Quote:
Originally posted by jacksonian
It first sounds like the problem is that congress is requiring the integration of digital OTA tuners but not cable tuners. Meaning that most people wouldn't benefit anyway because only about 15% of the population gets their TV OTA. Most everyone uses cable or satellite. |
Two things. First of all, while "most everyone" uses cable or satellite, a lot of people don't use cable or satellite for all of their televisions. In fact, digital OTA tuners may lead to a decline in purchases of the "local channels" package from DirecTV and Dish because a better picture will be available for free.
Secondly, the inclusion of a tuner in the television makes the old "Channel 3/Channel 4" switch possible. In other words, why spend $$$ on S-video/component + audio cables when a simple RG-59 will do the job? And with a digital tuner included in the box, satellite and cable box connections will be vastlty simplified. And - here's the best part - since the signal would be digital, there would be no loss in quality as there is today with analog.
So the 15% number is misleading in at least one, if not two, ways.