Was the US digital TV standard a mistake?

[KA5PIU]

Hello.

Something like this.
http://www.amazon.com/Sony-SRF-M37V-.../dp/B00008W7LS
http://www.amazon.com/Sony-SRF-M80V-.../dp/B000066HO4
I just picked Sony and Amazon.
At one time there were dozens of this type of thing on the market.
That tells you that there was a market for this type of thing, a market that is now gone.
FLOTV is shutting down.
http://www.flotv.com/
The other option is not ready.
http://www.mobitv.com/
So I get my portable TV fix from my phone.
That is correct, I no longer watch TV on my TV when out and about, nor does anyone else.
There is no dancing involved, fact of the matter is that DTV is something of a failure in the USA.

[KC2UGV]

Hello.

Something like this.
http://www.amazon.com/Sony-SRF-M37V-.../dp/B00008W7LS
http://www.amazon.com/Sony-SRF-M80V-.../dp/B000066HO4
I just picked Sony and Amazon.
At one time there were dozens of this type of thing on the market.
That tells you that there was a market for this type of thing, a market that is now gone.
FLOTV is shutting down.
http://www.flotv.com/
The other option is not ready.
http://www.mobitv.com/
So I get my portable TV fix from my phone.
That is correct, I no longer watch TV on my TV when out and about, nor does anyone else.
There is no dancing involved, fact of the matter is that DTV is something of a failure in the USA.

FloTV and MobiTV are subscriber-based services, that work on 4G cell networks, not regular OTA broadcasts.

I have a pocket-sized TV that works just fine. And, it cost me just over $100. Works fine while I'm driving too.

[ab3lw]

Great info! Thanks UGV.
Looks like a simple filter solution or a lobotomy on the dvr.

CCI flag ignore cant be very hard to do. And perfectly legal unless its part of a scheme to redistribute content illegally.

[KA5PIU]

Hello.

Terrain has a lot to do with DTV.
I picked 2 of the absolute worst for DTV.
The first is in an urban area where ghosting has always been something of an issue, and outside antennas are no cure for 30 foot tall buildings everywhere.
The second is starting towards the "devils backbone", a series of ridges that start from the North of San Antonio and take you to the Texas hill country.
I live in an area where I can get DTV, sometimes.
There is a trade off, elevation for stability.
High enough to get over the trees, 40 feet, and you have a guyed tower.
Under that and the trees cause trouble.
This is, of course, in bad weather, but that is the time I want television.
I picked real world situations and real world products.
And yes, Mexico, a country that uses hundreds of TV translators, is having some real issues at this point.
In place of a TV converter coupon program they are looking at a dish giveaway.
The Mexico City DTV experiment is considered a total failure, less than 5% of the population wants DTV.
Remember that this is a country that has something like 30% of the TV sets that are monochrome.
television is not as much a part of the life of the average Mexican as it is in the US.
In fact in some places the press has no real effect on the population as they prefer to keep to the community.
The Federales are seen as outsiders and one reason why the drug cartels do so well.

[kb2vxa]

We can blame the FCC's insufferable greed over good engineering practices for making such a mess of radio and TV. They caved in to the Motorola lobby every time, that's how we got stuck with 8VSB modulation even though the Baltimore Experiment proved COFDM far superior at the same power level. Europe enjoys far superior reception and the rub is COFDM was invented here and sold off to recover losses incurred in research and development.

Now for AM radio, the original Kahn full carrier ISB stereo modulation scheme was fully mono compatible yet they caved in and mandated the Motorola system which is not. That's how a ham acquaintance got his hands on a Kahn exciter that went into the Dumpster but I digress. One of the huge advantages of ISB is emphasizing one sideband over the other to avoid interfering with an adjacent channel but since talk radio took over broadcasters tossed into the Dumpster all that money they spent on AM stereo, Motorola and all. Then the FCC approved IBOC and all hell broke loose, that annoying hiss is all over the band and nighttime propagation raises Cain all over North America. Oh and BTW, Canada hates us for it just like US broadcasters hated Mexican border blasters, now the shoe is on the other foot.

Sheila Broflovski can sing Blame Canada all she wants to but I'll go with Peter Griffin, I blame the FCC!

[KA5PIU]

Hello.

FLOTV works on 700 mHz and has little to do with cellular.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaFLO
In the San Antonio and Houston area nearly everyone has gone from OTA TV to nothing or subscription TV.
At the area I live at they decided to spend the money and improve the CATV system by installing a true headend.
Once digital hit we went back to the old equipment. ;)
The new chief engineer was promptly fired, the old equipment simply took the OTA signal and amplified it, other than tilt there was/is no processing of the signal.
For nearly a month it was shut down while they decided what to do.
Time Warner felt it was uneconomical to run service out here and Bexar cable went broke before the buyout so we bought the cable plant and set up CATV quite a few years ago.
All of the farms are now gone and a HOA community has sprung up around us.
The developer paid to have all of the utilities buried, including our old magneto telephone lines and the REC telephone service.
AT&T now provides landline service but the old hand crank phones still work, connected to the other 5 farm houses in the neighborhood.
The HOA now treats us like industrial sites but we now live together pretty well.
But, the days of people jogging around and watching TV OTA is gone, it just does not work that well here.
There were always ghosts on analog TV, no matter what you did, and why the CATV system was installed.
This area has lots of trees in one area, nearly a forest, that acts as an excellent buffer from the highway and such.
To the north is rolling hills with plenty of brush.
The flatlands was level farmland but is now a gated community of 180 houses.

[HUGH]

Digital TV means I'll have to dispose of this I suppose.

[KA5PIU]

Hello.

The US simply needs to review DTV.
One of the reasons for the very long delay was the fact that it really does not work, the simulcasting proved that.
The whole point of simulcasting was that people would transition to this new service willingly.
Then it was suggested that the temporary channels did not have full power and this was the reason.
Finally, transition, and it still does not work well.
For 1 and 1/2 years we have been on the nationwide DTV transition and still do not have it right.
http://www.dtv.gov/

[W4RLR]

Hello.

When I was in San Antonio for a week, I was to the west of the city center. Coming into town from the east, I noticed the rather large antenna farm north of I-10 and made a mental note of it. When I parked my fifth-wheel travel trailer on my hilltop site at Lackland AFB, I aimed the Winegard batwing antenna at the antenna farm on the other side of San Antonio. There were more DTV stations than I could possibly watch, about half programming in Spanish. Line of sight for the DirecTV dish in the dome on the roof was great, not that many trees in that part of Texas.

When the wife and I came back to the trailer every night, it was being like home. Since San Antonio seems to be in a bowl surrounded by hills, unless you live near downtown, I can't see how anyone could have a problem with TV reception, save for the occasional C-5 flying overhead from Lackland's flightline, which my trailer was parked under. I considered the noise the sound of freedom.

(this was my imitation of a Rudy post. Everything in the post is true. Not a personal attack, just an observation of writing style)

[KA5PIU]

Hello.

As I pointed out, Downtown is one area with a lot of trouble.
The other, just outside loop 1604 near I-35 is also an issue.
I am not saying that it does not work, just that in the 2 places I happen to hang it does not work well.
And, armband jogging radios are not out.