Brazil may be near a decision on a DTV standard, ending the last big battle for market share among DTV standards from the U.S. (ATSC), Europe (DVB) and Japan (ISDB). A delegation led by Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim Thurs. signed a memorandum of understanding for Japan to help Brazil develop a “Japanese-Brazilian system” for DTV, AFP reported. But a final decision on the standard would be up to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio da Silva, Amorim said.
The “attenuation” of buildings is a “critical factor” in determining whether an unlicensed wireless device can cause harmful interference to over-the-air TV reception and that device’s ability to “autonomously detect” vacant TV channels if it’s to operate reliably, CEA told the FCC in an ex parte filing Wed.
Year-to-date factory DTV shipments have surpassed those of standalone direct-view analog TVs for the first time, CEA reported. The milestone was passed in week 12 ended March 24, when 2,341,358 DTV sets had been shipped in 2006 vs. 2,226,344 for analog TV only. Adding in analog TV/DVD and other combos, analog direct-view still held a slight lead. CEA’s weekly DTV shipments include LCD, plasma, direct-view and projection sets, as well as analog sets containing built- in ATSC tuners required by the FCC. Beginning March 1, under Commission rules, all TV sets shipped with an analog NTSC tuner also must have a digital ATSC tuner built in. The mandate will expand to all sets shipped after March 1, 2007.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is starting work on a voluntary Energy Star specification for digital TV converter boxes with a meeting in June or July of those interested. In a “Dear Stakeholder” letter to business, state govts., nonprofits and European and Canadian counterparts, Katherine Osdoba, Energy Star product mgr.- consumer electronics, said the first meeting will be “key” because the agency will begin developing a draft specification. She said the EPA is tracking work on energy limits for DTV adapters (DTAs) in states such as Cal. and N.Y. and in Canada, Australia and China. The agency’s work on converters will “involve some forecasting,” she said, because unlike other Energy Star products, DTV adapters aren’t yet on the market.
Intel engineers are learning how to get DTV broadcasts to moving notebook PCs, Intel representatives said. Standards are set, with DVB-H covering the 82% of the mobility market outside China, Japan and S. Korea and set to deploy first at the end of 2006. Nomadic use already is being handled with ATSC in N. America and with DVB-T in all but the 3 E. Asian nations, Manny Pitta, a mgr. in the company’s mobile platforms group, told the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco Wed. ATSC, despite previous doubts, could serve the nomad market, meaning stationary TV reception away from home or office, he said. China, Japan and S. Korea each have unique standards. The problem of Doppler shift, a result of receiver motion, prevents mobile reception of HD and restricts it to nomadic use, said Ernest Tsui, principal engineer-wireless communications architecture. HD can be received at up to 10 mph only, SD up to 50 and low-resolution broadcasts at up to 100, he said. Two antennas are best for optimizing reception, Tsui said. Tests while driving in the San Francisco area showed a single antenna provides a 68.3% chance of successful reception, but 2 provide 85.9%, he said. “After that there was a point of diminishing returns and complexity,” Tsui said: “Multiband compact antennas with good gain are called for.” Fortunately, a notebook can hold the required components, he said. Antennas should be as far as possible from each other -- or polarized -- and from other transmitters, which can offer interference. Intel is developing high-gain, high-bandwidth monopole antennas for that, Tsui said. He told developers antennas should provide more than 4 dB gain, fit into a notebook lid and be low-cost. Network infrastructure is important, too, he said. To avoid frame freezes, coverage should be 95%, well above the FCC recommendation of 50%, he said. Networks should be single- frequency, he said: “They fortunately are being built as we speak.”
At least 5 bills targeting energy efficiency standards on CE products are in state legislatures but unlike last year none includes DTV converter boxes. Industry sources say heavy lobbying that caused the defeat of bills last year contributed to the quiet withdrawal of the proposals by advocates pushing power limits on a range of products. “That is probably in recognition of the argument that having a standard for that device [DTV adaptors] is invalid,” said one executive.
A 3-in-1 TV tuner chip for ATSC, NTSC and digital cable reception is shipping from Microtune, the Tex. company said Tues. Its MicroTuner MT2131 is smaller than a thumbtack, Microtune said. Its size and $3 price slash the bill-of- materials cost 60% and enable manufacturers to deploy a tuner across all TV models, sizes and prices -- from multituner, giant-screen home theaters to small, affordable LCD TVs and inexpensive DTV set-top converter boxes, the company said. The MT2131 was engineered to solve 3 technical problems commonly identified as sources of DTV dissatisfaction -- picture break-up from interference, picture freezing and picture loss, Microtune said. The chip also is claimed to significantly improve TV reception using antennas in attics.
Europe may lead in HDTV technology but its success remains dependent on the U.S., where most content is produced. That’s the message set-top maker Pace Micro Technology plans to deliver at today’s 3rd European HDTV Summit in London, where panelists include terrestrial and satellite broadcasters, CE companies, content owners and producers. Neil Gaydon, Pace dir.-worldwide sales & mktg., in comments, released in advance of the Summit, alluded to Europe’s adoption of the DVB-S2 standard for HDTV, which uses the MPEG-4 H.264 advanced video codec in place of lower compression MPEG-2 used in the U.S. ATSC system. “However, until more HD content is generated in this region, we will still have a high dependence on the U.S. for the best quality content -- which is essential for any HD operator to make a success out of offering HD premium channels.”
LG is “working hard to make sure we have not only the most cost-effective approach” to DTV converters under the new DTV transition law’s subsidy provisions (CD Feb 9 p9), but also “one that provides value to the consumer and the best reception performance possible,” Vp John Taylor told us. LG got the tap from MSTV and NAB, along with Thomson, to develop a prototype low-cost converter box. “This is not a high-end box by any means,” Taylor said. “It doesn’t output high definition. It doesn’t include a DVR. It doesn’t include a DVD. Just the basics.” LG believes the $50 box it’s designing for MSTV and NAB will qualify for the $40 voucher program, even if it includes a PSIP-based “simple” electronic program guide, because it’s “very cost-effective to implement,” Taylor said. “It’s a necessity in today’s multichannel digital world to have a simple navigation device. It’s not a full-blown Gemstar guide, nor does it need to be. When you look at the growing number of multicast channels, we think this is just an important component of the overall package. We call it a low-end, affordable approach.” LG hasn’t yet shown a final prototype to MSTV or NAB, but the company has met all the “development timelines” and plans to complete the project this year, Taylor said: “As Thomson has said, we believe our approach also will serve as a benchmark for the industry -- a reference design, if you will -- against which others can build to assure these set-top boxes provide the level of performance that will serve dealers but also give broadcasters the confidence that their signal is getting through.” Taylor said: “There are plenty of things in the box that aren’t mentioned in the legislation. It’s going to have the V-chip. It’s going to have closed captioning. It’s going to have all the basic things that you have to have with an ATSC receiver not only to be lawful, but to provide utility.” Asked if the 37.5 million $40 vouchers covered by the law’s $1.5 billion allocation will suffice for all households that need them, Taylor said no one knows for sure how many boxes will be needed. With the FCC’s requirement that all TVs shipped after March 1, 2007, must have ATSC tuning, Taylor said, “many of these analog TVs out there that might otherwise require an adapter are just going to be replaced, so the overall population of sets requiring these adapters will shrink by the time they're needed. That being said, there also will be, I think, many American consumers who will not take advantage of the subsidy program. And frankly there will be other products out there that will be well outside of the scope of the subsidy program. There will be those who want to spend not $50, but $100 or $200 for a more full-featured device that does other things.” The $40 voucher is “a good starting place, and I don’t want to sound negative at all about it,” Taylor said. “It’s a program that will help complete this transition in a smooth manner. We're excited that there is a definitive hard date -- that 2009 is something we can all work toward and make sure that consumers are not disenfranchised.”
Qualifying DTV converter boxes as eligible for govt. subsidy under newly enacted analog TV cutoff legislation will be a central challenge of any NTIA management plan detailing how the agency will promote the availability of low-cost set- tops through $40 vouchers (CD Feb 7 p1).