Honduras Jan. 16 effectively adopted the ATSC DTV standard for terrestrial broadcasts, ATSC said.
LAS VEGAS -- It will take time, and hearings, before it’s clear how likely Congress is to take up net neutrality legislation, said Rep. Davis (R-Va.), speaking at the CES here Mon.: “This is the kind of issue that there will be a lot of posturing on, but some conclusion may be unlikely.”
“Participation in CEA standards activities is open to all interested parties,” CEA said, responding to an ex parte filed at the FCC by the Coalition for Independent Ratings Services. Coalition members, including Media Data Corp., had alleged they were shut out of the process to revise the CEA- 766-A specification, which enables DTV sets to read U.S. and Canadian “region rating tables” (RRTs) using “program and system information protocol” (PSIP) in the ATSC standard. CEA has “already communicated to Media Data that we welcome their participation and look forward to receiving their input,” CEA said. As for Coalition allegations that CEA had reserved “RRT 0X05” for itself for future use, CEA said ATSC is “the librarian” for RRTs, and “we reserved the placeholder for future downloadable rating systems.”
European HDTV will hold an edge over ATSC in broadcast resolution thanks to wider bandwidth afforded hi-def channels there, Joe Flaherty, a veteran CBS engineer and one of ATSC’s founding fathers, told a London seminar last week. “If America had had 8-megahertz terrestrial channels instead of only 6 megahertz when we were planning HDTV, we never would have transmitted interlace,” Flaherty said. “If I were a European today, I'd just go ahead with 1080p/50,” he said: “I'd want to preserve that quality advantage you Europeans always used to have with PAL over NTSC.” Flaherty spoke at the annual John Logie Baird lecture held by the Institute of Engineering & Technology, named after the British inventor credited with pioneering TV and other advancements.
Gray TV-owned KXII Sherman, Tex., is using Harmonic MPEG-2 encoders to simulcast 2 HD and one SD channels, the companies said. The station is using Harmonic’s DiviCom MV500 to stream its CBS channel in 1080i and its Fox channel in 720p, and a MV100 SD encoder for its MyNetworkTV channel at 480i, they said. “As we were planning our digital upgrade, the ability to support multiple HD channels within a single ATSC stream was an absolute necessity,” KXII Gen. Mgr. Rick Dean said.
The Philippines took a step toward making DVB-T its DTV standard this month when its National Telecom Commission issued a draft order setting DVB-T as the standard for the country. Though the govt. hasn’t approved the draft, DVB Project Exec. Dir. Peter MacAvock called it “an important milestone” that could influence decisions about whether to use the DVB or ATSC standard in Chile, Colombia, Venezuela and Argentina. The ATSC Forum had shifted its focus away from the Philippines of late and didn’t have an opportunity to file comments in the proceeding until the last minute, Chmn. Robert Graves said. The forum lobbied heavily in 2000 and 2001, but those efforts proved fruitless, he said: “The Philippines has been just silent in recent years… Our focus has been mostly on Latin America.” ASTC Forum didn’t know the draft was in the works until right before the Commission issued it, Graves said. The group missed the comment deadline for the order and only filed comments the night before the commission issued the draft, Graves said. Meanwhile, both standards groups continue to lobby heavily in Latin America, Graves said. Argentina and Chile could decide on a standard before the year ends he said: “We have very solid prospects in all those countries. There’s a good chance that Central America will adopt ATSC en masse. It’s more a matter of when than whether.”
ATSC A/74 for adjacent-channel interference and FCC 05- 199 for co-channel interference are “adequate and reasonable” standards for certifying coupon-eligible boxes without hurting the potential for using TV white spaces, New American Foundation (NAF) told NTIA in a Tues. ex parte presentation. NAF based its conclusion on preliminary findings in receiver interference tests at the U. of Kan. The findings matter because NTIA’s DTV coupon program could “impact” use of TV white spaces for unlicensed wireless devices, depending on the specs it adopts for certifying converter boxes as coupon- eligible, NAF said. NTIA scheduled 18 ex parte meetings Tues. and Wed. (Wed.) in its DTV coupon rulemaking (CD Nov 7 p8), a spokesman told us. All slots were filled, he said. Another ex parte presenter, Garden City Group, of Weston, Fla., said it would be “useful” for NTIA “as soon as possible” to publish final rules on such issues as eligibility of households to “facilitate the DTV transition” in the tight schedule that was handed the agency. Garden City Group was the vendor in NTIA’s separate procurement proceeding that proposed a test rollout of DTV converter boxes and coupons before the program launches Jan. 2008 (CD Nov 1 p5). NTIA’s goal is to finish the coupon rulemaking and publish final rules by Q1, a spokesman told us.
LG, NEC, Panasonic, Samsung, Sony and Toshiba formed the WirelessHD consortium to develop a specification for a wireless HD digital interface that will enable HD AV streaming and high-speed content transmission for TVs and other CE devices, the companies announced Tues. Wireless technology company SiBeam also is a member of WirelessHD, which described itself as a “special interest group.”
CUPERTINO, Cal. -- FCC hardware mandates will boost CE- friendly networking technology HANA -- but only if a rerun of CableCARD is avoided and the FCC firmly enforces its rules in the face of cable industry resistance, said a senior Samsung technologist. The FCC is requiring the IEEE 1394 connectivity used by HANA -- High-Definition AV Network Alliance technology -- in all HD set-top boxes, said Dir. Jack Chaney of Samsung Information Systems America’s Digital Media Solutions Lab. The Commission also is requiring ATSC tuners in TV sets, he noted at a meeting Tues. night of the Silicon Valley chapter of the IEEE Consumer Electronics Society.
CE makers and broadcasters tore at each other’s throats during the DTV transition debate. So it was a big surprise last month when CEA, MSTV and NAB filed comments jointly in NTIA’s rulemaking on running the $1.5 billion DTV converter box coupon program (CD Sept 26 p3).