RE: Fybush.com re: core spectrum of TV channels

[Garrett Wollman <wollman>]

<<On Fri, 2 Nov 2001 00:51:43 -0500, "A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@attorneyross.com> said:

> Does the set-top box make the old set into a digital set

Dirty little secret: anything with a CRT in it is, ipso facto, an
analog display.  Other than extremely-high-end plasma- and LCD-based
devices, anything you see sold as a ``digital TV'' is nothing of the
kind: it is an analog display device attached to an ATSC (digital)
decoder.

Most such decoders output in multiple video formats.  Almost all of
them have the ability to downconvert SDTV (``standard definition''
ATSC) to traditional NTSC signals for use with existing
consumer-electronics equipment like older TVs and VCRs.  Some of them
can also downsample HDTV signals to NTSC.  Many have a
progressive-scan RGB output which can be connected to a standard
computer monitor.  All of them have so-called ``component'' outputs
(YPbPr in the jargon), which are analog signals intended to drive a
high-definition display device.  A very few -- none that I've seen
recently on the market -- also have an IEEE-1394 (FireWire) digital
output, which was intended to be used by digital VCRs.  Most receivers
also have ATSC A/52 digital audio outputs in addition to analog
2-channel and 5.1-channel A/52 outputs.

In addition, a digital TV decoder -- if well-designed and if local
broadcasters are transmitting the necessary information -- is also
capable of providing the virtual channel and program guide functions
defined in the ATSC standard.  In South Bend, Indiana, one of the two
digital TV owners is unaware that, when his TV is tuned to channel 16,
he is actually watching a digital signal on channel 42.  Meanwhile,
viewers in Chicago can see Paxson's religious networks on WCPX-DT, in
addition to the main Pax TV feed.  I've not heard whether Boston
broadcasters have gotten their act together in establishing a virtual
channel map.  (My reading of the standard suggests that all
broadcasters in a given market have to agree on one virtual channel
map in order for things to work properly.)

-GAWollman