Monday DTV notes from NAB

[oflaherty]

Monday NAB notes:

Zenith is showing an HD home disk recorder at its booth..HDR230..80 Gb drive. Off Air only. Available in 3rd or 4th quarter of this year.. Suggested retail price just under $1,000. Features "Aspect control."

At a session with station managers and engineers the FCC reported 903 digital stations are now on the air.. 450 at reduced power.

A lawyer suggested those stations that  miss their next extended deadline will likely be admonished by the FCC and given another 6 months. After another 6 months he expects them to be admonished and fined and given another 6 months. If they still failed to get on the air then the FCC might take away their analog station license.

PBS sending two 19.4 Mbps feeds to stations.. the HD loop and the 4 channel simulcast.. Some PBS stations are trying to do one HD and one SD at the same time.

An ABC station manager from Kentucky did low power SD for 2 years.. now passing HD, but at a reduced rate to make room for a SD Warner Brothers signal..and a second SD signal from UPN.

Sean at NAB

[Todd Wiedemann]

Thanks a lot, Sean !

Looking forward to your reports, like last year !

[Tom Snyder]

Bittersweet... We had planned to go this year, but a new employee starting this week, a sudden rush of business, and a very naughty and spoiled new puppy that just isn't ready to be left with strangers all ganged up on me to keep me out of the desert sun and stuck here in the snow. :mad:

I'll have to enjoy NAB vicariously through Sean's posts... so they better be REALLY good.