Still no comparison

[NowhereMan 1966]

Originally Posted by Captain Video

While countries like the USA and Germany are still far behind their original schedules for full implementation of digital TV, the brazilian government, led by the drunk-in-charge Mister Lula da Silva seems to be in a very strange hurry to make Brazil jump quicly in the digital bandwagon. Digital transmissions will begin in December, but it seems that very few people will be able to receive the signals. The gang called "brazilian government" set a few years ago a completely irrealistic goal of having digital converters for sale for US$ 100.00 by the time of the beggining of the transmissions. Now it's clear that, at least on the beggining, those converters will not cost less than US$ 800.00 . The answer of the idiots that run this country is simple: the brazilian industry must be "punished" for it's "incompetence" , and the way to "punish" the industry is by massive imports of converters ... made in China.

I hate to have to say it about my own country, but, it seems that Charles De Gaulle once said: "Brazil is not a serious country" , and I have to agree. The government told us that the brazilian standard of digital TV was unique in the world, so how the hell the chinese have the know-how to produce millions of converters on that standard? I thought that this information was very well kept under secrecy by the government and the brazilian industry. If this were a serious country, a press and congressional investigation would be under way to find out how the chinese know something that only the brazilians and the japanese ( who helped us creating that standard ) were supposed to know.

Today the chinese will produce converters, tomorrow...they will produce TV sets on that standard, and that will be the end of the almost 70-year History of the brazilian electronic industry. We will disappear in the same way the american electronic industry disapeared - crushed by cheap, low quality Asian imports.

Welcome to the 21ist Century.

I remember George Carlin said that the "two most common elements in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity." Stupid is as stupid does, stupidy is a common trait, it is not unique to the United States or Brazil. I still watch a "made in USA" TV set as my main one but it was made in 1982 by Zenith when it was still known as "Zenith Radio Corporation" at the Chicago plant. It's been our daily watcher since we bought it new in early 1983, just think, I'll be 41 on Sunday (July 8th) and I'm watching the same TV I did when I was 16 years old in high school.

I'm getting a little OT on this one, but it seems like Red China will dominate the world with consumer items and otherwise, they already dominate here in the US and it seems like they are going to do the same for Brazil. Along with stupidity, I thin politicians do have two chips in their minds, a stupidity chip and a "sellout to the highest bidder" chip. They don't really care if they serve the interests of Brazil, the U.S. or wherever they come from and should serve the people therof but they worship the "almighty Dollar" instead. It seems like your politicians need the same "wake up call" as ours do.

I have a cartoon somewhere that was made in 1953 on how the Red Chinese will dominate the US and later the world, it seems like it is coming true.

BTW, getting back to the subject, which standard will Brazil use, ATSC or some other standard? I'm not a big fan on how they are ramming HDTV down our throats but it would make a good opportunity for have a one world standard although from what I hear, Europe will be different from us. Looks like we got another "Tower of Babel" on our hands.

[Captain Video]

Originally Posted by NowhereMan 1966

BTW, getting back to the subject, which standard will Brazil use, ATSC or some other standard? I'm not a big fan on how they are ramming HDTV down our throats but it would make a good opportunity for have a one world standard although from what I hear, Europe will be different from us. Looks like we got another "Tower of Babel" on our hands.

It's a hybrid system, half japanese and half local, a system specifically created for the peculiar characteristics of the brazilian TV market - a market in which the vast majority still don't have cable or other types of subscription-TV and on which the very complicated topography of the country makes TV transmission tricky. They say this system will allow for a greater number of TV channels and for mobile reception. I am no expert on digital TV, so I will have to wait for the beggining of the transmissions ( in my part of the country it will only happen in 2009 ) to see if it is really the wonder they are trying to convince us. What really irritates me is the sellout behavior of the politicians toward the chinese interests.