a new GOVT website
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I don't see how it's improved as it still doesn't recognize VOOM HD originals but shows INHD 1 & 2 and the others. I wrote them to let them know of their shortcomings but bet I won't get a response...
i didn't say it was great site, but i just thought it was interesting how the Govt. is getting serious,including a very crude programming guide,fro now)Voom should contact them
You think our Government doesn't step on toes? Read this interesting email from Dale Cripps, one of our Country's HDTV Pioneers;
HDTVMagazine
Dear Readers:
You have all seen (or can below) the story stating that the
government of the United States of America has created and
launched a brand new web site in direct competition with that of
the private pioneering business of HDTV Magazine! and all others
who have invested in their web sites. Of course their motives
in the press release sound quite noble and for the clarification
of things in DTV by your government. But a closer look reveals
much more than that.
I don't know about other web sites, but this project was
launched without the courtesy of notifying us or extending an
opportunity to participate in the project even though our HDTV
Newsletter was the first in the world with a print publication
for HDTV and the first on the World Wide Web with anything
promoting the interest of HDTV to the general public. And, I was
the first to hold four international HDTV conferences.
In 1987 I was called to the White House Old Executive Office
Building for a private meeting with the Office of Science and
Technology. The presidential appointee in charge spoke to me in
deadly serious tones and alarming candor. Before the one hour
meeting was over I was asked in clear terms to do whatever was
within my power as an influential journalist to get America in
the lead in HDTV...and to keep us there until we were well
established in that lead. They said if Japan continued with a
commanding lead in something as important to our economy as
advanced television it would bode ill for the nation. It was
acknowledged that the technology needed for HDTV was not even
known to the Department of Defense much less to our then anemic
semiconductor industry. Not only would a foreign lead in HDTV
demoralize our technical sector and dramatically weaken our
technical influence around the world the even more alarming
news was the projected state of our national defense would
suffer if HDTV technology was withheld from our military. They
said that in all seriousness a lead outside of our boarders
would endanger the balance of power in the world! The
commercialization of HDTV would set a new spin cycle of
invention into play. If the resulting invention was not ours a
potential enemy could hoard it for themselves and leave our
defenses technically inferior. The industrial sector of our
nation would buckle if we failed to deliver our usual technical
supremacy and we would sink to second class citizenry as jobs
moved away and our best talent with them. The cost of our
failure to lead HDTV, they said without much subtleness, was too
horrendous to contemplate. While they may have exaggerated the
number of jobs predicted to be lost and the potential wimpiness
of our defenses there was more than a kernel of truth in
everything they said. Some level of our standard of living and
the insurance policy for its survival was tied to our leading
the HDTV movement.
Japan was very aware of this strategic opportunity and through
MITI and other government agencies and numerous private
industries funded every technical advance arising in Japan for
HDTV, including the commercial beginnings of its services to the
public. The prevailing view then in Japan was that whomsoever
dominated advanced television would by default dominate the
technical world, and thus the economies of the world would fall
to their management. Dick Wiley followed through on his end and
delivered through his ACATS (The FCC Advisory Committee on
Advanced Television Services) the U.S. standard for HDTV. This
same standard was nearly scuttled two years later by Sinclair
Broadcasting. That standard was the first and declarably the
best in the world and insured that no negative fallout would
occur from the HDTV initiatives. We succeeded in achieving the
technical superiority we needed to sustain our global position
and to buttress our national morale. I was at the side of our
industry with the HDTV Newsletter for 12 years serving this
cause. In times when it looked like we would fail I could see a
demoralization of our R & D sector forming--and that is the
birthplace of our technical future. To the best of my knowledge,
as evidenced by your own HDTV-equipped households, some success
has been ours. And please, I do not seek nor take credit for
anything out of proportion to my work. I continually honor the
great men and women who brought us to this point. Mine was the
role of cheerleader, information arbiter, perspective provider,
and prophet. To succeed there had to be the belief stated and
restated that you, the public, would buy HDTV, and you did to
vindicate my words.
Not one cent was tossed my way for doing any of the Government's
bidding. More than $2 million evaporated from my own estate as
it become fuel for the cause. Many times the popular press
mindlessly declared that HDTV was a non-starter in this nation.
It was too costly. It was non-compatible. It was not worth it,
and so on. But that was never the message in Japan where
government and industry acted in complete concert to make it
blossom. Every time that it was being declared dead I redoubled
my efforts to spur our nation onward. There were only a few
hundred people in the world working on this technology and
everyone of them were counted as my subscribers.
Now, nearly 20 years later, we come to a commercial payoff for
all of the hard work only to see the all-powerful government
with its limitless resources go into direct competition with us.
They have no need to earn revenue from what they do for they
have your taxes to pay for it all. Their singular motive is
collecting the billions of dollars the expedited return of the
analog spectrum will bring sooner rather than later. The
government's motive in the construction of their web site is not
your welfare. It is for the money they know they will gain from
the highest bidder for the returned spectrum. Your interest is
served only as a necessity for securing this auction revenue.
They cannot sell that spectrum until you do the work of buying
H/DTV sets and free the broadcasters from the necessity of
sending analog signals. The sale of the returned analog spectrum
is believed by experts to bring the government billions of
dollars--between $24 and $70 billion.
Broadcasters are smarter at their business than the government
and already the first sign of a strategy for retaining the
analog spectrum is showing up in the form of another
threat--UltraHDTV. The strategy for the preservation or holding
on to the analog premium spectrum was revealed in our interview
with Alex Wallau of ABC on Monday. Now its UltraHD that will be
the threat to broadcasters in a replay of the 'HDTV threatens
NTSC' scenario. What is today the analog spectrum will be called
the UltraHDTV spectrum frozen from reassignment (selling it) by
the FCC due to a petition from broadcasters seeking a hold on
spectrum until the nation sorts out the technical answers needed
to respond with UltraHDTV should any other decide to use it.
That is a good 7 to 10 year development, thus delaying the
reassignment of the spectrum until then.
I have never been accused of being wrong in my assessment of the
industry. I have seen the good of HDTV and have loved it as an
addition to my life. I sought to share my good fortune of this
"discovery" with you while still doing that which was asked of
me on that day at the White House in 1987. I recognized the
potential for HDTV to provide a fantastic social benefit once it
is fully engaged by our nation. That value eclipses by
magnitudes any riches the government covets from it. I have
been motivated by a vision that sees HDTV raising all boats in
its tide..But had that vision been clouded by a darkening threat
from a foreign land I would have served our nation's interest
above all else, even if that meant a retreat from HDTV.
I have never misled nor been accused of misleading the public on
any matter relating to HDTV. Not only that, we have a full
equivalent on our web site of the information the government
thinks is so important that they must publish it themselves.
And, of course, we had the very first HDTV program guide in the
world, which many of you received for years and years and
continue now to receive in its latest form (Tribune/Shane
Sturgeon Grid Guide).
I wonder how General Motors would react if suddenly their
government dipped into its awesome resources to create a
non-profit competitive automobile manufacturing and distribution
business? How would General Motors compete when unlimited
publicity and promotion which is at the government's beck and
call? Not even the courtesy of a phone call, email, or letter
did we receive before there was an announcement whizzing around
the world in dozens of press outlets that my government had
completely made our very hard work and huge investment
(everything I had) obsolete. What would General Motors do if
their government started this new business with their arch
rival's commercial engine as the key feature and attraction--all
given away free? That is EXACTLY what our government has done
with the use of Decisionmark/Titan TV for their HDTV programming
guide. Look for yourself and see their web site, Yet, we were
not asked or given the opportunity to do a thing except, when it
was convenient to help the government "save" the nation back in
1987. We are known to the FCC and all others who were
responsible for this project. My lawyer in Washington is Richard
Wiley, the former Chairman of the FCC--yet we were NOT told by
anyone nor given the commonest of courtesies of an official or
unofficial, informal or formal notification that this government
project was in the works. I, not the government, made more than
55,000 phone calls during a 12 year period to urge our nation to
lead the way in HDTV. It would be impossible to do a search on
any search engine without coming up with five to ten full pages
of references to my work and that of the HDTV Magazine. And
that doesn't begin to scratch the surface on the body of work
completed over those many years. This government competition is
simply outrageous...outrageous..and our survival can now only be
in serious question unless we have the a recourse open to us.
Dale Cripps, Publisher
HDTV Magzine
Clear picture of HDTV is aim
*Associated Press*
WASHINGTON -- It's one of the biggest technical changes in
television since color TV: the digital transition. And because
many Americans remain in the dark about it, federal regulators
began an education campaign this week to enlighten them.
To see digital's eye-popping pictures viewers will need
high-definition televisions.
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell
announced a new Web site to answer questions about digital TV,
www.dtv.gov <http://www.dtv.gov>.
HDTVMagazine
Dear Readers:
You have all seen (or can below) the story stating that the
government of the United States of America has created and
launched a brand new web site in direct competition with that of
the private pioneering business of HDTV Magazine! and all others
who have invested in their web sites. Of course their motives
in the press release sound quite noble and for the clarification
of things in DTV by your government. But a closer look reveals
much more than that.
I don't know about other web sites, but this project was
launched without the courtesy of notifying us or extending an
opportunity to participate in the project even though our HDTV
Newsletter was the first in the world with a print publication
for HDTV and the first on the World Wide Web with anything
promoting the interest of HDTV to the general public. And, I was
the first to hold four international HDTV conferences.
In 1987 I was called to the White House Old Executive Office
Building for a private meeting with the Office of Science and
Technology. The presidential appointee in charge spoke to me in
deadly serious tones and alarming candor. Before the one hour
meeting was over I was asked in clear terms to do whatever was
within my power as an influential journalist to get America in
the lead in HDTV...and to keep us there until we were well
established in that lead. They said if Japan continued with a
commanding lead in something as important to our economy as
advanced television it would bode ill for the nation. It was
acknowledged that the technology needed for HDTV was not even
known to the Department of Defense much less to our then anemic
semiconductor industry. Not only would a foreign lead in HDTV
demoralize our technical sector and dramatically weaken our
technical influence around the world the even more alarming
news was the projected state of our national defense would
suffer if HDTV technology was withheld from our military. They
said that in all seriousness a lead outside of our boarders
would endanger the balance of power in the world! The
commercialization of HDTV would set a new spin cycle of
invention into play. If the resulting invention was not ours a
potential enemy could hoard it for themselves and leave our
defenses technically inferior. The industrial sector of our
nation would buckle if we failed to deliver our usual technical
supremacy and we would sink to second class citizenry as jobs
moved away and our best talent with them. The cost of our
failure to lead HDTV, they said without much subtleness, was too
horrendous to contemplate. While they may have exaggerated the
number of jobs predicted to be lost and the potential wimpiness
of our defenses there was more than a kernel of truth in
everything they said. Some level of our standard of living and
the insurance policy for its survival was tied to our leading
the HDTV movement.
Japan was very aware of this strategic opportunity and through
MITI and other government agencies and numerous private
industries funded every technical advance arising in Japan for
HDTV, including the commercial beginnings of its services to the
public. The prevailing view then in Japan was that whomsoever
dominated advanced television would by default dominate the
technical world, and thus the economies of the world would fall
to their management. Dick Wiley followed through on his end and
delivered through his ACATS (The FCC Advisory Committee on
Advanced Television Services) the U.S. standard for HDTV. This
same standard was nearly scuttled two years later by Sinclair
Broadcasting. That standard was the first and declarably the
best in the world and insured that no negative fallout would
occur from the HDTV initiatives. We succeeded in achieving the
technical superiority we needed to sustain our global position
and to buttress our national morale. I was at the side of our
industry with the HDTV Newsletter for 12 years serving this
cause. In times when it looked like we would fail I could see a
demoralization of our R & D sector forming--and that is the
birthplace of our technical future. To the best of my knowledge,
as evidenced by your own HDTV-equipped households, some success
has been ours. And please, I do not seek nor take credit for
anything out of proportion to my work. I continually honor the
great men and women who brought us to this point. Mine was the
role of cheerleader, information arbiter, perspective provider,
and prophet. To succeed there had to be the belief stated and
restated that you, the public, would buy HDTV, and you did to
vindicate my words.
Not one cent was tossed my way for doing any of the Government's
bidding. More than $2 million evaporated from my own estate as
it become fuel for the cause. Many times the popular press
mindlessly declared that HDTV was a non-starter in this nation.
It was too costly. It was non-compatible. It was not worth it,
and so on. But that was never the message in Japan where
government and industry acted in complete concert to make it
blossom. Every time that it was being declared dead I redoubled
my efforts to spur our nation onward. There were only a few
hundred people in the world working on this technology and
everyone of them were counted as my subscribers.
Now, nearly 20 years later, we come to a commercial payoff for
all of the hard work only to see the all-powerful government
with its limitless resources go into direct competition with us.
They have no need to earn revenue from what they do for they
have your taxes to pay for it all. Their singular motive is
collecting the billions of dollars the expedited return of the
analog spectrum will bring sooner rather than later. The
government's motive in the construction of their web site is not
your welfare. It is for the money they know they will gain from
the highest bidder for the returned spectrum. Your interest is
served only as a necessity for securing this auction revenue.
They cannot sell that spectrum until you do the work of buying
H/DTV sets and free the broadcasters from the necessity of
sending analog signals. The sale of the returned analog spectrum
is believed by experts to bring the government billions of
dollars--between $24 and $70 billion.
Broadcasters are smarter at their business than the government
and already the first sign of a strategy for retaining the
analog spectrum is showing up in the form of another
threat--UltraHDTV. The strategy for the preservation or holding
on to the analog premium spectrum was revealed in our interview
with Alex Wallau of ABC on Monday. Now its UltraHD that will be
the threat to broadcasters in a replay of the 'HDTV threatens
NTSC' scenario. What is today the analog spectrum will be called
the UltraHDTV spectrum frozen from reassignment (selling it) by
the FCC due to a petition from broadcasters seeking a hold on
spectrum until the nation sorts out the technical answers needed
to respond with UltraHDTV should any other decide to use it.
That is a good 7 to 10 year development, thus delaying the
reassignment of the spectrum until then.
I have never been accused of being wrong in my assessment of the
industry. I have seen the good of HDTV and have loved it as an
addition to my life. I sought to share my good fortune of this
"discovery" with you while still doing that which was asked of
me on that day at the White House in 1987. I recognized the
potential for HDTV to provide a fantastic social benefit once it
is fully engaged by our nation. That value eclipses by
magnitudes any riches the government covets from it. I have
been motivated by a vision that sees HDTV raising all boats in
its tide..But had that vision been clouded by a darkening threat
from a foreign land I would have served our nation's interest
above all else, even if that meant a retreat from HDTV.
I have never misled nor been accused of misleading the public on
any matter relating to HDTV. Not only that, we have a full
equivalent on our web site of the information the government
thinks is so important that they must publish it themselves.
And, of course, we had the very first HDTV program guide in the
world, which many of you received for years and years and
continue now to receive in its latest form (Tribune/Shane
Sturgeon Grid Guide).
I wonder how General Motors would react if suddenly their
government dipped into its awesome resources to create a
non-profit competitive automobile manufacturing and distribution
business? How would General Motors compete when unlimited
publicity and promotion which is at the government's beck and
call? Not even the courtesy of a phone call, email, or letter
did we receive before there was an announcement whizzing around
the world in dozens of press outlets that my government had
completely made our very hard work and huge investment
(everything I had) obsolete. What would General Motors do if
their government started this new business with their arch
rival's commercial engine as the key feature and attraction--all
given away free? That is EXACTLY what our government has done
with the use of Decisionmark/Titan TV for their HDTV programming
guide. Look for yourself and see their web site, Yet, we were
not asked or given the opportunity to do a thing except, when it
was convenient to help the government "save" the nation back in
1987. We are known to the FCC and all others who were
responsible for this project. My lawyer in Washington is Richard
Wiley, the former Chairman of the FCC--yet we were NOT told by
anyone nor given the commonest of courtesies of an official or
unofficial, informal or formal notification that this government
project was in the works. I, not the government, made more than
55,000 phone calls during a 12 year period to urge our nation to
lead the way in HDTV. It would be impossible to do a search on
any search engine without coming up with five to ten full pages
of references to my work and that of the HDTV Magazine. And
that doesn't begin to scratch the surface on the body of work
completed over those many years. This government competition is
simply outrageous...outrageous..and our survival can now only be
in serious question unless we have the a recourse open to us.
Dale Cripps, Publisher
HDTV Magzine
Clear picture of HDTV is aim
*Associated Press*
WASHINGTON -- It's one of the biggest technical changes in
television since color TV: the digital transition. And because
many Americans remain in the dark about it, federal regulators
began an education campaign this week to enlighten them.
To see digital's eye-popping pictures viewers will need
high-definition televisions.
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell
announced a new Web site to answer questions about digital TV,
www.dtv.gov <http://www.dtv.gov>.
This site does allow you to select a cable or satellite provider. It has incorrect HD designation for some programs and it also lacks HD designation for others that are HD.
