BROADCASTERS WRANGLE OVER ADVANCED VIDEO CODEC FOR FUTURE HD
Licensing group MPEG LA, bowing to broadcaster resistance, has imposed changes in its royalty and license structure to encourage broader implementation of the H.264 video compression system for advanced TV. But initial broadcaster adoption of H.264 has crawled along, mainly because the rank and file know little about it. Moreover, the Advanced TV Systems Committee (ATSC) only recently has begun accepting proposals on next-generation codecs for digital TV (CD March 31 p14).
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The new MPEG-4-based H.264 codec is designed to provide a future upgrade path for HD-related technologies and services. H.264 promises to be more efficient and provide better video quality than MPEG 2 for transmission. H.264 can also improve data compression, offering advantages for bandwidth usage -- more channels over existing systems or greater media storage.
Broadcasters, who haven’t had to pay royalties until the dawn of digital TV, questioned applicability of the license, said John Marino, the NAB’s vp-science & technology. “They are looking for fair and responsible terms as far as the licenses go,” he said.
MPEG LA has structured its royalty fee to give over-the- air broadcasters 2 choices. Broadcasters can opt to pay a one-time fee of $2,500 per transmission encoder or they can pay an annual fee of $10,000 if the broadcast goes to more than 100,000 households. Assessing royalties on shipments of encoders rather than how much content is streamed makes the system easier to run, it said. “We talked to users in the market and based our royalty structure on their feedback,” said Larry Horn, MPEG LA’s vp-license & business development. There is no royalty charge for markets of less than 100,000, Horn said.
There also is no charge for satellite, Internet and cable companies with less than 100,000 households. But these subscription-based companies must pay a $25,000 annual fee for more than 100,000 subscribers. The fees increase with subscriber base and top out at $100,000.
The initial term of the license is through Dec. 31, 2010. To encourage early marketplace adoption, the licence will provide a grace period in which no fees will be payable for products or services sold before Jan. 1, 2006.
Regardless of fee structure, some broadcasters don’t understand the technology and impact of H.264 on MPEG-4 systems, Horn said. A misconception is that any new codec would render legacy encoders or receivers obsolete. But backward-compatibility with the ATSC’s existing MPEG-2 infrastructure was built in, Horn said. The NAB will host a full-day session on MPEG with SMPTE April 18 during the NAB convention in Las Vegas, Marino said. “Broadcasters need to know essentially how they should be using this,” Marino said. There is also vital work going on for MPEG-7 on content description and MPEG-21, an end-to-end interoperable media framework surrounding the compression standards, and these topics will be discussed at the session, Marino said.
Advances in the systems are another reason broadcasters are slow to jump on board H.264. The perception is that H.264 or rival systems such as Microsoft Windows Media 9 may become obsolete with improved compression systems coming down the pike, Marino said. “There will be new schemes that might be better. It’s almost a never ending cycle. The technologies keep improving,” he said.
Late last month, Japan broadcasters NHK, TBS, NTV, TV Asahi, Fuji TV and TV Tokyo adopted H.264 video coding for mobile segment digital terrestrial broadcasting. Japanese broadcasters plan to begin key terrestrial services for mobile reception by March 2006.