Share How You Feel
The cover of your March [2003] issue is disgraceful. I could sit here and call you all sorts of names, but you and your gang are not worth my time. I make only one simple request: Don’t clutter my mail with your trash anymore. It’s not worth the free subscription we paid.
Guy Garey
Quality Film & Video
Hunt Valley, MD
The Liberal Conspiracy
Keith Houser [“Letters To The Editor,” May 2003] said it like it is! When are you going to wake up?
Richard D. Bogner
Island Broadcasting Co.
New York
Due Diligence Dead On
Your Due Diligence piece [“DTV Legalities,” April 2003, page 68] reads dead on. As a producer, I have and get to see it all play out. Being privy to industry trade magazines over the years doesn’t hurt. My first sneak peak at HDTV was when NAB did something completely different and showed up in Atlanta in the mid-1990s. Not too shabby, but I don’t remember the display device.
Now, I’ve finally ordered a Sony XBR800 40-inch direct view with an HDTV receiver to go along with my DirecTV and an OTA antenna. I spoke with a lot of service and salespeople in shopping around. Sure enough, some sales reps knew their stuff while others were mixing specs.
When I spoke with a telephone sales rep for the local cable company, I had to convince her that they were not offering HDTV with their new “digital” cable service. She thanked me for the information.
Kirk W. Robinson
Alltech Corporate Media Services
Putting The H In DTV
I’ve been an all-HD-only dealer for three years. It’s very lonely out here on the end of the limb, but lately folks have finally begun coming in asking for HDTV products. Since Time Warner Cable has their head stuck firmly in the sand (they just introduced Road Runner here) our only option for HD content is DBS. With only three [HD] channels on DirecTV, I encourage users to go with DISH Network, as I do at home, but even there the content limitations are legendary (we get DiscoveryHD, HBOHD, ShowtimeHD, and WCBS-DT), with SD being upconverted a large part of the time.
Rumor has it that ABC, NBC, and PBS each produce much of their primetime content in HD, but none of it is available on DISH or DirectTV and none of it, or any other DTV or HDTV channel, is on our area cable systems. We’re well beyond the range of any OTA stations, so we may never get to see most of the HD content being produced until Congress holds the cable and DBS companies’ feet to the fire...and I’m not confident that I’ll live long enough to see that happen.
How can I expect content providers to create in HD, or my customers to buy HDTV, with so little HD available to them at a reasonable cost?
Richard Levine, Owner
Interface, The Real Stereo Store
Keene, NH
