[mythtv-users] DTV: It Has Begun

[jedi]

On Tue, Sep 09, 2008 at 02:56:07AM -0700, Allen Edwards wrote:
> On Tue, Sep 9, 2008 at 2:17 AM, Jon Bishop <jon.the.wise.gdrive at gmail.com>wrote:
> 
> >
> > On Sep 8, 2008, at 7:26 PM, David Brodbeck wrote:
> > > Aside from cost issues, digital portable TVs represent an interesting
> > > marketing problem.  The public has been conditioned to think that
> > > digital TV means HDTV.  But supporting 1080i on a 10" diagonal display
> > > would make no sense whatsoever.
> >
> > This has been something that has bothered me. When they mandated a
> > digital signal, why didn't that mandate the specifications of that
> > signal? DTV could be 720i/p or 1080i/p and there is a big difference.
> >
> > ~Jon
> 
> 
> The standard actually allows 480i as well.  They just opened it up and left
> it to the broadcasters to do what they wanted.  So, they can broadcast one
> nice fat 1080i signal, or 5 480i signals in the same bandwidth. Let the
> market decide.  This has probably been a good thing because the video

...yeah, because there are so many local channels broadcasting 
multiple versions of the same original content (as opposed to
reruns). So the choice is watch a crappy version of your favorite
show or watch something you don't really want to watch.

   Dunno how the "the market" comes into play there.

   All OTA stations are local monopolies. Some stuff (sports) 
even gets blacked out on cable because of this.

[deletia]