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[Ted Langdell]

Ted Langdell
Ted Langdell Creative Broadcast Services
Marysville, CA
Main:   (530) 741-1212

Now with 3GHz MacPro powering Final Cut Studio


On Jan 12, 2007, at 11:17 PM, TSassoon at aol.com wrote:

>
> In a message dated 1/12/07 11:11:25 PM, ted at tedlangdell.com writes:
>
>> It ain't helping to sell HDTV sets with ASTC tuners.
>>
>
> ???
>
> That doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.

Hi Tim...

I walked into my local Sears a couple of days ago.  Wondered why  
several HDTV's looked so crappy.  After finding the appropriate  
remote and doing some channel surfing, found that the store has two  
channels with the same content... one is a conventional analog SD  
channel for the NTSC sets to tune to and the other is a digital HD  
stream for the HD sets to use.

The difference in picture was quite amazing, and prompted the thought  
that having the HD set tuned to the analog channel "ain't helping to  
sell HDTV sets with ASTC tuners."

> I've yet to see an in-store that wasn't on cable or satellite feed.  
> I've NEVER seen one running OTA.

I think the Sacramento Good Guys had a rooftop antenna and was  
feeding that to HD and analog sets.  It DID allow one to step through  
a particular station's digital offerings.  I tended to barf at the  
lower data rate offerings. It looked like someone said "Let's throw a  
pixel block party!" and DID.

> And if they did, in primetime at least, it would be a significant  
> improvement.

I agree.  A shooter/editor friend who just bought a 32"? Sony CRT  
HDTV set was surprised at how good network football looked in HDTV,  
and got annoyed when the commercials came up as 4x3 SD.


> A better question is why they're allowed to continue selling 1.33  
> NTSC sets, only a year and change before they go dark?
>
> Tim Sassoon

There's no law against it.

Some places ARE putting stickers about "the impending doom" on the  
conventional sets as a warning or possible marketing tool.

What's REALLY a consumer confuser is the EDTV (Extended Definition)  
sets that aren't HD and don't do much better than NTSC... along with  
the sets that are 16x9 with ASTC tuners that are SD.

Hey, if I sold electronics at Sears or somewhere else I'd be:

1: Talking the store manager into putting up a rooftop antenna
2: Piping that into the TV area's RF system,
3: Playing LOTs and LOTS of OTA HD during prime time and weekend HDTV  
football and other sports
4: Showing customers the OTHER channels that OTA stations broadcast  
that might be of interest.
5: Explaining how to obtain an antenna and put it up.

To help sell HD sets, I'd be
A: Making sure that the sets were hooked up right and tuned to the  
proper channel(s)...
B: Getting them adjusted to look good to a standard reference, and  
then so that they matched as much as possible
C: Selling the heck out of HD and using the existing SD sets as a  
comparison.

But then, I'm not... so I won't!

RE: OTA antennas:  One source that seems to have good testimonials is  
http://www.antennasdirect.com/
No connection. Just checked out the site to assist the friend I  
referred to above.
He's ordered an antenna and If not TOO OT, I'd be happy to provide a  
report.

Ted.