On 4/27/2010 4:12 PM, John VanSickle wrote:

> Government regulators, for whom being safe is generally more important
> than being right, had a major role in the determination of the standard.
> The standard had to allow for broadcast within a strictly-defined
> frequency band, and this limit was chosen based on technology that is
> now ready for deployment to your local museum, because these decisions
> were made years ago.
>
> If I am remembering things correctly, there was even some insistence
> that the signal be displayable by sets designed for the old broadcast
> standard. If that sounds thinking-impaired, well, that's the FCC for you.

kind of like how NTSC color was kludged on top of the existing black and 
white broadcast signal in the name of backwards compatibility?

-- 
~Mike

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