[Tig] OT TiVo (was: Re: Is packaged media close to end of life?)

[Ted Langdell]

Happy New Year, folks,

On Jan 13, 2008, at 10:23 AM, Bob Friesenhahn wrote:
> Given that analog TV will soon go away, it is difficult to imagine a
> purpose for SD output.
>
> Bob


Not that difficult. Watching programs on your analog SD TV or monitor  
that you haven't replaced, for one thing.

What's going away is Analog TRANSMISSION of broadcast television to  
US consumers.

The analog RECORDING, playback and distribution of TV or video isn't,  
any more than people will abruptly quit using 20+ year old CRT and  
line array telecines or driving 1957 Chevys.

If they have it and it works, they'll keep using it until it doesn't  
work, they can't sell the use of it anymore, or there's something so  
much better and/or so relatively inexpensive that they can't resist a  
purchase.

Its similar to what took place with the introduction of color TV.

It took NBC ten years or more to become the first "full color"  
network, where everything broadcast was in color to affiliates. ABC  
was the last network to do so, several years after NBC and CBS were  
full-color.

At the beginning of NTSC color, some local stations jumped in with  
both feet and bought color studio, field, film and tape equipment,  
while continuing to originate monochrome programming with existing  
gear. During that period, it was common for film islands to have both  
a color and a monochrome camera.

Ed Reitan's website about color tv is quite interesting in that  
regard.  Especially about early RCA sets using using the full gamut  
of NTSC, as compared to today's sets.

See http://novia.net/~ereitan/  and http://novia.net/~ereitan/ 
PION_6m.htm with additional info from RCA marketing exec. Lytle Hoover.

Other stations waited quite a while to add color origination, and did  
only what was necessary to "pass color" from the network(s). That may  
have included modification or replacement of the main transmitter or  
modulator if it was not new enough to be "color ready" when first  
installed.

In order to "pass color," changes may have also been needed to other  
equipment between the incoming network telco line or microwave  
receiver and the transmitter.

With DTV, many stations have yet to begin originating any local  
programs in HD. What HD they do have is simply "passed through" from  
the network like color programs were 50 years ago.

There are stations (particularly smaller market stations) that are  
implementing Digital television by simply converting their analog  
NTSC signal to a digital one at the transmitter site.  SD 4x3... not  
16x9 or HD. No network HD pass-through, either.

When the analog transmission authority expires in 2009 (assuming the  
FCC or courts don't extend the life of analog) they'll turn off the  
analog transmitter and keep on producing with existing NTSC equipment  
until they can afford to do a complete upgrade, OR will replace  
pieces of the existing production and transmission system until they  
have a completely digital chain from the back of the lenses to the  
transmitter input.

Even when a station's DTV IS digital end to end, its .2 and .3  
channels may be less than analog broadcast quality due to  
compression. And those channels are most often 4x3. Fewer bits  
required from the total available, and can be generated with existing  
equipment.

Back to your comment about SD outputs from TiVo: If a consumer wants  
to preserve a show on a medium they have, the SD spigot may be what  
they use... simply because they don't have any HD recording options.  
Yet.

Ted.

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

tedlangdell.com. Storytelling through Broadcast Coverage and Creative  
Services since 1974
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