's -- is patents, IP and licensing.   I know I'm not the only person on
>this list who knows this, but I'm the only one who talks publicly about
>THAT.

You are absolutely correct, and you are the only one on this list who has 
talked publicly about THAT. The IP licensing cost of an ATSC receiver/decoder 
will soon exceed the silicon + software cost, and a chunk of that will go to 
LGE for the 8-VSB patents. We have discussed this on OpenDTV many times in the 
past, including some news articles that put a dollar figure on the IP windfall 
that LGE expects from the ATSC tuner mandate.

-- Frank  
 
 
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