[opendtv] Re: (S) DTV adaptors available for less than 50 euros in France
- From: Bob Miller <bob@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 11 Sep 2005 13:43:51 -0400
Does that 49 Euros include the 18% VAT?
Bob Miller
Olivier Houot wrote:
>I saw two of them today. One is a Netgem iplayer (not the same as the UK
>version which appears to be a Netbox), and the second had no visible
>brand and was sold in a "Boulanger" store. Prices were 49,90 and 49
>euros. The only thread i managed to dig out for the the Netgem said it
>worked OK.
>
>So it was not only government hype, after all.
>
>As for me i bought another model a few days ago for 69 euros (though in
>most places it is priced around 99 euros).
>
>I had my doubts about the antenna characteristics and orientation, and
>those of the mast amplifier, too, as well as about broadcasts
>availability, having no official information more accurate than
>"September".
>
>But it worked right out of the box, after a short scan of maybe 2 or 3
>minutes.
>
>I am about 47 km away from the emitter, which pumps out 32 KW into the
>ether (320 kw for analog) using an isotropic pattern. The emitter
>antenna is 420 m above sea level, and my antenna at an altitude of about
>120 meter (a 18 elements outdoor YAGI with a V-shaped reflector some 5
>meters above ground). I am isolated in the middle of the countryside so
>i guess there aren't many reflections around (some trees, to be sure,
>but they are behind the antenna). I suppose 47 km is not enough to
>qualify as far field either. The on-screen meter places the signal level
>at about one third of full scale and labels it as "excellent".
>
>The picture is clean and pleasant (depending on the material
>transmitted, of course), but i have to say that, when the propagation
>conditions are right, switching between analog SECAM and DVB-T shows no
>obvious quality difference (except perhaps when a 16/9 picture
>transmitted inside a 4/3 frame is zoomed out to full screen). This when
>viewed 3 meters away from a 82 cm 16/9 TV set.
>
>However i expect picture quality to be independant of weather conditions
>with digital, which is not the case with analog. Time will tell.
>
>I don't have all the channels right now, as the state-owned ones will
>not start to broadcast before the end of the month. After days of
>watching commercial stations only, i am really starting to long for the
>other ones, though there are six of them statmuxed in a single 24.16
>Mbps multiplex and i am not sure what the final quality will be.
>
>
>Almost no glitches after quite many hours of viewing (i am not used to
>watch so much TV). Once 2 or 3 perturbations occurred during a 30 mn
>news report, and i realized afterwards that there was some distant
>lightning in the clouds. In such conditions i usually disconnect my
>electronic appliances anyway.
>
>It is however possible to create in-house interference with the light
>switches (some macroblocking and sound pops). Some time you have to
>toggle the switch like mad to create the problem, and some times just
>flipping it once in the "right wrong way" will do it.
>
>Using a small "made in China" hairdryer, i managed to get a complete
>picture freeze. Under the same conditions the analog picture showed many
>coloured parasitic lines, but was still stable, synchronized and
>readable.
>Then i became aware of the fact the hair dryer was just 3 cm away from
>the wall antenna outlet, and that it was perhaps not entirely fair to
>expect flawless operation under those terms. I plugged it on the other
>size of the room, 3 meters away, and the picture was OK again, with a
>small disturbance when switching on or off.
>This seems to affect both 64 QAM and 16 QAM multiplexes.
>
>Light switches in the next room, just separated from the thickness of a
>wall from the offending one, do not affect the picture at all, nor does
>the electric oven, also in the next room, or the refrigerator and the
>washing machine (but those are several rooms away, at a distance of
>maybe 18 meters). Best sources of interference seem to be direct
>radiation at close range, not something that would come through the
>mains. I will just add i am using a few meters of standard coaxial cable
>bought at the nearest supermarket to connect the adaptor to the wall
>outlet.
>
>When not torturing the beast though, and considering i don't usually get
>up every five minutes to switch the lights on or off (and that it does
>not systematically create a problem when i do), it gives a solid and
>reliable picture for hours on end. Basically, it appears to do the job
>it has been designed for.
>
>I still regret that the time interleaver option was not made mandatory
>for the deployment in France, though i understand it would have cut us
>out from the economy of scale enabled by previous european developments.
>What i don't understand is that it is still not mandatory for DVB-H,
>although the memory needed for that is now dirt cheap.
>
>I am sure it is possible to do better in the field of error concealment,
>too, though perhaps not in the lowest priced adaptors. As for me , i
>don't want to invest more, as HDTV/MPEG4 boxes are supposed to be on the
>way (but late already).
>
>It's about time, after all these years of hearing about COFDM on the
>openDTV list, to be able to count myself among its (for the time being)
>happy users.
>
>
>
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