Bob Urz wrote:


Rick Brandt wrote:

"Bob Urz" wrote in message
...


Rick Brandt wrote:


Bob Urz wrote:

Its going to happen. its only a matter of time.
The gov thinks there going to make big bucks selling some of the
spectrum and using other parts of it for public safety.



Yeah, but let's not make it a bigger deal that it is. When that
happens ANY TV will work when hooked up to a box that will cost a
few bucks. You will not see thousands of sets sitting on the curb
the next trash day.


A few bucks??? last i heard they estimated $200. Much more than most
tv's are worth. There was even talk of subsidies to accelerate the
changeover. Essentially, who wants to make a dead product??



I can buy a digital cable box NOW for 50 bucks.



Tell me who sells legitimate digital cable boxes for $50.
Show me where Scientific Atlanta, Motorola or GI sells them directly to
end users. And were not talking about HOT boxes on Ebay. Most cable
companies ONLY rent them. And if you get one stolen and have to have it
replaced, guess what, its NOT $50. Try a few hundred. Call your cable
company and ask. And most of those boxes are LOCKED to particular
cable systems like cell phones are Locked to a company. And if your
talking about direct TV satellite boxes, they don't actually cost $50.
they subsidize the hardware so you will buy the software. Them smart
cards aren't cheap. And they keep having to upgrade them to keep the
pirates at bay. Its like the printer companies selling you cheap
printers so they can later sell you expensive ink carts.


When hundreds of millions of

sets can make use of such a device some nice Asian company will gladly
flood the market with a unit and I will be shocked if the price
doesn't quickly settle at under 20 dollars.

Remember that all the unit has to do is the same thing as the tuner
that will be just one small component in the new TVs being sold.


Sounds easy doesn't it? Well it isn't. Here is a link to a trade mag
Twice on the issue:
http://www.twice.com/article/CA49251...Home+Satellite

You may have to register to read the meat of it.

This was suppose to be the year that 25" to 35" TV's transition to have
ATSC tuners in them. It been a SLOW transition. WHY? because in some
cases it has cost up to $300 more per TV to implement this.
This is DIRECT quote from the trades.

Many people got around this issue by selling units with NO tuners.
Just as you suggested. Just RCA jacks for inputs or Digital. But that
still does not solve the problem.

A digital tuner is MUCH more complex than its analog cousin.
It more akin to a small computer than a tuner. It not only has to
tune the digital signal, do complex math for multi path cancellation,
but then demod the signal and buffer it before doing decompression
and D/A decoding. Granted, pricing will come down in the future.
Buts it not even close to a $50 product now. Not to mention how many
patent holders get a cut of the action on the technology. How many links
can your provide for stand alone ATSC to NTSC tuner boxes under $50 now?
And do you want that box on top of your $100 wallmart TV?






Just how expensive could it

possibly be? And why would it be a dead product?


Its basically a dead product because its will be for old technology
units only. After a cutoff date, most new units will have the ATSC
tuners built in. SO your tooling up resources for a box that will have
large sales for a year or two at best. And people will be screaming that
they have to buy them at all. The kicker on that scenario is the cable
companies will probably rent you a box to do the conversion that is
a cable convertor also in the future. That will also cut way down on
tuner only box purchases. You will rent it, not buy it. That's the
model the cable companies want you to buy into. Its the people NOT on
cable or Satellite that will likely suffer.


Bob

They still sell devices that

allow you to hook up RCA connectors to a TV that is only equipped with
a coax connector. How long has it been since you saw a new TV that
didn't have RCA connectors? Those devices are being purchased by
people who have perfectly working TVs who are now finding that the DVD
player manufacturers have stopped putting coax outputs on their units
like the VCRs they're replacing. So for ten bucks they buy an adapter.





More links:

http://broadcastengineering.com/news.../20050302/#gao

http://broadcastengineering.com/news.../20050302/#stb

Bob

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