EC refrains from mandating DVB as its DTV standard

Perhaps reconsidering its own approach toward the hot topic of "interoperability," the European Commission today released a statement that would appear to open the door to competition in the digital TV field, against standards created with the help and funding of the European government. Here's the story on TG Daily.

Now, one of the things I'm learning from covering this topic the last year is the gulf of difference that separates CE companies from everyday users. Manufacturers believe that interoperability is first and foremost on everybody's mind; so if you buy an HDTV, and it includes DVB-MHP in its cable card, then of course, since that uses Java, you'll want the Blu-ray player which uses Java, too. And yet when I go look at the user forums out there, I see no public discussion of this at all.

The EC report mentioned in my story from earlier this afternoon cites the case in Italy, where consumers plunked down a collective chunk of change to buy high-def set top boxes, only to just as collectively not use the MHP interactive features once they had them.

So what I'm wondering is, what really matters to you about the underlying standards in the high-def equipment you may be planning to purchase? What do you care about, what do you _not_ care about, and what would you rather certain governments and certain manufacturers refrain from pretending that you care about?

Scott Fulton
Senior News Editor, TG Daily