** Important Atsc Tuner Mandate Info **

[HDTV1080P]

March 1 2007 is a very important date for those people purchasing new consumer electronics equipment that contain tuners. Starting today March 1 2007 every single consumer product that contains an analog NTSC tuner that is manufactured for the United States market is required to also have an ATSC digital tuner.
An ATSC tuner allows consumers to receive free local standard digital and HDTV digital signals from over the air TV stations when an outdoor or indoor TV antenna is used. The reason for the tuner mandate is that by February 17th 2009 all NTSC analog broadcasts are scheduled to cease and convert to ATSC. The 85% of the consumers that receive television signals by cable TV and satellite television will not be affected at all by this mandate. Only around 15% of the Americans are estimated to watch TV with an outdoor or indoor antenna.
ATSC external tuners use to cost over $1,000 many years ago. Thanks to the government mandate many consumer products will see only around a $30 price increase since the ATSC chipset is being produced in quantity built into all consumer products that currently contain a NTSC tuner.
Around 80% of the new consumer products that contain an ATSC tuner also contain a QAM tuner. A QAM tuner allows consumers to watch standard digital and HDTV digital in the clear unencrypted cable TV programming without a cable box. Some high-end consumer products allow consumers to subscribe to encrypted premium program with the cable card QAM feature. QAM currently is not mandated by the FCC but it is a feature that many manufactories include in consumer electronics products. Some cable companies have plans to one day turn off the NTSC analog signal and switch to 100% digital QAM. The QAM feature is important for consumers that do not use an external cable box and subscribe to cable TV.
Last year on March 1 2006 all TV’s 25 inches and larger were mandated by law to include an ATSC tuner. Today if you walk into any retail store like Best Buy, Circuit City, or Walmart you will not find any TV’s 25 inches or larger without the ATSC tuner feature. What is unique about the March 1 2007 mandate is that it includes all TV’s regardless of screen size and all consumer devices that contain a NTSC tuner, including anything that records and contains a NTSC tuner like DVD, DVR, etc. Many of these new products are currently on the shelf in retail stores now. The old consumer products that only contain NTSC tuners are currently being discontinued by many stores at clearance prices. **In about 2 or 3 months most of the old NTSC tuner only products will be off the shelf’s across the USA**.
The ATSC mandate has helped kill the VHS format. JVC the inventor of the VHS and S-VHS format announced that they will no longer be making VHS or S-VHS machines. Also the JVC HDTV D-VHS format looks like it is dead. Even the top of the line JVC D-VHS that has an ATSC tuner is being discontinued. This is a shame since 2008 is the earliest date that HDTV BLU-RAY recordable standalone home units will appear on the US market. All other companies that make standalone VCR’s have discontinued making VCR’s. There are a few companies making new low quality combo VCR/DVD recorders with ATSC tuners and a few companies making new low quality combo ATSC TV’s with VCR/DVD’s. None of these companies are making S-VHS combo’s or D-VHS combo’s or standalone VHS machines. To make a long story short JVC the inventor of VHS, S-VHS, and HDTV D-VHS has stopped making machines so all 3 VHS formats are dead.
Some consumers are going to get confused with this new ATSC tuner mandate. For example the ATSC tuner mandate only includes products that contain a NTSC tuner. Products labeled Monitors which have no tuners built in are except from the mandate and will require an external tuner to watch TV programs. Also many new cheap low cost DVD recorders and DVD/VCR combo recorders are coming to market with no tuners built in. An external tuner is required to record TV programming.
All ATSC products with tuners are required to receive the following signals 480I, 480P, 720P, and 1080I signals. 480I and 480P are known as standard definition quality with 720 X 480 resolutions. 720P (1280 X 720) and 1080I (1920 X 1080) is known as HDTV quality. The low cost standard definition non-HDTV consumer products will convert all ATSC signals to either 480I or 480P quality. Only products that are labeled HDTV 720P, 1080I, or 1080P are HDTV products. To make things more confusing every consumer display that is labeled 1080I can receive a 1920 X 1080 signal but can only display around 1300 X 1080I worth of resolution. Only displays that are labeled 1080P are required to be able to display over 2 million pixels with true 1920 X 1080 interlace and progressive quality. The reason why 1080P HDTV displays are available only in technologies like LCOS, DLP, LCD, and Plasma and not CRT picture tubes is because no one has been able to make a large screen CRT cheap enough with 2 million pixels. Every HDTV big CRT consumer picture tube is either labeled 720P or 1080I and not 1080P since none is able to display 1920 X 1080 quality. Some rare CRT computer monitors and 9 inch CRT front projectors will display 1920 X 1080 resolution. 1080P quality several years ago was only available on $100,000 ceiling mounted front projectors. Today low cost 1080P displays can be found under $1,000 at Walmart and other retail stores. 1080P is the max quality in HDTV and is now become a mainstream consumer product with wide spread consumer acceptance.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATSC_tuner

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAM_Tuner