[mythtv-users] Interesting Reading: Windows Secrets reviews AppleTV and GoogleTV

[Jeff Walther]

> Date: Thu, 09 Dec 2010 12:43:11 -0600
> From: Ben Kamen <bkamen at benjammin.net>

> On 12/9/2010 12:29 PM, Brian Wood wrote:

>> Another case of using fear after 9/11 to generate bigger profits for the
>> corporate world. Of course HD was on the drawing board before 2001, but
>> 9/11 was used to push it over the edge, since consumers were not
>> sufficiently clamoring for it.
>>
>> But somehow the only beneficiaries are the media companies, cable
>> companies, broadcast equipment manufacturers and consumer electronics
>> manufacturers.
>
> yep! I had considered that. We the consumers gets some "flashier" stuff
> that doesn't really add much to the experience of TV viewing.

I find it a net disadvantage.   I get my content OTA, and during analog
broadcast, when (if) a station got a little weak, I never really noticed. 
They all tuned fine.

Now, I'm tweaking my antenna trying to find that magic spot where I won't
get the drop outs that make a show unwatchable on any of the stations.   A
little snow doesn't make an analog broadcast unintelligible.  A frozen
picture and dtauh, dtauh, dtauh, from the sound does make a digital
broadcast unintelligible and very unpleasant to watch.   Especially with
the tuner throwing up "Signal weak or lost" messages.  I think some of
this is multipath problems, but that wasn't a problem for me under analog
either.

My experience is that digital broadcast is less convenient, more
expensive, and ultimately of lower quality, since any increase in
resolution is discounted by a lost ability to actually watch some programs
in their entirety.

I guess those sub-channels are nice for someone.  It isn't me.  At first,
one of the stations here added one and put the Retro-TV network on it, and
that was very nice.  After six months they made it into a spanish language
station.   Now we have more spanish language stations than english, which
isn't a disadvantage, but it is of zero benefit to me.

> However, electronics makers get to sell us new stuff.
> Movie makers get to sell (in some cases RE-sell) us new media.
> The supply chain (broadcasters) have to buy all new stuff...
>
> Yup.

>> It's getting harder and harder to not be a conspiracy theorist.
>
> (nod)

It's not a conspiracy.  It's an emergent system based on the simple rules
of greed, stupidity, dishonesty and complacency.

Jeff Walther