Tuner Enforcers

Tuner enforcers. Where are they?

http://www.tvtechnology.com/features/tuning_in/f_gary_arlen-09.21.05.shtml

Nowhere is seems.

Why enforce a mandate when your real goal is to kill OTA broadcasting?

Kill the Frankenstein (8-VSB)before it kills OTA.

As was so well put by the Editor of Broadcast Engineering Magazine in 2000

EDITORIAL
******************************

Kill the 8VSB Frankenstein
By Brad ***, editor

VSB technology is a Frankenstein, built from the scraps of other failed
ideas. Angry broadcasters now march on the castle of ATSC. Chants of "Kill the beast!" get louder. Users pound upon the castle gate demanding
verifiable performance while the monster's ATSC medical team frantically
attempt to salvage the beast from its deserved demise.

The reality is that 8VSB deserves to be put to death quickly. It never
worked well. Broadcasters don't want it. Consumers don't want it. It doesn't do what it needs to do. The fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) created by the technology's disappointing performance and the ATSC's refusal to effectively address these concerns have done more to derail the launch of U.S. DTV than even our FCC * and that's saying something!

About the only ones pushing to keep this laboratory mistake on life support are the technology's patent interest holder (Zenith), its chief PR flack (ATSC) and, of course, the CEA, which will say anything to generate a sale. Thanks to politics, this junkyard assembly of a technology continues to live on.

Way back in July 1994, Broadcast Engineering magazine practically begged
this industry to pause long enough to allow the testing of COFDM technology. In an editorial, we stated the potential benefits of COFDM far outweighed the possible 15-month delay that would be incurred. Now look at the mess we're in.

I've heard lots of arguments for keeping 8VSB. Most center on three points:

Next generation receivers will solve any reception problems;
It will be too expensive to convert 8VSB receivers in the field; and,
Changing to COFDM would result in an unacceptable delay in implementation.
All three statements are untrue.

Consider these key points:

Broadcasters need flexibility with DTV technology to compete and develop new services and adapt to marketplace demands. Otherwise they won't support it. No one wants just a digital version of our analog system.
8VSB does not, today, provide for portable or mobile service. COFDM does. The conversion cost to COFDM is not the billions quoted by some 8VSB proponents. Given the few receivers actually in the field, we're talking relatively small change to convert. In a statesman-like manner, Sinclair has even offered to pay for replacement STBs for its current viewers. Bottom line: conversion will not be expensive. A delay in implementation is preferable to adopting an inferior system. Anyone remember the color wheel?

STB manufacturers have stated COFDM products can be on retail shelves in 12 months. DTV is being delayed primarily because of the FUD factor. Dump 8VSB and you eliminate the key excuse to not implement DTV.
8VSB has had almost six years to make itself work and it still doesn't. We should not gamble on promised future fixes that might make tomorrow's 8VSB as good as COFDM is today.

The solution is to kill 8VSB now. God help us if the doctor (Kennard) is
able to say, "It's alive. It's alive."

Brad ***, editor

Bob Miller
.

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