[mythtv-users] Just got my two $40 DTV coupons

[Chris Ribe]

>
> Yes, they expire.  Both cards are marked 'Valid Thru 05/23/2008' at the
> bottom.
>

Ouch, that sucks.  I  submitted my request  last week, but I had hoped to
hold out until the end before purchasing.

I am strong believer in the invisible hand of the market. Given that nobody
is going to sell a DTV for less than $40 before the coupon program ends,
numerous potentially sub $40 products are going to be competing right at the
$40 price point.

So what will they compete on, if they can't compete on price?  Features, of
course.

Oh snap! Well, we really can't have that, because the NTIA ( who? ) have
only been given enough money to provide coupons to 20% of those eligible for
them.

The NTIA aren't complete idiots, however, so they have made a concerted
effort to make converter box coupons as unattractive as possible while still
fulfilling their mandate.

Thus, only DTV recievers which are crippled to NTIA spec are eligible for
the coupon program.

To quote from the NTIA
FAQ<http://www.ntia.doc.gov/dtvcoupon/manufacturerFAQ.html>for
manufacturers:

> * 15. Is the inclusion of a USB port on a proposed CECB a disqualifying
> feature? *
>
> Yes, Technical Appendix 2 provides examples of disqualifying features such
> as USB. (A semi-colon between "USB" and "IEEE-1394" was inadvertently
> omitted from the "Outputs" chart.)
>
> *16. Are digital coaxial audio outputs or SPDIF (optical) outputs
> permitted on eligible converter boxes? *
>
> No. Technical Appendix 2, "Outputs" includes examples of disqualifying
> features. Digital coaxial and SPDIF optical outputs are not consistent with
> the statutory description of "converter box." (See Pub. L. 109-171, Section
> 3005(d) and Paragraph 55 of the Final Rule.)


And furthermore, from the "Fact Sheet for Manufacturers":
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/dtvcoupon/DTVmanufacturers.pdf

Disqualifying features:

Any device or capability which provides for more
> than simply converting a digital over- the-air
> television signal (ATSC) for display on an analog
> television receiver (NTSC), including, but not
> limited to:
>   G Integrated video display;
>   G Video or Audio recording or playback capability
>     such as VCR, DVD, HDDVD, Blue Ray, etc.


Outputs:                 Digital Video Interface (DVI);
>
                            Component video (YPbPr);
>                           G
>                           G High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI);
>                           G Computer video (VGA);
>                           G USB IEEE-1394 (iLink or Firewire)
>                           G Ethernet (IEEE-802.3)
>                           G Wireless (IEEE0802.11)


So, we have here the prospect of a market flooded with identically featured
$40 DTV receivers. How will this shake out?

Well, first the obvious mainstream of the trade: they are going to sell on
brand name, and big box retailers will restrict your choice of brand to the
brands that are scratching their backs.  Manufacturers will then compete on
cost to get their boxes labeled with those retailer accepted brands.

When you go into Best Buy in February 2009 looking for a DTV reciever, with
your coupon in hand, you will have 3 choices: Dynex, at $40, and identically
specced Toshiba and Sony models priced at $47.95 and $55.95.

What I am excited about, though, is the seamy geek driven gray market that
will emerge.   Some manufacturer that has come up on the short end of the
big box sweepstakes, but still has the capacity to make a DTV receiver for
$15 is going to do something extremely cool.   For instance, they might add
$5 to their BOM and  put a YPrPb output on a DB9 connector, or a SATA header
and 16MB of flashable ROM on their circuit board, and sell it to *US* in
exchange for our $40 coupons.

The beauty of the whole thing is that these backdoor upgrades are all but
certain to slip through the cracks because the relative volume will be low,
and this is some obscire agency of our federal government that we are
talking about here: by the time they decide what to do, we'll have our boxes
on top of our TVs, the coupon program will be over, the retailers who sold
us the hackable boxes will have been encouraged to do so by nothing more
than a wink and a nod and no paper trail, and the clever Taiwanese and
Chinese engineers who designed our boxes will have laughed all the way to
the bank.

Who loses in this situation?  Well, the American taxpayer, to a very small
extent, but that's what we get for giving our government so much freedom to
spend our money.

-chris


-- 
TV/IT Engineer
WCJB-TV Gainesville, FL
(352) 416 0648
cribe at wcjb.com
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