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NAB speaks out against downconverting
The National Association of Broadcasters has joined the Big Four in petitioning Congress to stop a bill that would include provisions allowing cable television providers the right to downconvert HDTV broadcasts to DTV. Between this new article and a note on TV Predictions, we were also able to better understand what all the fuss is about. If you're as confused as I was, the point of contention here are "must-carry" laws, that would require cable companies to carry multiple HDTV streams that the local affiliates broadcast. The cable companies say this would use up their valuable bandwidth, while the affiliates fear that cable companies could refuse to carry their high definition broadcast unless the affiliates paid them to.That still seems to be a longshot, as we all know the most desirable HD programming is on the network stations, if cable companies limited that then why would their subscribers pay extra for HD? Additionally, if the reason I can't get HGTV-HD is because there are three ABC affiliates in my area, that would really suck. Of course in some areas cable is all there is and if they refused to carry an HD Super Bowl or other event without payment, customers would be stuck with HDTVs and no HD. Worse yet, they are still trying to force Broadcast Flag legislation through that could prevent you from recording high-def broadcasts. All this government talk makes me want to turn to C-SPAN, why aren't they in 720p yet?Read - Broadcasting & CableRead - TV Predictions
Broadcast, cable cos fight over downconverting
The Big Four networks appealed to Congress to stop a law that would allow cable companies to downgrade their HDTV signal to DTV. In an apparent switch from their previous stance against any converting of signals, the broadcast companies now appear willing to let cable companies convert DTV to analog after the OTA switchover for customers without digital cable converters. However, they are against allowing cable downconversion because they apparently fear cable companies would offer only DTV versions of their HDTV broadcast, and highlight cable stations high definition channels. More disturbing to us are their unspecified oppositions to what they call "broad" exceptions to the broadcast flag.All in all, we can probably look forward to more turmoil and delays before a digital switchover occurs. Still, we don't understand why the cable companies would want to downrez HDTV to DTV and not provide HD signals, but they've done sillier things (*cough* overcompression *cough*) before.
