afiggatt
join:2007-07-12
Sterling, VA
| reply to BodyBumper
Re: Why am I not suprised
said by BodyBumper  :Not everyone has a clear LOS with OTA Digital TV towers and until this problem is fixed (and it won't) services like the now defunct USDTV and this will fail. Moviebeam uses the analog signal from PBS station to carry the embedded digital signal, not the digital ATSC signal. I was checking the website and they make a point of this small "digital" antenna is all that is needed. That may be ok in most places up to 20 or 25 miles, but not at longer ranges. And how would that small antenna work for PBS stations on VHF low? Typical gloss over the technical issues sales pitch. 10 new movies a week? Not much of a catalog.
I assume they had a plan for the post-analog shutdown era, but maybe that is one reason they folded up. Converting the PBS stations to a digital ATSC distribution may have been a significant cost hit. Anyway, there will be a bunch of useless boxes soon. The USDTV boxes could still be used for digital OTA reception. The MovieBeam boxes are only useful for their system. |
