FCC ruling vis. DTV tuners [merged threads] (1 Viewer)

[Jeffrey_Scotts]

What will be one of the biggest battles is with all the major studios. They are totally paranoid over this whole HDTV/Digital use stating that owners can make "perfect copies" of their shows. The way it stands now, they could take over your TIVO, DVHS, VCR and Digital Satellite signals and insert Macrovision or other encrypted bit streams that would render them useless for recording. This where the worst fight will be and they have learned nothing from past expierence with consumers with the Betamax, DIVX and other consumer issues.

All the studios think they are doomed when HDTV and HD recorders come out. Too bad they don't know they are bitting the hand of the DVD people that feed them so well. Oh well, it's an uphill fight but one I'm fairly confident will be won in the end. Just blame the morons that work at the studios who think they know it all.

Jeffrey

 

[Jeffrey_Scotts]

RE Cable:

Nope, cable is NOT where it's at, but is still a good use for the large cities. Take this area as an example, most people can't get cable and all the local stations know it. We are not that large and there would be no way cable companies would run it for miles and miles just to hook up a few houses. This isn't a sticks area, the people here just choose to live in a small area because they like it. So, in order to cover places, especially what most would call rural, it won't be the cable companies, it must be wireless.

Heck, even those that live in city limits around here don't have Digital Cable and when they ask they just laugh about it. "Well see digital in the next 100 years" is what one guy in charge of the Cable in this area said. Bottom line is Cable companies and even ISPs can't afford the cost of what most take for granted in larger areas. Thus, unless the FCC mandates it, such as we are starting to see with Digital and HDTV, it will never get done. Only when they are forced to will anyone get it. Then, some companies will most likely either be sold to someone that can afford the upgrades or close all together.

Oh what joy lies ahead.

Jeffrey

 

[Michael St. Clair]

Cable has 4 times as many subs as DBS.

Somewhere between 20 and 50 percent of the households in the country get their TV only via over-the-air broadcast. Every time there is a new statistic on this it seems to change substantially.

There are people who live in fringe areas (or multipath plagued areas like downtown New York and Chicago) who get a usable (but ghosting or snowy) analog picture with rabbit ears who are going to have to get a rooftop or attic antenna to get a usable 8VSB DTV picture.

 

[Lew Crippen]

I agree that the first thing that needs to be done is to force cable companies to carry DTV channels.

I think that a major (not the only) reason for the FCC’s position is to use bandwidth for other uses. As it stands now, local stations are telecasting two signals: analog and digital, each on different frequencies. The only way to eliminate one, is to mandate either all analog or all digital. Aside from the technical considerations, mandating analog would be an admission that they got it wrong the first time. :b And of course reversion to analog would cause outrage by everyone (from consumers to commercial interests) who had spent money on digital.
Therefore the only choice is to mandate that all receivers can receive digital signals. This will allow all stations to no longer telecast analog, thereby releasing the bandwidth for other use. Changes in cable one way or the other will have no effect on OTA bandwidth reduction.
QED
As for me, the first service (satellite, cable or whatever) that can provide HD for pretty much everything will get my instant business.:star: :star: :star:

 

[Jesse Skeen]

Does anyone with cable even CARE about quality? The company that serves my area (that I don't subsribe to but was getting for free for awhile) doesn't even have every channel in STEREO yet, and that technology's been around for 17 years!! I don't see anything else being upgraded soon!

 

[Gary_E]

I believe that there needs to be progress in the technology and size of antennas capable of receiving digital signals. The Radio Shack bow-tie is a good start but when a small antenna, that is unobtrusive, is brought to market that functions properly and simply, OTA digital will really take off.

The one complaint I've heard from so many people is that they must put up an antenna. Unfortunately, the antennas that seems to work best are the old, ugly looking antennas of 50 years ago.
PBS HD is so incredible and this from a guy who wouldn't watch a thing on PBS before. I now watch PBS HD programming, just because of the quality. Next year my local WB affiliate will begin prime-time in HD and hopefully UPN as well.

I've had many friends and neighbors in my HT to watch movies, sports etc. but I never saw them so enthralled by anything as when they watched The Masters this year, in HD.
They couldn't believe their eyes!

-Gary

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Does anyone with cable even CARE about quality? The company that serves my area (that I don't subsribe to but was getting for free for awhile) doesn't even have every channel in STEREO yet, and that technology's been around for 17 years!! I don't see anything else being upgraded soon!

Don't take your experiences as representative of all cable experiences. Hell, Time Warner (while having poor general quality control) has all that shit; stereo on both their analog and digital services, digital cable, and I-control (don't have the setup, but I guess it's video on demand) Digital cable overall seems to be an overcompressed joke here, however.

 

[Roberto Carlo]

Don't take your experiences as representative of all cable experiences.

Exactly. My cable company, Cox of Fairfax (VA), has excellent picture -- somewhere between laserdisc and DVD on premium channels -- and sound quality -- honest-to-goodness DD 5.1 -- plus HDTV by year's end. Proof that competition, from the likes of DISH and DIRECTV, sometimes can work.

 

[Wayne Bundrick]

Fairfax also is not representative. There's nothing about Fairfax that is representative of the rest of the country, is there? I mean, how many other communities do you see buying commercial time on CNN?

 

[Dheiner]

Time Warner in Milwaukee currently carries hbo & showtime HD, along with the HD feed from the local PBS staion. I have had this service for at least the last year, with the PBS feed being a recent (

 

[Roberto Carlo]

Fairfax also is not representative. There's nothing about Fairfax that is representative of the rest of the country, is there? I mean, how many other communities do you see buying commercial time on CNN?

True, but that's kinda my point: There is no such thing as a "typical cable system." Every consumer must analyze these issues on a case-by-case business. In my case, it appears that buying my own STB or a set with a decoder built in probably isn't the way to go. For someone with a bad cable company, the opposite is probably true.