[opendtv] 20060304 Schubin's Saturday Stuff (Mark's Monday Memo)
- From: Mark Schubin <tvmark@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: tvmark@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 4 Mar 2006 22:29:37 -0500 (GMT-05:00)
Here are some very efficient (low-administrative-cost) relief organiza=
tions (all have four-star ratings from CharityNavigator.org):
<http://www.americares.org/>
<http://www.redcross.org/donate/donate.html>
<http://www.directrelief.org/index.html>
<http://www.hopeww.org/>
<http://www.mercycorps.org/splash/>
Americans may also call the Red Cross at 800 HELP NOW (800 435-7669).
Sorry about the delay. Once again, I was on the road and couldn't collect =
ads. I hope to get to them in next week's memo. FYI, there will be no mem=
o the week of the 27th, in honor of the solar eclipse.
- Follow-ups:
- ***The Technology Retreat***, February 21-24 in Rancho Mirage - Well=
, it happened, and, from all accounts I've heard, it was pretty spectacular=
(I think so, too). I mentioned the seminars in the last memo, with Charle=
s Poynton noting that LED illumination could solve many LCD problems, incre=
asing contrast ratio, reducing motion issues, and increasing color gamut. =
But in the displays supersession, Martin Euredjian of eCinema Systems pooh-=
poohed the idea (he also suggested that SED was being held up by legal issu=
es).
I was particularly taken by the presentation of Jed Deame of Teranex i=
n the displays supersession. He presented test signals and good and bad re=
sults for a huge range of issues having virtually nothing to do with color.=
He's offering the signals on a DVD for a nominal fee. Panasonic's Peter =
Fannon dispelled myths about plasma TVs (and noted that in 2005 slightly mo=
re HD models were sold than ED, a reversal of the previous year), and Sony'=
s Gary Mandle pointed out that the tiny liquid-crystal cells in LCoS system=
s don't suffer the long switching times of larger, direct-view LCDs, so the=
y can offer frame rates on the order of 200/second, making alternate-mage 3=
-D easy. He also noted that 4K imagery is already available (more on that =
later).
The Technology Year in Review noted that this was the first since the =
introduction of the VTR in 1956 -- 50 years ago -- without a new videotape =
format being introduced. It also noted that, for the price of Jed Deame's =
DVD ($29.95), you can buy a complete camcorder at a CVS drugstore. The cam=
era discussion ranged up to the Red 4520 x 2540. There was also a presenta=
tion of relative visual sizes for everything from a movie screen to a mobil=
e phone, which led to a discussion of why Fox created an original version o=
f "24" for the latter rather than repurposing the broadcast version.
=09The broadcasters panel had Richard Friedel of Fox showing the problems o=
f overscan even in this era of fixed-pixel-grid displays (he also noted tha=
t the next mobile-phone version of "24" will star Kiefer Sutherland (the fi=
rst one didn't), and it's episodes will last three minutes rather than one.=
Then came a period when the station people praised the networks and the n=
etworks praised the station people until ABC-affiliate KESQ general manager=
Bob Allen was asked how he felt when he learned that ABC was making "Despe=
rate Housewives" available for downloading and responded "like my wife was =
sleeping with an engineer."
Azcar's Tom McDonough gave an overview of technology for TV over mobil=
e phones, concentrating on the two broadcast systems being offered in the U=
.S., Modeo's DVB-H and Qualcomm's MediaFLO. Then MPAA CTO Brad Hunt did an=
update on content protection, including the MovieLabs work on preventing c=
amcorders from working in movie theaters and the Coral Consortium plan to a=
llow different rights systems to interoperate. He noted that Toshiba's $49=
9 HD DVD player might be superseded on the low end by Sony's Blu-ray-equipp=
ed PlayStation 3 for $399. He discussed both the interim and longer term A=
ACS agreements, the latter of which calls for no analog HD outputs after 20=
11 and no analog outputs at all after 2013 (but no digital-only is allowed =
in the interim agreement).
A lively discussion of "no analog HD" after his talk led to an unsched=
uled presentation the following day of what 960 x 540 compared to 1920 x 10=
80 actually looks like. The pictures were posted to the participants' web =
site, along with other presentations (keep checking; more presentations are=
being added all the time). We then barged into the demo area to see such =
treats as the Olympus Octavision camera (3840 x 2160 with 2/3-inch imagers,=
shoulder mountable), Genoa Color Technologies' five-primary LCD (which can=
show Salem cyan and Kodak gold) and their processing for more ordinary dis=
plays, Panasonic's 2K processor for D-5 and their HVX200 camcorder, Sony's =
XDCAM HD, the Cine-tal and Iridas LCD monitoring system, Clarity Image's de=
monstrations of lip-sync issues, Blu-Laser Cinema's optical-disk-based libr=
ary (which appeared in stories about the retreat on the local ABC and Fox n=
ews), Fujinon's new half-inch and 1/3-inch lenses (as well as their new ran=
ge of 2/3-inch), Neural Audio's stereo/5.1 converters, For-A's dual-link HD=
-SDI (4:4:4) switchers, and much, much, MUCH more!
As usual, Thursday began with loud argumentative breakfast roundtables=
. I sat in on the rights management one, which ranged from plugging the op=
tical hole (shooting a TV screen with a camcorder) to different filters use=
d to make down-rezzed 960 x 540 most restorable to 1920 x 1080.
Then came the spectacular acquisition session, with Olympus describing=
their 4K camera and NHK their 8K camera and display (with 16 times the num=
ber of pixels of 1080-line HD). The imager's 4.2-micron-squared sensors le=
d to a discussion of the relative merits of resolution and dynamic range.
Sam Nicholson of Stargate Digital showed how even relatively low resol=
ution imagery can be stabilized and combined to form ultra-high-resolution =
virtual backgrounds for compositing (he demonstrated with HDV-shot footage =
in a Moscow subway station serving as a background for actors in Montreal).=
That was followed by a panel covering the history, present, and future of=
3D, explaining what costs more and what isn't so bad.
Then came the luncheon seminar on small-format acquisition with extens=
ive discussions of diffraction (1/3-inch HD imagers are limited to 75% red =
MTF at even f/1.8) and lenses (smaller format imagers require HIGHER lens q=
uality for equivalent MTF). One image, superimposing an MTF curve on an in=
verted contrast-sensitivity function, flabbergasted at least one of the hig=
h-ranking engineers in the audience.
Next came the digital-cinema sessions, with many speakers dedicating t=
heir presentations to the late Dick Stumpf, who was, indeed, worthy of all =
the praise. In the digital-cimema packaging session, Wade Hanniball noted =
that Universal has no plans to release in 4K or 96 kHz audio and won't encr=
ypt its trailers, but Paul Saccone described Warner Bros. 4K distribution t=
rials in Japan. Tom DeFanti showed pictures of a 200 megapixel display (19=
20 x 1080 is two megapixels)!
The Compact team (headed by one of the largest players) beat both Regu=
lar and Large (headed by one of the smallest players) to win the Fenway Par=
k championship. Topless pictures were shown at the registration desk.
After more argumentative breakfast roundtables on Friday (I sat in on =
one on A/V storage using a distributed-data principle quite different from =
RAID), Dow, Lohnes attorney Jim Burger covered everything going on in Washi=
ngton from the analog cutoff date to the Grokster decision. Then Universal=
's Jerry Pierce offered an amazing presentation. He played a "Saturday Nig=
ht Live" commercial spoof he had downloaded and got the audience laughing s=
o hard they were gasping for breath; then he pointed out that what they had=
just seen on the giant screens was just 320 x 240.
After an extensive tutorial on long-GOP editing, perhaps the two most =
important (and most embarrassing to the industry as a whole) presentations =
followed. Graham Jones of the NAB showed how to use the active format desc=
riptor to FINALLY solve the mixed-aspect-ratios problem. Producers can spe=
cify what is to be done on a field-by-field basis and can even indicate wha=
t portions of the image (if any) they wouldn't mind a viewer's losing. The=
n Bill Hogan and Michael Smith gave a presentation on a problem less close =
to being resolved: lip-sync. At one point, Hogan showed a photo of images =
with burned-in time code being displayed on CRT, LCD, and DLP-based screens=
; when the source was frozen, three different numbers appeared on the scree=
ns fed from the same source. And there was more! I especially liked the i=
dea that carrying grain through from pre-compression to post-decoding can a=
llow a much lower bit rate to provide comparable subjective quality. Gary =
Demos, who was recently awarded the motion-picture Academy's Sawyer award (=
<http://tinyurl.com/zlfga>), polished up with a tutorial on layered lossles=
s coding.
I've left out most of what was there, and I apologize to those I've om=
itted. I offer only the thought that I might have been paying too much att=
ention to you to take good notes.
Here are some views from others who were there:
<http://www.studiodaily.com/filmandvideo/currentissue/6121.html>
This next one is from Shoot:
<http://tinyurl.com/kbhez>
This one concentrates on Brad Hunt's presentation:
<http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060228-6290.html>
I'm pretty sure there will be more:
<http://www.hpaonline.com>
- The FCC's Video Competition Report has finally been released. I hav=
en't had a chance to look it over completely yet, but one interesting tidbi=
t is that multichannel video programming distributors (MVPD) have claimed m=
ore than 85% of TV households since June of 2004, which means the old analo=
g cutoff date at the end of this year might have worked. Cable's percentag=
e has finally dropped below 70%. Only direct-broadcast satellite has grown=
among MVPDs:
<http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-06-11A1.pdf>
- DTT-related U.S. legislation other than analog cutoff - Broadcasting=
& Cable says it's unlikely that everything stripped from the budget bill w=
ill get considered this year:
<http://tinyurl.com/n2pwe>
The "broadcast flag," however, is said to have a good chance of being =
approved:
<http://tinyurl.com/hnyv8>
There was extensive discussion of authorized copying not being allowed=
on the OpenDTV Forum this week:
<//www.freelists.org/archives/opendtv/02-2006/msg00335.html>
The thread name changes here:
<//www.freelists.org/archives/opendtv/03-2006/msg00001.html>
- Blu-ray and HD DVD -
- Warren Communications News went back and forth about whether a =
firmware upgrade was or wasn't required for HD DVD interactivity and whethe=
r or not it mattered.
- They noted that image-constraint (960 x 540) labels would be re=
quired under AACS for any disks that have that and, later, that four major =
studios have sworn off image constraints (perhaps after seeing the pictures=
at ***The Technology Retreat***).
None of the stories are still on the site:
<http://www.warren-news.com/>
- Here's information on the Blu-ray launch on May 23. The story =
is from Reuters:
<http://tinyurl.com/jduuk>
- Here's a story on recent business developments:
<http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/26/business/26disks.html>
- And this more-technical article is titled "Sub-Par Wars":
<http://edn.com/contents/images/6309108.pdf>
- Pre-NAB announcements:
- Panasonic:
<http://www.videography.com/articles/article_13953.shtml>
- Harris:
<http://televisionbroadcast.com/articles/article_1200.shtml>
- Snell & Wilcox:
<http://televisionbroadcast.com/articles/article_1202.shtml>
- Grass Valley offering financing of equipment and services (this=
story is from Broadcasting & Cable):
<http://tinyurl.com/zp5dj>
- Grass Valley's products:
<http://www.tvtechnology.com/dailynews/one.php?id=3D3760>
- More dueling surveys -
- According to a Scripps Networks survey, "Women would pick an HD=
TV set over a toaster, a day off or a new pair of Manolo Blahniks" (shoes).=
Only a weekend getaway (choice of 42%) beat an HDTV (29%). This story is=
from Broadcasting & Cable:
<http://tinyurl.com/gah8d>
Meanwhile, a Jupiter Research survey found 52% of consumers would swit=
ch providers for a better price, but only 6% found HDTV to be a desired fea=
ture:
<http://www.cedmagazine.com/toc-IP_Capsule/2006/20060301.html>
<http://news.designtechnica.com/article9611.html>
- RBC Capital Markets asked 100 wireless-service and content prov=
iders what consumers wanted to do with mobile devices; 63% said watching TV=
or movies, and 72% said consumers would put up with ads for reduced fees. =
But RBC's survey of 1,001 consumers said only 23% wanted to watch TV on a =
mobile device, and only 20% would put up with ads to lower costs:
<http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6312769.html?display=3DBreaking+News=
>
- Flash memory capacities - Warren Communications News reported that 4=
GB Memory Sticks were shown at the Photo Marketing Association (PMA) show. =
The story is no longer on their site:
<http://www.warren-news.com/>
At the same show, Sony introduced the HDPS-L1 viewing device with a 72=
0p output:
<http://www.twice.com/article/CA6310472.html>
- May 1 -=20
- Neither the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) nor the Nat=
ional Association of Broadcasters (NAB) updated their lists this week.
- Doug Lung's RF Report notes that the FCC CDBS database listed 8=
67 licensed U.S. DTT stations as of February 21:
<http://www.tvtechnology.com/dlrf/one.php?id=3D1180>
- While that 867 figure is finally more than half of the 1722 the FCC has b=
een using for DTT, it's still less than half of the number of full-power U.=
S. analog TV stations. The FCC just released figures for those through the=
end of the year:
- UHF commercial 782
VHF commercial 588
UHF educational 254
VHF educational 126
total 1750
- Then there are low-power Class A:
UHF 484
VHF 108
total 592
- Then there are other low-power:
UHF 1643
VHF 502
total 2145
- And, finally, TV translators:
UHF 2714
VHF 1823
total 4537
- That adds up to a grand total of 9024 U.S. analog TV transmitters.
<http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-263922A1.pdf>
- The FCC is requesting $500,000 (out of $302,542,000) in its fiscal 2007 b=
udget to educate consumers about the DTT transition:
<http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-264102A1.pdf>
- In New York, the co-owned Fox and UPN DTT outlets have been carrying each=
other's programming, but now the ABC affiliate in Bowling Green, Kentucky =
will be carrying Fox programming on its DTT station, and I don't think owne=
rship has anything to do with it:
<http://tinyurl.com/r3yt4>
- International news:
- DVB is studying a next-generation DTT system, DVB-T2:
<http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=3D181500390>
Their next generation satellite system, DVB-S2, has been very successf=
ul. Another study, according to the article, is about satellite-to-mobile-=
devices service.
- Here's an overview of HD in Europe:
<http://www.hdtvuk.tv/2006/02/europe_goes_hd.html>
- More than ten million Freeview receivers (integrated and set-top com=
bined) have been sold in the UK, and the service is now said to be in 6.4 m=
illion homes. This story is from Reuters:
<http://tinyurl.com/p4c43>
- Here's the latest look at UK household penetrations (similar to the =
FCC competition report) from regulator Ofcom:
<http://www.ofcom.org.uk/research/cm/feb06_report/>
- Here's the latest from Russia from RedOrbit:
<http://tinyurl.com/kl29c>
- Here's the latest from South Africa:
<http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/companies.aspx?ID=3DBD4A159979>
- Here's the latest from Malta:
<http://www.timesofmalta.com/core/article.php?id=3D216162>
- Maybe New Zealand will get a Freeview-like service:
<http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=3D1&ObjectID=3D10369998>
<http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/article/ds29690.html>
- Toshiba is said to be dropping CRTs and analog tuners:
<http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/21/toshiba-killing-crts-and-analog-tuners/=
>
- Netgear has equipment for carrying HD over power lines:
<http://www.cedmagazine.com/article/CA6310177.html>
- Based on figures from CEA, sales to U.S. dealers of non-H/DTV television =
sets for the first five weeks of 2006 were down 20.2% from the same period =
in 2005; my ten-week running average was down 22.4%. For the first six wee=
ks, they were still down 20.2%, but my ten-week running average was down 23=
.6%. It's still too soon to judge anything from the 2006 figures.
Sales of so-called non-flat-panel "Digital Televisions" to U.S. dealer=
s for the fifth week were 125,155 units, for the sixth 131,549, and for the=
first six weeks 874,087, revised, again (compared to 1,378,878 for sets no=
t called "digital" by CEA). Based on CEA's new system, the "digital" figur=
es now include flat-panel TVs.
"Digital Televisions" (most of which still appear to be HDTV displays =
without DTT-reception capability) accounted for about 35% of the TVs sold t=
o U.S. dealers through the fifth week this year and 38.8% through the sixth=
week. It may be worth noting here what that means. About 61% of the TVs =
sold to U.S. dealers in 2006 were still plain non-H/DTV direct-view TVs wit=
h picture tubes.
To qualify to CEA as a "Digital Television," a display need only be ca=
pable of dealing with at least 480p; it need not be capable of either recei=
ving digital signals or displaying them. It is now a requirement that all =
new TVs 25-inch or up imported or shipped interstate have DTT reception cap=
ability. CEA says about 82% of the "digital televisions" sold in 2005 were=
HDTV.
- DVD news: According to CEA's figures, sales of DVD players to U.S. dealer=
s for the first five weeks of 2006 were UP 22.4% from the same period in 20=
05; my ten-week running average was up 4.6%. For the first six weeks, they=
were up 34.6%, and my ten-week running average was up 12.7%. The 2006 num=
bers are still too few to show any solid trend, but the ten-week running av=
erage seems to indicate a second wind for DVD players.
- S. Merrill Weiss will receive the NAB Television Engineering Achievement =
Award this year:
<http://www.tvtechnology.com/dlrf/one.php?id=3D1172>
At the Technology Retreat, it was disclosed that, among his many other=
accomplishments, he programmed a UNIVAC as a kid.
- Upcoming Dates (DTV and non-DTV):
- March 9, Petersen Automotive Museum, Los Angeles, HD Expo <http://ww=
w.hdexpo.net/>.
- March 15-16, International Trade Center, Washington, D.C., CEA Enter=
tainment Technology Policy Summit <http://www.ce.org/events/event_info/defa=
ult.asp?eventID=3DHDTV06>.
- March 21-23, Loews Coronado Bay Resort, San Diego, DisplaySearch fla=
t-panel display conference <http://www.displaysearch.com/usfpd2006/>.
- April 6-7, Las Vegas, IEEE International Symposium on Broadband Mult=
imedia Systems and Broadcasting <http://www.ieee.org/organizations/society/=
bt/index.html>.
- April 9-11, Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta, the National Sho=
w (NCTA2006) <http://www.thenationalshow.com/?ref=3DnctaMenu>.
- April 22-27, Las Vegas Convention Center, NAB2006 <http://www.nabsho=
w.com/>.
- April 28-30, Early Television Museum, Hilliard, Ohio, 2006 Early Tel=
evision Convention <http://www.earlytelevision.org/2006_convention.html>.
- *May 17, Film Row Cinema, Columbia College, Chicago, HD Expo <http:/=
/www.hdexpo.net/>.
- May 20-23, Porte de Versailles, Paris, 120th AES convention <http://=
www.aes.org/events/120/>.
- *June 5-9, Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, Calgary, Albert=
a, Canada, WABE/SAIT Broadcast Training Seminar <wayne.watson@xxxxxxx>.
- June 7-9, Orange County Convention Center, Orlando, Infocomm <http:/=
/www.infocomm.org/>.
- June 27-29, Javits Center, New York, Entertainment Technology Allian=
ce <http://www.etaexpo.com/>.
* - new or revised listing
TTFN,
Mark
PS Permission is granted to forward this or any other Monday Memo. Next w=
eek's memo will be late. Again, there will be no memo the week of the 27th=
.
Have a question about the memo? Before contacting me, please try the FAQs =
and glossary in the second postscript to the January 5 memo:
<http://www.digitaltelevision.com/mondaymemo/mlist/frm02213.html>
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