Path: utzoo!ncc!alberta!watmath!looking!brad
From: brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton)
Newsgroups: can.general
Subject: Re: A golden opportunity
Message-ID: <2014@looking.UUCP>
Date: 8 Sep 88 17:02:13 GMT
References: <1411@maccs.McMaster.CA> <20776@watmath.waterloo.edu>
Reply-To: brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton)
Distribution: can
Organization: Looking Glass Software Ltd.
Lines: 31

Don't tell me the suggestion of an independent HDTV standard was serious?

Remember that HDTV will be bought first by the rich.  It will also be
broadcast from the US before it shows up on cable, although that could
be altered with a big effort.

Most of those rich live near the border.  Faced with buying an HDTV tuner
that could only get US stations and one that could only get Canadian
stations, guess which one people will buy, particularly if the US stations
go HD first, as they did with colour and stereo?

Probably consumers would be forced to buy both.  What a benefit.  Of
course the US ones will be a lot cheaper since they have ten times the
scale.  Or we'll just end up importing all ours from Japan or Europe.

Or, just as there are expensive TVs that get both PAL and NTSC, Canadians
may end up forking out for this sort of thing.

Not that US programs would not show up on the Canadian stations, I guess.
They will show up in the same amount, unless you pass laws limiting it.
Unlike the old days where it cost a LOT to convert PAL->NTSC, it's now
quite cheap.  All you need is a frame buffer.  Every TV station in Canada
would have a real time HDTV format converter.

In the end, having a different standard could well cause LESS watching
of Canadian programs, because the Canadian stations won't change their
programming, the consumers will have to pay more, and many will buy TVs
that can only get US stations.

-- 
Brad Templeton, Looking Glass Software Ltd.  --  Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473