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

  • From: "Barry Wilkins" <Barry.Wilkins@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 15 Oct 2004 11:09:32 +1300

John,

That is truly amazing! Thanks for the information.

Barry Wilkins

-----Original Message-----
From: John Willkie [mailto:johnwillkie@xxxxxxxxxx]=20
Sent: Friday, 15 October 2004 10:29 a.m.
To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [opendtv] Re: (No Date: Tue, 28 Sep 2004 10:30:37 -0400

I hope I do not get in too much trouble for this, but to date, the
evidence
is thus:

MIT (Dr. William Schreiber) was an advocate of a non-VSB form of
modulation.
Another professor at MIT had what he thought was a better way to
transmit
digital audio than AC-3.  Dolby (non-Korean IP holder with extensive
licensing fees in the ATSC world) felt otherwise.

Dolby was part of the Grand Alliance, and MIT had some intellectual
property
(as did and was Sarnoff, another non-Korean IP holder in the ATSC world)
that the Grand Alliance wanted.  To cut to the chase, Dolby made a less
than
ethical deal with MIT that subverted the Schreiber and audio initiatives
of
MIT.  The other professor was promised 25% cut of a $10 million
"payment"
that Dolby was to make to MIT when ATSC became standard.

Dolby -- true to form -- did not make the payment.  MIT sued a few years
ago.  When Dolby lost a summary judgment motion to have the case
dismissed,
they ended up paying, and the professor got his money.  Yes, Dolby had
to be
sued to pay a promised commercial bribe.

It ain't anything to be proud about, but I suspect that -- lacking the
"fair
and reasonable terms" that the FCC imposed on everything -- the DVB
world
could be as bad or worse.

Upshot: 8-VSB is the "greased skid" transitional standard in the U.S.,
and
if COFDM is that much cheaper for the same effect, then it will overtake
8-VSB in the U.S.

As to overseas, that ship sailed in 1988, when LG gained effective
control
of Zenith, the entity that everybody was trying to keep American.  If
South
Korea keeps up on it's current course, Kim Il Sung will be controlling
the
IP.

Then, there's the matter of the E-VSB and E-AC-3 IP ...

John Willkie

-----Original Message-----
From: opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Barry Wilkins
Sent: Thursday, October 14, 2004 1:09 PM
To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [opendtv] Re: (No Date: Tue, 28 Sep 2004 10:30:37 -0400


John, Frank,

I cannot help but think though, that because (a large portion of or
all?) the patent revenues may go to Korea, AND there have been
performance difficulties AND the relative cost of silicon to build an
ATSC receiver that performs well is expensive, then it looks like a 3
way loss situation. This is ironic as I understand that the US
originated COFDM modulation. Why wasn't there an effort to ditch the
ATSC modulation at the earliest opportunity if (a) the revenue was
likely to go overseas, and (b) there were strong indications of
performance limitations and (c) there was an opportunity to use a US
version of COFDM that you could get patent royalties from?
Barry Wilkins



>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.



Barry Wilkins
Hardware Design Engineer
Xtendreach
12 Wakefield St
Napier
New Zealand
E-mail:barry.wilkins@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Ph:64 6 831 0214




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