Welcome,   •  Sign In  •  Register  •  Help

Ed's View - HDTV Broadcast Wish List

Started by Ed Milbourn • Mar 23, 2009 • 2 posts
View related article →
Read-only archive
#1
As mentioned in my prior wheezes on this subject, the present US economic climate would appear to present over-the-air (OTA) television broadcasters with fantastic possibilities. With the tremendous opportunities offered by digital production and transmission (i.e. HD <i>and</i> SD multi-channel <i>and</i> mobile <i>and</i> IP capabilities all at the same time), and most of it "free" to viewers, one would think that the time is ideal for OTAs to take a big chunk of penetration from their pay brethren. However, as an undying cheerleader for success of OTA, I feel there are a couple of wishes that must be granted before broadcasters have any hopes of stopping and successfully reversing their 15% household penetration ratio. First...

Read Column
#2
You fix it by dumping it. You already have your entire wish list if we allowed another modulation like DVB-T, DVB-T2, CDMB-TH or any version of ISDB-T.

First the FCC could just allow any of these modulations to be used on LPTV stations which are in a world of hurt with 8-VSB. Then when they became wildly successful, as they would, the FCC could propose adding the rest of the full power TV stations to the list.

The UK had 75% of homes with OTA DTV receivers already, many with multiple receivers and then are using an ancient version of DVB-T 2K.

All countries who braved the ire of the US and wisely chose any other modulation are doing far better than the US with their DTV transitions, and they didn't have to subsidize garbage converter boxes either.

It is about time to say the Emperor has no clothes before some Congresscritter realizes that very few homes are actually using OTA DTV in the US and starts the process to take all free to air TV spectrum away from broadcasters.