[opendtv] Re: White paper from CEA

  • From: Richard Hollandsworth <holl_ands@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Fri, 21 Oct 2005 16:46:10 -0700 (PDT)

Analog shutdown will affect cable systems as well as on-the-air, as was 
discussed in this thread:
http://hdtv.forsandiego.com/messages/2/3749.html#POST19781
Analog channel sources will soon dry up as all of the SAT, CATV and OTA systems 
go ALL DIGITAL.
 
Most of the cable systems have announced plans for simulcasting analog channels 
on their digital tier, in preparation for an ALL DIGITAL cable system.
Analog shutdown on cable is needed in order to make room for an explosion in HD 
sources (recall that D* claims they will carry 150 National HD programs in 
addition to HD-LIL).
SCTE claims that one-third of cable subscribers are on the digital tier.
That leaves two-thirds using Basic Cable without a cable converter.
(Give or take some statistical fudging re 2nd and 3rd TVs....)
 
So the REAL DECISION for budget viewers will be whether to pay the monthly 
rental for Basic Digital Cable (whether CableCard or Digital Cable STB) and/or 
spend $10 on a co-pay to get a govt subsidized low-cost OTA STB and perhaps 
hundreds of dollars more to install an outdoor antenna/preamp system.
 
Either way, there is no need to provide NTSC tuners in new HDTV's!!!!!!
And since most viewers are Cable or SAT, the ATSC tuner/decoder is an 
unnecessary cost item that should be OPTIONAL.
 
The ATSC tuner mandate may have been intended to phase out NTSC-only TV's.
And the Plug-n-Play CableCard standardization agreement between CEA and SCTE 
was supposed to have been VOLUNTARY so that cable could be readily plugged into 
DTVs:
http://www.ncta.com/press/press.cfm?PRid=325&showArticles=ok
 
However, the result has been that ALL "DTVs" are being equipped with both ATSC 
and CableCard capabilities....
Which aren't needed for HD-SAT (which integrates ATSC), HD-PVR and FiOS (et. 
al) when it hits my neighborhood.....
 
You can't buy just one or the other, depending on your requirements.
And each of them is a significant cost item for a budget DTV, with very little 
overlap of functionality because the sets are equipped to do them 
simultaneously, hence multiple tuners.
 
Give me a flexible, lower cost MONITOR any day.....
 
                         <holl_ands>
 
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
"Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Richard Hollandsworth wrote:

> 3. Although it might have been "expeditious" to
> REQUIRE manufacturers to provide an ATSC tuner if
> they are going to include any sort of tuner, the
> vast majority of users (e.g. CATV, SAT, FiOS, etc)
> will never, ever use this additional cost feature.
> It should be OPTIONAL.

Of course they will. The point is, the tuner, demod,
and decoder used for ATSC and digital cable share the
same components. So at very least, you have 60% + 15%,
or 75 percent of households that will use the built-in
receiver. And there's no reason why the DBS industry
cannot enter into the agreement too. Certainly,
combined ATSC and DBS receivers have existed for a
very long time. No big shakes there either.

But no one is making monitors illegal, so in fact you
still have the OPTION. My prediction is that soon
very few will want a monitor.

The only way to end the transition is to make digital
reception as possible as analog reception is today. It
was painfully obvious that this was not occurring all
by itself. The transition would have languished
forever were it not for Michael Powell. And if we are
to believe that the "greater good" is served by
ending the transition, the FCC and Congress are within
their charter to make it happen this way.

It worked in Berlin.

> 4. I also object to paying an additional, mandated
> cost for a CableCard feature in an HDTV that I won't
> use because an external HD-DVR is a much better
> device. It should be OPTIONAL.

As far as I'm concerned, it all depends on what the
cost is. If it's $40 in 2007, and dwindling lower
after that, who cares? I've been paying the price of
those crappy sounding TV sound systems for 35 years
and have NEVER used them. I just can't muster up any
big indignation over something so trivial, though.
Accept the fact that tin-eared TV viewers pervade and
get on with it.

Bert



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