John C. Dvorak on HDTV

[JohnnyCNote]

This was in the previous edition of PC Magazine:

Digital Television Update Dept.: The deadline for the entire country to complete the transition from analog to digital TV broadcasting is approaching. By the end of next year, the plug will be pulled on the old TV system, and we'll all be watching digital TV. I've been using digital TV for some time, and despite earlier reservations, it's a superior experience, especially with the stunning images HDTV produces. Also, the over-the-air sound is better than anything you can get from either cable or satellite. For this reason, I've been advising people to get one of the HDTV standalone tuners for their older TV sets. These tuners can be set to output standard 480i signals for older TVs. I suspect the tuners will be in short supply.

You may wonder what has caused the rush to switch to digital television. Who really cares? It's actually a government frequency grab. All the digital TV signals (with only a few short-term exceptions) run on the moribund UHF frequencies. UHF was invented decades ago as a way to let smaller markets get into broadcasting and to increase the number of channels. It largely languished, with most channels going unused. So it was easy to shove all the digital TV signals up into the UHF band and vacate the VHF band so it could be auctioned off piece by piece for billions of dollars. This is the reason for the rush.

Another reason for the urgency about switching to digital TV is that, within the new digital system, the broadcasters will be able to employ a broadcast "flag" that, in conjunction with electronics gear, can prevent people from recording television content, even on a TiVo. This will be done to protect those oh-so-valuable movies coming from Hollywood and to keep people from skipping over the commercials on regular programming. Expect it to be hacked immediately.

Inside Track v24n8

[leebo]

Where does he get his stash, and can I get some?

[hudsonf]

vacate the VHF band so it could be auctioned off piece by piece for billions of dollars. This is the reason for the
rush.
Another reason for the urgency about switching to digital TV is that, within the new digital system, the broadcasters will be able to employ a broadcast "flag" that, in conjunction with electronics gear, can prevent people from recording television content, even on a TiVo.

So the truth comes out.

[dcsos]

Sad, ain't it
Now just don't tie my Social Security into this shell game, george

Lets hope that the HiDef we end up with is what John saw and not what I've seen.
Ok first run original series will look much better
But what about what I watch.? In every home I've tried to look at second tier programming on their HI DEF set ups and guess what..It looks worse than on my 27" analog screen

Why is that you might ask?
Well, HI-DEF broadcasters have also filled non-prime hors with shows more compressed than they ever were and in some cases are using the bandwith the FCC has allotted for HI-DEF to squeeze the trans mission of up to 5 STANDARD dEF SOURCES in that bandwith intended for 1 HI DEF STREAM..

Anotherwords, in order to watch JAY LENO in HI-DEF
we must put up with
the worst compressed TRANSFER of "DR STRANGELOVE" later on the
same station (NBC network). Its skewed!

[leebo]

I've said this b4. If you ever saw "true" HD BEFORE it's broadcast, say, in a closed circuit system, you woulden't be in any hurry to get an HDTV. They've ruined it. Even the Tonight Show.

[AlecWest]

Another reason for the urgency about switching to digital TV is that, within the new digital system, the broadcasters will be able to employ a broadcast "flag" that, in conjunction with electronics gear, can prevent people from recording television content, even on a TiVo.

By "in conjunction with electronic gear," is Dvorak suggesting "you're all screwed," or "better buy old gear now while you can." ???

Expect it to be hacked immediately.

Ahhh ... a realist.

[RottenFoxBreath]

in the uk,some digital channels like sky 1 ,and rthe movie channels,look like bad mpegs,with blocky artifacts all over bright scenes,explosions,etc,and with the price of hdtv,s here,itll be set top freeview digi boxes,or digi cable or sky for a long time.

[spiderman2k1]

Well HDTV is going to take even longer to take of allot of people have cable and Satellite TV and they do not have to change I do not think so. One thing I do not like about HDTV is that the smallest ones are 27inchs. People want smaller sets also for bedroom and kitchen.

I uses a DVD recorder I can skip the commercials—better yet just fast-forward that crap worst comes to worst.

[shelbyGT]

Face it, most people aren't willing to spend over $1,000 on a TV. I'm one of them.

[ViRaL1]

Face it, most people aren't willing to spend over $1,000 on a TV. I'm one of them.

$1000?

How big of a TV were you wanting?

[brokenback]

quote "UHF was invented decades ago"

thank the TV industry for inventing the UHF spectrum!

what would we do without them!

[verchad]

I read an article recently, I can't remember which paper or magazine it was in. They said that even though the deadline is the end of next year, it might be delayed. The govt. left some kind of loophole in where if a certain percentage of households did not have hd capable sets, they could delay the shut off of analog signals. They said that surprisingly, most of the broadcasters are broadcasting HD now and that 90 some percent of the country could be served by HD signals.

The problem now is the cost of the HD sets and HD converters. They still haven't come down in price enough for widespread sales.

I emailed Directv recently and asked them what will happen to my regular DTV service when the shut off happens? They responded back that they are working on this problem now, but do not have any answers at the present.

[edDV]

I read an article recently, I can't remember which paper or magazine it was in. They said that even though the deadline is the end of next year, it might be delayed. The govt. left some kind of loophole in where if a certain percentage of households did not have hd capable sets, they could delay the shut off of analog signals. They said that surprisingly, most of the broadcasters are broadcasting HD now and that 90 some percent of the country could be served by HD signals.

All major US broadcast markets now have a parallel DTV service (SDTV and/or HDTV). The mobile spectrum demand is highest in the largest urban areas. The VHF lower band (Ch 2-6) will be the first to be shut down for analog TV broadcast. Later the VHS high band (Ch 7-13) may be auctioned off in the larger markets. In smaller more rural markets, some of the VHF high band will be used for DTV (for better distant reception) but a new DTV tuner will still be required.

The problem now is the cost of the HD sets and HD converters. They still haven't come down in price enough for widespread sales.

Here is a typical DTV set top tuner that will be
required for over the air reception after the shutdown.
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product_id=2598451#long_descr
Current models sell for around $200 and will work fine for current analog TV sets or HD ready sets using composite, S-Video or analog component inputs. Expect prices to rapidly drop to below $50. Future models will include RF (Ch 3-4) and HDMI outputs.

I emailed Directv recently and asked them what will happen to my regular DTV service when the shut off happens? They responded back that they are working on this problem now, but do not have any answers at the present.

If you keep your standard resolution cable or satellite service you will see no difference. They will simply change their local upload feeds to the DTV version of the channel with downconversion of any HDTV to SDTV.

If you subcribe to the HD service you will get selected local DTV multicast channels (Channel n with n.1, n.2, n.3, n.4 multicast channels depending on what the cable or satellite service decides to provide). This will require a new set top box.