In article <[log in to unmask]>, Gavin Scott <[log in to unmask]> says:
>
>Unfortunately what many broadcasters want to do is to take this large
>chunk of bandwidth that is being provided to them for free and use a
>small portion of it to broadcast a lower quality HDTV picture and then
>use the rest of it to sell net services, data broadcast, and other
>non-TV related services with which they can make much more money than
>commercial TV broadcating.
>

Sadly, this is exactly what is happening. Not only that, but taller
antennas and more powerful transmitters are required to maintain
usable signals at the receiver, and current analog sets will need a
converter to be used after the plug is pulled on existing broadcast
standards in several years.  Also, there are no cable services that
have announced that the plethora of Digital "Standards" will be
propogated, so it's back to outdoor antennas like the '50s. Tests
show that a fairly elaborate antenna will be required at home
(forget rabbit ears)--in addition to the new giant towers being
erected to broadcast this crap (please excuse the language).  Having
spent 7 years in the broadcast business (Engineer at WBRZ-TV in
Baton Rouge, LA, 1958/1965), this sure isn't the way I hoped it would
turn out. (I also thought we would have placed persons on Mars by now,
but we're still spending a billion bucks a pop to fly a 20-year old
shuttle around for PR purposes).  Getting back to Digital TV,
the good news is that a previous timetable has been altered to
require that a very high percentage of Digital sets must be sold and
be installed in each viewing area by the "drop-dead" date (2006?).
Otherwise, they can't turn it (NTSC) off.  I'm certainly planning to
do my part in keeping sales as low as possible (as though I could
afford a $20,000 TV set anyway!). Also, many "environmental"
groups are mobilizing to stop construction of the new towers--
citing increased bird deaths, radiation hazards, airplane disasters,
etc.  Hey, maybe I'll join the "tree-huggers" after all!

For an excellent discussion of this mess, you might want to read
last month's UPSIDE article on the subject.  It cuts through the
usual "baffle-gab" and "spin", and actually gets to the truth.

Winston (54-60 MHZ on your dial) Kriger