Microtune Claims Problems with Some DTV Converter Boxes
Tells NTIA Its Testing Found Inteference Issues with DTV-to-Analog Converter Boxes
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 3/26/2008 8:30:00 PM
The digital-TV-to-analog converter box came under more fire Wednesday from Microtune, a company that makes TV tuners for some of the coupon-eligible converter boxes, as well as tuners for TVs worldwide.
Microtune told the National Telecommunications and Information Administration in a letter Wednesday that it tested some of the coupon-eligible boxes that did not contain its tuners -- the only U.S.-made tuners in any of the boxes, it added -- and found problems.
In the letter to NTIA acting head Meredith Atwell Baker, Microtune said its private testing revealed "numerous and pronounced test failures" that could lead to "the loss of television reception in large areas of many metropolitan areas throughout the United States."
Microtune's letter came the same day that the Community Broadcasters Association asked a court to block distribution of the boxes, arguing that they all violated the Federal Communications Commission's all-channel-tuner mandate.
Microtune president Jim Fontaine told B&C the company bought and tested five different converter boxes off the shelf and all five suffered from interference problems. He declined to identify the manufacturers.
Microtune said it met with one manufacturer last month, showed it the test results and was now making the information available to the NTIA.
It called for the NTIA to expand its testing to include all channels rather than just a few; to audit the boxes already on the shelves to make sure they comply with minimum performance standards; and to decertify the boxes that do not comply -- a move that would obviously benefit Microtune if its tuners do comply, as it said they do.
But Fontaine said the NTIA was free to come to its lab and test the boxes itself, adding that his company played by the rules and designed a box that would comply with the standards for coupon-eligible boxes -- standards he said the competitor's boxes the company tested had not met. "We just want the NTIA to audit the boxes and, if they find similar results, which we think they will, then these boxes should not be allowed to be part of the program that is subsidized," he added.
But decertifying the boxes would obviously help Microtune. "We don't know if it will definitely help our company," Fontaine said, conceding that "to the extent that someone might pay 50 cents more to get a much better product that works over all channels and the government requires you to work over all channels, hopefully that will help our company."
Microtune director of marketing Greg Zancewicz said the vendor's tuners are in nine of the 60 or so boxes approved by the NTIA.
Fontaine said the FCC set up a self-testing regimen for the boxes that was "thought through quite well," but the consumer wouldn't know to raise the issue, nor would the retailers. "It takes someone like us who has the test equipment to raise the issue," he added.
An NTIA spokesman had not returned a call at press time.
