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Technology Stocks : LAST MILE TECHNOLOGIES - Let's Discuss Them Here -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DukeCrow who wrote (7812)	7/30/2000 2:35:34 PM
From: MikeM54321	Respond to of 12823

Ali- Yes. An STB for every TV is an alternative. I can't recall the figure, but there are quite a few TVs in everyone of the 100 million TV households in the USA. So I guess it's a MSO problem to figure out how to get STBs out there to each TV set. If they don't, and they go to an all digital system, lot's of customers would get very upset. BUT it's so expensive to get one single STB in the home right now. So I'm not sure how that model is going to work out. Also if an MSO says sell the STBs at retail(of which the FCC deadline has come and gone with negligible compliance) level, then a homeowner is going to be very upset to see that he would have to buy a STB for every TV set in his home. So I doubt the MSO will force the sub to do this. So the other MSO angle is, just hold off on ALL digital channels until the digital TV set issue is solved. Something the government has put deadlines on. But as you may know, lot's of FCC deadlines have come and gone so far, and it's still very much an analog TV world. It's pretty hard to understand where it's all going. IMVHO, the only thing driving digital rollouts by the MSO's today, is very simple-- DBS competition. BUT as two-way data enters the picture, suddenly the DBS threat has been reduced substantially. So I'm wondering what effect this may have on MSO conversions? Then of course you have the NAB angle. Now what drives that market, I still can't figure out. From what I see, it's simply pressure by the FCC to force them to start creating digital content. As you personally think aloud about the issues determining where the digitalization of TV is heading, please post them. All I'm really doing is still just tossing out ideas in an attempt to see if anything can stick. Thanks. -MikeM(From Florida)

To: DukeCrow who wrote (7812)	8/1/2000 11:53:51 PM
From: P2V	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12823

abukhan, The near future STB will actually distribute a multitude of TV, Audio, Video, Streaming Video, etc. signals throughout the home ,via RF & IEEE 1394 interfaces .... The customer will then be able to select the appropriate medium for each entertainment (or home office) device . Of course, all devices will be remotely configured and otherwise controlled via the same RF interface. See the following for one version of this "last fractional mile" concept. IE Affordable video content conversion for the consumer market semiconductors.com semiconductors.com Mardy.