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From: wen-king@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu (King Su)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics,comp.graphics,comp.std.internat,rec.video
Subject: Re: U.S. HDTV STANDARDS DELEGATION SCUTTLES 1920x1080 COMMON IMAGE FOR
Message-ID: <14248@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu>
Date: 13 Mar 90 07:18:56 GMT
References: <8Zx8Ip200ioEMMrHEF@andrew.cmu.edu> <132618@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> <MIKEMC.90Mar9132613@mustang.ncr-fc.FtCollins.NCR.com> <2694@sactoh0.UUCP> <1990Mar13.023805.24765@athena.mit.edu>
Reply-To: wen-king@cit-vax.UUCP (Wen-King Su)
Organization: California Institute of Technology
Lines: 33

In article <1990Mar13.023805.24765@athena.mit.edu> pshen@atrp.mit.edu (Paul Shen) writes:
>In article <2694@sactoh0.UUCP> mfolivo@sactoh0.UUCP (Mark F. Newton) writes:
>>....
<>OUr companies should save the money, and come up with better and
>>less expensive HDTV sets, rather than spend money onsomething
<>completely different, thus making early HDTV sets incredibly
>>expensive, as the US companies try to recoup development costs,
<>thus making the sets very unpopular.
>>....
<You are right. We have to develope low cost HDTV sets. But this will be
>possible, only if we knows about the detail of the technology. It is
<doubtful that we can easily get them from them. After the cold war,
>the only market can keep our semiconductor industry running is the
<consumer market. I don't think we can afford to lose it.

Does anybody really believe that we (US) can get to keep an edge on a
new technology if the product can't be manufactured cheaply here?  If
the Japanese can make HDTV sets with higher quality and at a lower cost,
I would think that in as little as 2 to 3 years after we developed our
technology, the Japanese would be in the position to flood US market
with their HDTV sets.  Our HDTV manufacturing industry, already heavily
burdened by the large initial R&D investment and hindered by low consumer
demand (due to high prices), will certainly collapse in no time.  This
kind of thing has happened several times in the past.  What we need now
is to spend money to improve our manufacturing capabilities.  If we can
make them cheaper and better than the Japanese, the Japanese certainly
will move their manufacturing base (and thus technology) to US.  It is
the manufacturing sector that brings real cash to shore up the economy,
not the royalties from R&D.
-- 
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| Wen-King Su  wen-king@vlsi.caltech.edu  Caltech Corp of Cosmic Engineers |
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