[LINK] US going digital TV in 2009

Craig Sanders cas at taz.net.au
Sun Mar 4 10:42:47 AEDT 2007


On Sun, Mar 04, 2007 at 08:02:05AM +1100, rchirgwin at ozemail.com.au wrote:
> Wow. Mossberg's statements are truly amazing, to the point where you 
> wonder if there's a handbook telling shills what to say about digital TV.
> 
> For mine, I have never seen any reason to change my position on digital TV:
> 1) The "digital dividend" is probably chimerical; at best, it's overstated.

yeah, well, all the talk about "digital interactive" stuff is over-rated
rubbish.

but both SD and HD set top boxes do give a noticably better picture than
analog TV.  even on an old TV set.

> 2) Consumers are being required to subsidise consumer electronics 
> through a forced upgrade they mostly don't care about (they're more 
> interested in a screen to play the fave DVDs than what might happen in 
> free-to-air).

that's why there was a 10+year transition plan. they should have backed
that up by requiring new TVs sold for the last few years should be at
least SD.  instead, the whole plan has stalled.

 
> 3) The digitisation of TV is being used to trojan more DRM into the 
> household.

what DRM?  there's none on free-to-air TV here in australia.

> The benefits to consumers don't justify the policy or the penalties, and 
> never did...

$60 for an el-cheapo SD set-top box is dirt-cheap and gets you greatly
improved picture quality on free-to-air TV.  as good as DVD.

that's less than what people will pay for a new antenna.

craig

-- 
craig sanders <cas at taz.net.au>

"I neither deny nor affirm the immortality of man. I see no reason for
 believing in it, but on the other hand, I have no means of disproving it."
        [Thomas H. Huxley, Letter to Charles Kingsley, 1860]



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