[opendtv] Re: White paper from CEA
- From: Richard Hollandsworth <holl_ands@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2005 19:32:16 -0700 (PDT)
1. Performance Tests? What Performance Tests???
Only performance tests I've seen (and I keep looking) are for PROTOTYPES, e.g.
Linx (Micronas), Zenith/LG and recent Samsung tests by CRC.
2. Side-by-side on-air tests? There has been very little of that going on
recently, even by Mark... And the old side-by-side tests (e.g. US, Brazil,
Australia, et.al.) don't identify equipment by model numbers.
2. ATI website presss release claims their THEATER chip series meets (some? a
few? a bunch? all???) of the A/74 Receiver Performance Guidelines. But their
Jun05 posting in the FCC's SHVERA docket shows that chip "D" (something
unspecified from ATI) operated error free on only 34 out of 50 Field Ensembles
(data collected from difficult/impossible reception sites). The gist of ATI's
submission is urging manufacturers to test (and the FCC to mandate?) against
both the Lab Ensembles and especially Field Ensembles. However, they noted
that 9 Field Ensembles had sample dropouts requiring "special handling" in
order to somehow be included. And it remains unknown if some of these field
captures are fundamentally hozed to being with....
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.
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.
5. About the only good thing I see will be two-way CableCards that can plug
into retail HD-DVR's.
6. As the price of low-end HDTV continues to come down, the cost of these
OPTIONAL, UNUSED, UNWANTED features will probably become a significant fraction
of the overall cost.
7. I'll take the lower cost Monitor with lots of standard HDMI and CV
interfaces please.
Then I'll have maximum flexibility to connect X-Box, PlayStn, D-VHS, DVD,
HD-DVD, SAT/OTA HD-STB/DVR, CATV HD-DVR, FiOS HD-STB, HD-Wireless Hub, HD-IPTV,
SHD-IPTV, XHD-IPTV, et. al. over it's 10+ year lifetime.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Cliff Benham <cbenham@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Mark Schubin wrote:
> By March 1 of next year, the tuner mandate requires 100% of all
> tuner-equipped TVs 25-inch and up built or imported into the U.S. to have DTT
> reception circuitry. That includes the under-$100 25-inch TVs I find
> advertised periodically.
>
>TTFN,
>Mark
>
The above information brings out the skeptic and curmudgeon in me.
Given the painfully slow rollout of good DTT set top boxes over the last
?seven? years, I find it difficult to believe that in less than 6
months, the seemingly impossible will suddenly emerge in full bloom at
Sears, Walmart, and Western Auto stores everywhere in the country.
Some questions:
What will the quality of performance be for this mandated 'built in DTT
reception circuitry?' Will it be something "thrown in at the last
minute that barely works" and is included only to satisfy the legal
requirements so the manufacturers can still sell TVs in the US market?
Are there any real world performance specifications set by the tuner
mandate which this DTT reception circuitry must meet in order to be
approved for US sale?
Are there any published reports on the DTT reception performance of
these new TVs available that could be displayed on the opendtv list?
Is there any 'preview' or testing planned for these new sets to assure
that they really will work in the real world and not only while being
directly connected to a local 8VSB demo loop generator in the back of
the store?
Or, will we suddenly find there are *no* new TVs as described above
being advertised or sold, but instead, lots of 25-inch and up
'monitors' that meet the description, except that they don't include
reception circuitry of *any* kind, just video inputs?
Regards,
Cliff
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
---------------------------------
Yahoo! FareChase - Search multiple travel sites in one click.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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: