[mythtv-users] IMDB has TV listings.

[Yeechang Lee]

Michael T. Dean <mtdean at thirdcontact.com> says:
> Digital does not HDTV make.  (I.e. Daniel didn't say anything about
> HDTV.)

So? The US did it the right way, in making digital more or less
synonymous with HDTV.

While the US launched free terrestrial HDTV as far back as 1998, the
UK (to use an example) launched free non-HD digital terrestrial TV in
2002 after the collapse of its non-free non-HD digital terrestrial TV,
founded in 1998. (And, of course, cable companies--which together with
satellite have about 90% household penetration in the US--had begun
shifting to digital in the late 1990s.)

The US achieved essentially 95% population coverage for multiple free
terrestrial HD channels a couple of years ago, *and* for years has had
90% cable/satellite household penetration on top of that. The UK
achieved similar coverage for non-HD terrestrial digital TV, but in
turn said service's bandwidth has become a massive obstacle for
deploying free terrestrial HDTV. The current target is 2012, or in
other words 14 years after HD deployment began in the US and eight
years after the completion of near-universal availability. (Anyone who
bothers to bring up the 450 person-strong BBC HD trial in London gets
to wear the dunce cap in the corner.)

If there's a European MythTV user who wouldn't want to trade "better
EIT" for the already-bounteous and fast-growing amounts of free
terrestrial HD programming his American counterpart takes for granted
(not to mention the much more available through cable and satellite),
I'd like to meet him.

-- 
Yeechang Lee <ylee at pobox.com> | +1 650 776 7763 | San Francisco CA US