Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv,alt.video.digital-tv (
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Mark Crispin wrote:
> On Sat, 23 Apr 2005, Bob Miller wrote:
>
>> Sad? Japan?
>> They have sold 3.2 million mostly integrated HD OTA sets in Japan in
>> just the last year.
>
>
> But most of those sets aren't viewing terrestrial digital HD because there's no signal to receive! Homes with HDTV in Japan are mostly
> satellite or cable.
>
> However, it makes no sense to buy an HDTV without an OTA tuner, even if your area isn't served yet. The only reason HDTVs without tuners were
> sold in the US is because Psycho Bob and his friends at Sinclair tried to stop the DTV transition with it didn't go his way.
>
In Japan with little OTA HD broadcasting Mark admits a lot of HDTV sets
are being sold. That could be because there may be more broadcasting
than Mark admits of knows of and it could be because the players in the
OTA HDTV business in Japan are more confident of their system. The
manufacturers retailers and therefore their customers all are on board,
confident and eager to buy into their OTA COFDM ISDB-T system. Why could
that be even in the face of little broadcasting as Mark suggest?
Well if your are a retailer selling big bulky integrated HDTV sets you
will not be aggressive in selling them if you find a lot of them coming
back because of problems. If the OTA receiver built in is a problem it
would be better to push the HD set without the receiver and sell the
receiver separately. When it comes back because of problems it is a much
smaller part of the sale, weighs less and is just a smaller problem.
In the US a lot of receivers come back and become open box specials.
This has kept receivers out of integrated sets and caused the FCC to
mandate what the industry, the retailers abhor. So in the US with almost
universal DTV coverage, lots of HD content, a rich country eager
normally to be the firstest with the mostest our problematic modulation
has stymied our DTV transition.
While in Japan with little coverage and less content people are being
sold by eager retailers very expensive equipment that can't even receive
HD yet while in the US people are taking home HD sets with no receiver
in them to watch DVD's while there is a lot of free OTA being broadcast.
And in many cases we find that the salespersons didn't even inform them
of the HD options.
And it is all because Bob Miller is posting on a newsgroup in the US and
not Japan.
Good logic!!!
If the US with all its content and universal coverage had been selling
8-VSB integrated HDTV sets at the same, non accelerated rate, as has
taken place in Japan this last year, the US would have seen the sale of
90 million INTEGRATED HDTV SETS over the last five years. That is the US
is six times as large as Japan. 46 million households compared to 290
million households. Five years of 3 million sales per year equals 15
million multiplied by 6 times as many households equals 90 million.
But we should have expected an acceleration as the first years sale so 3
million happy households induced more than 3 million the second year.
The US with only a minor acceleration over the Japan rate would have
seen more than 109 million HDTV integrated DTV sets sold in the last
five years if we had the same sales rate as Japan with even half of the
accelerated sales that Japan will see this year over last.
THE US TRANSITION WOULD ALREADY BE OVER WITH!!! Every house would
already have an integrated HDTV set.
But Bob Miller all by himself thwarted this entire industry.
Hint, if this entire industry believes this they can buy me off a lot
cheaper than Congress and the FCC. A few million my way and they can be
selling billions and billions of 8-VSB integrated sets tomorrow.
And I will lead the band right down main street beating the drum for 8-VSB.
Bob Miller
> But Psycho Bob Miller won't tell you that.
>
> Psycho Bob lies, either directly or by misleadingly presenting statistics.
>
> Remember, whatever Psycho Bob Miller says, the exact opposite is true!
>
> -- Mark --
>
>
http/staff.washington.edu/mrc
> Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate.
> Si vis pacem, para bellum.