Same as here

Post #11,027 by SpiceWare 9/30/01 7:21:42 PM Reply	Same as here The feds mandated the broadcasting of digital, depending on what market the station is in. The top 10 markets had to be online the first year, followed the top 30 the second year. Not sure the exact rules though, only ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC are broadcasting digital here in Houston - UPN, WB, PBS and the local only channels are not. The schedule calls for all digital broadcasting by 2006, with the analog lines being turned back in for reassignment. Anybody without a digital set by then would need a STB that can output to an older TV. I suspect that cable boxes will take care of that for most people. Darrell Spice, Jr. [link\|http://home.houston.rr.com/spiceware/\|SpiceWare] - We don't do Windows, it's too much of a chore
Post #11,038 by static 9/30/01 9:07:58 PM Reply	Cable take-up in Au is low. Most people still get all their TV from a yagi on the roof and video hires. I have a nice game when cable salesmen come to the door. I ask them if they can provide the same picture quality and connection options as a high-end DVD player. That means anamorphic program and component video. So far, no dice. But that's the market they have to compete in to really get anywhere - because that's where digital TV is heading... Wade. "All around me are nothing but fakes Come with me on the biggest fake of all!"
Post #11,076 by SpiceWare 10/1/01 9:54:54 AM Reply	How long has cable been available? My family's had cable ever since I can remember(mid 70s). DirecTV was offering more than cable, so I went with that a couple years ago. The cable company wised up and started offering more than DirecTV. For some reason widescreen sets (pre-HDTV) never took off in the US like in other parts of the world, so anamorphic didn't mean anything here until HDTV sets began to be sold. I imagine that's why the older DVDs where done using pan-and-scan or letterboxed instead of anamorphic. Darrell Spice, Jr. [link\|http://home.houston.rr.com/spiceware/\|SpiceWare] - We don't do Windows, it's too much of a chore
Post #11,186 by static 10/1/01 9:06:10 PM Reply	In Au? Maybe a decade. It began life in Au as "Pay TV". One early operator used MDS but it turned out that cable was better in enough ways. We never had the same situation as created the early cable system in the US. Instead, market forces were artificial and some extremely expensive mistakes were made. As a result, most of Australia's urban areas have two cable networks to choose from, Foxtel (run by Telstra) and OptusVision. The problem with this is that the owner of the infrastructure owns the programming system, too. Bad mistake, IMHO. I reckon if Optus really want to spike Telstra, they would sell their cable network in neighbourhood sized pieces and sell them content packages. Wade. "All around me are nothing but fakes Come with me on the biggest fake of all!"
Post #11,187 by static 10/1/01 9:06:17 PM Reply	In Au? Maybe a decade. It began life in Au as "Pay TV". One early operator used MDS but it turned out that cable was better in enough ways. We never had the same situation as created the early cable system in the US. Instead, market forces were artificial and some extremely expensive mistakes were made. As a result, most of Australia's urban areas have two cable networks to choose from, Foxtel (run by Telstra) and OptusVision. The problem with this is that the owner of the infrastructure owns the programming system, too. Bad mistake, IMHO. I reckon if Optus really want to spike Telstra, they would sell their cable network in neighbourhood sized pieces and sell them content packages. Wade. "All around me are nothing but fakes Come with me on the biggest fake of all!"

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