Cable TV question

[Electronic M]

I agree with Jim.

The 'you won't be able to get TV with an antenna' argument is flat out crap. There is no legislation on that pending that I know of, and after hearing that I'd not believe another word the TWC rep said...

They can make the box necessary by simply sending all their channels in encoded QAM. It is that easy...though they could be nice and send the lower channels in clear QAM (which some newer sets can tune), but then they would not make money off the boxes, and their signal could be stolen ('oh the humanity' :sarcasm: ).

However there is a good chance that in the next 1-3 decades ATSC DTV will disappear or change. If 4K HD becomes a big enough thing there will have to be changes that may cause ATSC to be replaced by a more 4K compatible format. If OTA viewership drops and the cell companies, and other entities 'lobby' hard enough to get the chance to buy the TV spectrum from the FCC then OTA may have the spectrum sold out from under it.

We all have to face it, as soon as they mandated that broadcast TV be a digital format they made it just as disposable and prone to obsolescence as every other digital device, and since they set the precedence of non-backward compatibility with the adoption of ATSC they can change the format as often as they want however they want as long as they don't piss off enough people to have a riot or a house cleaning called for higher by higher ranking politicians.

"Cause what they do in Washington...They just takes care of number 1, and number 1 ain't you. You ain't even number 2."---Frank Zappa

[etype2]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

and since they set the precedence of non-backward compatibility with the adoption of ATSC

ATSC was made backward compatible by use of the digital converter box. In fact, every family in the U.S. was allowed to get two coupons for two free converters boxes until the 1.34 billion funding ran out.

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by etype2

ATSC was made backward compatible by use of the digital converter box. In fact, every family in the U.S. was allowed to get two coupons for two free converters boxes until the 1.34 billion funding ran out.

If you have to add external equipment to, or modify existing equipment in order to intelligibly receive a new version of a signal (or format), then that signal (or format) is NOT BACKWARDS COMPATIBLE!...It is backwards CONVERTIBLE.

As an example of true backwards compatibility; when they added stereo sound to FM radio in the early 60's all the old mono FM radios could still tune and play the FM stereo stations stations in mono without any modifications or added external equipment.

As an example of backwards convertibility; when Cassettes started to outsell 8-track tapes you could buy an 8-track cartridge that had no tape in it, but rather a small cassette tape mechanism that stole mechanical energy from the 8-track decks' capstan and electrical energy from the tape foil sensor in the 8-track deck (to read the cassette head, amplify it, and feed that to another head that contacted the 8-track player's head and induced the signal into it).....That cartridge (an example of one is the Kraco KCA-8) effectively converted an 8-track player to a cassette player, but without it you could not just jam a Cassette tape into an 8-track player and expect it to play.

I know full well that I can, and some times do, use a DTV converter box to adapt ATSC to play on an NTSC set, but unless the laws of physics change to allow ATSC to be intelligibly tuned on an NTSC set made in lets say 1975 A.D. without a converter box through nothing but the internal antenna then ATSC it not truely backward COMPATIBLE with NTSC.