Hypocrisy in Analog TV Cutoff Debate

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Douglas J. De Clue" <ddeclue () bellsouth net>
Date: October 16, 2005 2:34:05 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: FW: [bushlied] [IP] Hypocrisy in Analog TV Cutoff Debate
Reply-To: ddeclue () bellsouth net



-----Original Message-----
From: Douglas J. De Clue [mailto:ddeclue () bellsouth net]
Sent: Sun, October 16, 2005 2:18 PM
To: 'bushlied () yahoogroups com'; 'dallasdemocrats () egroups com';  
'USDemocrat () yahoogroups com'; 'TheFalloutShelter () yahoogroups com';  
'DiehardDems () yahoogroups com'; 'AB_Progressives () yahoogroups com';  
'Do_Something_America () yahoogroups com';  
'HomeOfTheBrave () yahoogroups com'; 'lauren () pfir org';  
'lauren () vortex com'; 'lauren () eepi org'; 'floridaforkerry () yahoo com'
Subject: RE: [bushlied] [IP] Hypocrisy in Analog TV Cutoff Debate

Dave, Lauren, et.al:

I received this message via one of several liberal yahoogroups I  
belong to regarding the planned conversion of television broadcasts  
in the United States from the NTSC analog broadcast (525 lines/60Hz  
interlace analog) that has been in effect since approximately the end  
of World War II until the present day to the new digital High  
Definition TV (HDTV) standard.

I have a different view of this issue than you on this issue and want  
to express my opinion to you and your audience.

First let me tell you that I am not some corporate hack working for  
HDTV.

I am an active Democrat who worked many many hours and donated  
substantially to both the John Kerry campaign and my local Democratic  
Party here in Orlando Florida and who has given to a variety of  
Democratic and liberal causes.  I have also worked on a program here  
in Orlando to try to bring Air America Radio to the vast conservative  
wasteland that is Orlando talk radio as well.

Secondly let me tell that I am an engineer who has worked extensively  
in RF systems, particularly in the CATV (cable television) and  
cellular phone industry for companies like Scientific Atlanta and  
Motorola.   I do not currently work in either CATV or cellular  
telephones so I don't really have an axe to grind other than to bring  
my technical expertise to this discussion.

Let me begin by saying that the original FCC target for complete  
conversion to HDTV in the United States was originally going to be  
this year, 2005.  This has been pushed out nearly 5 years to allow  
the consumers and the broadcasters time to catch up.

I am sure that most consumers are aware at least of the existence of  
HDTV if they have ever been into a BestBuy or Circuit City in their  
lives.  Most network programs display the HDTV logo these days as  
well so HDTV is not the total mystery to the public that you claim.   
Not as many people are aware that their old fashioned NTSC TV's are  
going to be obsolete in 2009 but I don't think that this is as  
unknown as you think.  In any event, I'm sure in the next year or  
two, the major retailers will make sure that the public is highly  
aware of that fact as a way of selling new TV sets to the consumer.

In my opinion, the biggest issue for liberals (actually for everyone)  
should not be the changeover itself but rather the proper disposal  
and recycling of all of this obsolete analog equipment as much of it  
contains hazardous materials (particularly heavy metals) that need to  
be carefully disposed of or recycled rather than simply just dumping  
them in the local general purpose land fills to pollute local  
watersheds.

As the owner of 5 old NTSC analog TV sets (and one new HDTV tuner and  
an HDTV projector), I understand some of the sentiment behind your  
letter that HDTV will make existing television sets, VCR's and other  
equipment obsolete and will require the consumer to make a new  
investment in equipment - but then - change is hardly a new thing  
where high technology is concerned:

AM radios gave way to FM, tubes gave way to transistors and then  
integrated circuits and now FM is starting to be replaced by digital  
radio such as XM and Sirius radio.

Black and white TV's gave way to color TV's and now HDTV's.

Phonographs, eight tracks and reel to reel systems have been replaced  
by cassette and then CD in the 80's and now SACD in the 21st century.

VHS has been replaced by DVD and soon DVD will be replaced by "blue  
ray" DVD's.

Low volume citywide radiotelephone systems were replaced analog cell  
phones that have then been replaced by better and better digital cell  
phones.

The personal computer industry has gone from the stone age with Apple  
II's and TRS-80's through a whole series of x86 processor machines  
through Pentiums and is now starting to move beyond even the  
Pentium.  Computer power has grown from 1 MHz 8 bit machines in the  
early 80's to the present day 2.4+ GHz 64 bit machines with nearly  
20,000 times as much power as those early machines.  And still they  
continue to evolve and improve.

And yet - there is no great outcry about these changes because each  
new generation offers improved technical performance over the last  
generation.

The cost of replacing this obsolete equipment might at first glance  
seem large but the cost of going to digital TV is not nearly what it  
once was.

Last year I purchased a combination satellite/terrestrial receiver  
made by Hughes with top of the line features including the ability to  
control my existing VCR that was capable of receiving DirecTV digital  
satellite broadcasts in both NTSC and HDTV formats, as well as  
receiving terrestrial and cable TV signals in both NTSC and HDTV  
formats for $299.00.

It should be possible by the time the changeover is complete for the  
average TV viewer to purchase an HDTV converter unit to view the HDTV  
programs on their existing NTSC sets for well under $100.00.  It is  
doubtful that many persons will purchase such converters however  
given that the price of HDTVs also continues to fall and the average  
viewer ought to be able to purchase a decent HDTV set for less than  
$200.00 by 2009/2010.

Personally, I watch HDTV from my Hughes tuner on an $800, 7 pound  
Epson computer projector that I project on my living room wall to  
about 120" diagonal image.  Last year that projector cost me $1000.   
By 2009, it may well be down to $200 for a similar or better device.   
I should add that this Hughes/Epson combination generates no x-rays  
(radiation), uses much less electricity, and has a much better  
picture than my old 31" 200 lb NTSC RCA glass tube TV that I bought  
back in 1995.

I feel that it should be pointed out that we have already gone  
through this exact same situation with the cell phone industry.

The original cell phones were also analog devices, known as AMPS  
phones.  They were big, bulky and high powered affairs with big  
batteries.  I had one of these phones in the mid 90's that weighed  
about 5 lbs and put out 1.2 to 3.0 Watts of power compared with my  
current CDMA digital phone that weighs only a few ounces and puts out  
1/4th to 1/10th the power of my old phone.

The cell phone industry saw early the advantages of digital  
modulation and compression and moved quickly to digital systems such  
as TDMA, CDMA, and GSM which used less bandwidth, increased the total  
number of connections possible, and improved the quality through  
spread spectrum CDMA (in CDMA systems) and through digital error  
correction schemes such as FEC (forward error correction).

To my knowledge there was no great outcry about the changeover in the  
cellular industry and I am puzzled as to why there should be one  
regarding HDTV now.  In fact the cellular spectrum auction under the  
Clinton administration was one of Clinton's better acts as President  
in terms of being fiscally responsible and making corporations pay  
their fair share of taxes.

HDTV offers a number of benefits to society beyond the obvious  
improvement in image resolution and signal quality it provides.

For one thing, it does offer the government a substantial new source  
of revenue through a spectrum auction such as was previously  
conducted for the cell phone industry in the late 90's.  The  
broadcasting industry has made huge fortunes off of the implicit  
corporate subsidy at taxpayer expense provided by their free use of  
the "We the People's" airwaves for the last 50+ years in the case of  
television and for the last 80+ years in the case of radio.

For another, it offers the opportunity for increased competition to  
cable and satellite systems.

Digital off the air broadcasting means that local stations can offer  
multiple programs in digital format where they were only able to  
offer one program before.  In my area that means that some of the  
channels offer news, weather forecasts and radar.  Public  
broadcasting has been a leader in the digital switchover and offers  
much more variety than they used to do in the analog days and in  
particular offers much more governmental affairs programming allowing  
the voter at least the opportunity to know more about what is going  
on in state government.

With digital quality on off the air (terrestrial) broadcasting being  
every bit as good as it is from satellite and cable systems (which  
could never truly be said for over the air analog broadcasting with  
it's ghosting, and other interference isues) and with digital  
multicasting meaning that a wider variety of programming is possible,  
this makes it harder for cable and satellite operators to convince  
persons to buy their services and thus acts to keep prices down on  
CATV and satellite systems.

A wider variety of off the air programming being available means that  
it is possible for a wider diversity of opinions to be heard as  
well.  This serves the public interest and blunts the efforts of the  
Rupert Murdochs and Time Warners of the world to try to control  
public opinion by controlling the media.

The use of digital modulation also means that it will be possible for  
the FCC to grant more local licenses in any particular area because  
of the reduced issues with what is called ACI or "adjacent channel  
interference".  i.e. it will be easier to put more stations in the  
same area that are next to each other in frequency than it is today  
with analog broadcasting.  It will also be easier because digital  
compression means you can fit more channels into the same bandwidth  
than you could with an old fashioned uncompressed analog system, much  
as happened with the cellular industry switch to digital allowing  
increased calling capacities.

Again with more channels and local licenses this means a decrease of  
the concentration of media in the hands of a few corporate moguls and  
an increase in the power of regular people to express themselves via  
television.

What is happening with HDTV will also ultimately happen to radio as  
well.  XM and Sirius satellite radio are the vanguards of digital  
radio today much as DirecTV and Dish Network were to digital  
television in the mid to late 90's.  Ultimately our existing AM and  
FM radio stations will also convert over to digital formats allowing  
us many more channels and much greater access to our media.  It may  
even be that WiFi (802.11.x) internet access may become common place  
across the country with little routers on every lamp post in America  
so that we can both stream Air America Radio off the internet in our  
cars even as we are driving through the "red states" and talk via  
VOIP thereby offering new competition to today's cell phone systems.

Ultimately digital will help take radio and TV out of the hands of  
the Sean Hannitys and Rush Limbaughs and Bill O'Reillys of the world  
and offer a much more balanced and more diverse radio and TV world.


Democratically Yours,

Douglas J. De Clue
Orlando, FL




-----Original Message-----
From: bushlied () yahoogroups com [mailto:bushlied () yahoogroups com]On  
Behalf Of gep2 () terabites com
Sent: Sun, October 16, 2005 1:12 AM
To: dallasdemocrats () egroups com; USDemocrat () yahoogroups com;  
TheFalloutShelter () yahoogroups com; DiehardDems () yahoogroups com;  
AB_Progressives () yahoogroups com;  
Do_Something_America () yahoogroups com; HomeOfTheBrave () yahoogroups com;  
bushlied () yahoogroups com
Subject: [bushlied] [IP] Hypocrisy in Analog TV Cutoff Debate

Of course, this UNDERSTATES the problem.

It's not just television sets that will become obsolete.

It's also (for example) VCRs, DVD recorders, and any other device  
which might
try to select (analog) channels, and particularly when unattended.   
Anyone who
ever records an analog TV signal to tape or disc will be impacted by  
this, since
even if they could previously program their VCR or DVD recorder to  
select the
appropriate channels at the right time, that programmable recording  
almost
certainly will not work to select the channel(s) as required using  
the set-top
adapter box.  :-((

<---- Begin Forwarded Message ---->
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: [IP] Hypocrisy in Analog TV Cutoff Debate
Date: Sat, 15 Oct 2005 17:38:39 -0400
To: Ip Ip <ip () v2 listbox com>
Reply-To: dave () farber net



Begin forwarded message:

From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com>
Date: October 15, 2005 5:30:36 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Cc: lauren () vortex com
Subject: Hypocrisy in Analog TV Cutoff Debate


Dave,

As noted in:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/14/
AR2005101401960.html

Congress is moving toward demanding a late 2008, early 2009 cutoff
to conventional off-air analog television broadcasting.  Without
getting into all of the arguments again here that we've discussed
previously, it's amusing to note the newly opportunistic hypocrisy
in some of the arguments for the cutoff.

In particular, we're now seeing the recent hurricanes being used as
an excuse, to "free up spectrum already set aside to improve police,
firefighter and other emergency communications."  But we know what's
really going on.  Most of the spectrum to be pulled from analog TV
has nothing whatever to do with public safety, and everything to do
with auctioning off the spectrum to private companies for many
billions of dollars.  Those billions have been written into the
budget for years, and Congress is desperate to get that "IOU" off of
the books.

It's true that only a relatively small percentage of U.S. television
viewers still depend on off-air broadcasting for all of their TV
viewing.  But in terms of absolute numbers it's still lots of
people.  And that doesn't even take into account all of the
secondary TVs that many people have in their homes that often
depend on off-air signals, even if a fancier primary set is hooked
to cable or satellite.

I assert that only a tiny percentage of U.S. viewers have any concept
that the federal government is getting ready to obsolete all of those
otherwise working televisions.  People continue to buy all manner
of analog TVs every day, totally oblivious to this issue.

I also find it remarkable that -- given the press of other budget
priorities like war, hurricane relief, etc. -- that Congress is
seriously considering actually subsidizing the cost of converter
boxes as well, when most people already have televisions that would
continue to work just fine if this forced transition weren't
being rammed down their throats.

If Congress hadn't counted on the spectrum sale money before it
actually existed, we wouldn't have this mess.  As usual, it's
ordinary consumers who end up getting the shaft.

--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren () pfir org or lauren () vortex com or lauren () eepi org
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
   - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, EEPI
   - Electronic Entertainment Policy Initiative - http://www.eepi.org
Moderator, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
DayThink: http://daythink.vortex.com



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