Archived from groups: alt.video.digital-tv,alt.tv.tech.hdtv (
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>>>In five to ten years (if 8-VSB survives that long) the average household
>>>in the US will have 10 plus digital TV receive devices. All but one or
>>
>> What on earth for? The average household has, what, 3-4 people?
>> Why would they need more than one mobile TV device per person?
>> Including the children?
>>
>>>two will be COFDM based and mobile. If 8-VSB survives this it will be
>>>relegated to the HD set in the living room (maybe another somewhere else).
>>
>>
>> I don't see what the demand is for Ultra Low Definition TV on a
>> cellphone. And that's all the resolution you are going to get on
>> a screen the size that can fit in someone's pocket or purse, unless
>> you've got plans for upgrading everyone's eyes to match (and I hate
>> to consider the copy-protect features that would be included in
>> that!).
>>
>> What is it you're expecting people to do with all these? Go jogging
>> with a screen on their back so the guy behind them can watch TV?
>>
>> Gordon L. Burditt
>
>
>In the average household of four of the future each person will have a
>cell phone (4), there is probably a TV set in the master bedroom and one
>for each of the children (3), one in the kitchen maybe in the door of
>the refrigerator (1), at least two desktop computers (2) and two laptops
>(2), two cars each with rear seat TVs (2), and a PDA or two (2), maybe
>a game machine (1) and a portable DVD player. OOPs that is 17 devices in
>a family of four. Two of the TVs are HD whiles the other 15 devices are
>all COFDM.
Of the devices you named, only the laptops, PDAs, car TVs, and
cellphones are mobile. I hope you don't expect the refrigerator
to be mobile! The cellphones and PDAs won't do any better than
Ultra Low Definition TV because the screen size is too small - a
problem that can't be fixed regardless of what modulation you use,
or even if the program source is flash memory or DVD.
I haven't seen a laptop that does decent TV but in 5 years we'll
get there. This one I'll conceed. But I don't think it'll receive
anything worth watching inside large office buildings. Oh, yes,
remember that laptops using 8-VSB can probably receive OK if they
are not moving, and the only people I've ever seen trying to use
them while actually moving are on trains or buses. They don't have
room to use them on a train or bus, and the majority of those users
had a near miss with dropping it, or actually managed to damage it.
I really have to wonder who's going to be watching those TVs in the
cars (and what advertisers will want to show them) while they are
moving: must be the kids, since at least one adult in this family
of four needs to be driving. I haven't seen a car (not SUV) actually
used by a middle-class family that has room in the back seat for a
screen, unless you intend putting it above the front seats so it
will block the driver's view to the rear. A lot of cars, my bet
is the majority, don't even have a back-seat passenger even once
during a given month, and for our family of four, that may well
include Dad's car that's used largely for commuting. So why would
many people pay for a TV in the back seat? The main market here
seems to be the parent who hauls young kids around a lot. And if
they have two cars, they don't need one in both of them.
There's a lot of redundancy in your example. If a computer can
serve as a decent TV, why does the person with the (non-mobile)
computer also need a TV in his bedroom? Why does a person need
a fixed TV if he's got a laptop that also serves as a perfectly
good TV?
"Two of the TVs are HD while the other 15 devices are all COFDM."
Isn't that a lot like saying "Two of the computers are white while
the other 15 devices are all Windows-based?" COFDM can't do HD TV?
I thought you could have COFDM/HD, COFDM/non-HD, non-COFDM/HD, and
non-COFDM/non-HD.
>The TVs may be connected to themselves and to the desktop computers and
>laptops with a wireless 802.11a or g device or a UWB network also, both
>of which will also be COFDM based.
This isn't broadcast TV. The topic was broadcast TV. I'm sure the
FCC isn't going to let me take one of the very limited number of
HD TV channels (I don't care what modulation is involved) and let
me tie it up for miles using it as my own WiFi network.
>Of course I don't see 8-VSB surviving in this world. It will be replaced
>by the FCC at the demand of broadcasters as these other devices come on
>board. For one thing if HD is in demand these other devices will also be
>able to receive HD so that will not be something that broadcasters will
>have exclusively.
What the heck good is HD TV on a cellphone, which will have a screen
that is Ultra Low Definition simply because of the low screen size
and the limits of human vision?
Where, 5 years ago, was the *ANALOG* mobile TV market for cellphones?
>The only thing broadcasters will have exclusive with 8-VSB is its lack
>of mobile reception.
No matter what the modulation I doubt you are going to get anywhere
near complete coverage of where people actually go, especially the
insides of large office buildings. Cellphones certainly don't work
reliably (or in some places, at all) in that situation. Especially
in elevators. Plus there's the issue that some offices may take
steps to make sure that broadcast TV does NOT work in their offices,
either through technical means or firing people caught using it.
>Its inability to compete across the board with
>other OTA broadcasters to that much larger market. That is other
I don't see how you are figuring mobile is a larger market than
the fixed living room model. I'd be surprised if it's 10% of
the fixed living room model. In the software market, many companies
seem perfectly fine with ignoring the small percentage of users
who don't run Microsoft virus, er, Windows.
>broadcasters can compete in the fixed living room model while also
>delivering to mobile. Current broadcasters will not be able to do that.
Hmm, how much money are advertisers going to make broadcasting to
the backs of cars that are either empty or filled with 5-year-olds?
>They will demand COFDM or they will be marginalized by advertisers as I
>point out above.
When are they going to come up with programming that's actually
worth watching mobile?
Gordon L. Burditt
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