[opendtv] 061121 Twang's Tuesday Tribune (Mark's Monday Memo)
- From: Mark Schubin <tvmark@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: tvmark@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2006 22:21:03 -0500 (GMT-05:00)
Here are some very efficient (low-administrative-cost) relief
organizations (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).
***
I am very sad to announce that Phil Livingston, vp of Panasonic
Broadcast & Television Systems, died after a long illness. He was a
brilliant engineer, a great standards negotiator, completely honest,
appreciative of even his competitors' achievements, wonderfully funny, a
perfect friend, and, to quote Panasonic Broadcast president John
Baisley, "a true gentleman and a gentle man." That's not adequate
praise, but it'll have to do, because I can't muster more words when
thinking of losing him. In lieu of flowers, the family requests
donations to Compassionate Care Hospice, 140 Littleton Road, Parsippany,
NJ 07054:
<http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6390463.html>
***
***
Broadcasting and Cable magazine's business editor John Higgins died of a
heart attack last night. You might have heard his comments on the O.J.
Simpson fiasco on the Marketplace Morning Report this morning:
<http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6393812.html>
The facts of his death are not as important as those of his life. You'll
find remembrances at the link below. Even if you never knew him (or even
of him), these are worth reading. Someone special is gone:
<http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6393983.html>
***
***
Director Robert Altman also died last night. My wife and I had the
privilege of assisting him on his first multicamera video shoot.
***
I apologize for the long hiatus since the last memo. I feel I owe you
some sort of explanation.
Some of you know that I work on media projects at the Metropolitan
Opera, and some of you may have heard or read about the explosion of
media at the Met under the new general manager, Peter Gelb. Well, it's
all true.
Starting in September, we've been doing four live broadcasts a week on
Sirius Satellite Radio. We're also doing one a week streamed live on
Real Networks. For our regular Saturday-afternoon international radio
network (76 continuous years and still running, with a first broadcast
in 1910), we've been juggling with NPR's transition to file-based
distribution and the relocation of one of our uplinks from Miami to Los
Angeles. On opening night, we projected the performance and a red-carpet
ceremony to the Lincoln Center plaza while it was still plenty light out
and also fed a number of screens in Times Square live (with audio,
coordinating with an MTV event).
We'll be doing a series of live HD cinemacasts to movie theaters around
the world starting next month, part of which will include some
uncompressed HD transmission from the Met (FYI, the Met's first live
cinemacast was in 1952). And that's in addition to CD and DVD recordings
and television shows. So I've been just a little bit busier than usual
this fall. It should get lighter soon.
Here's a URL for a New York Times slide show on the opening-night media
festivities (the HD image of the opera, with live subtitles, wrapped
around the NASDAQ LED screen is pretty cool):
<http://tinyurl.com/ygqlzu>
- Follow-ups:
- ***The Technology Retreat***, Jan 30-Feb 2, Westin Mission Hills
Resort & Spa, Rancho Mirage (Palm Springs area), California -
- Add a day to your calendars: On January 30, Charles Poynton will be
doing a half-day seminar on extended color gamut (and we might have a
session on that subject in the main program as well). There will also be
an Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) seminar on ACAP, the
advanced common applications platform, on that day, details to follow.
Keep watching this space.
- The Wednesday-morning supersession on the home is being
co-coordinated
by Panasonic vp Peter Fannon and Universal Pictures senior vp Jerry
Pierce. Expect more information soon.
We can also already announce a series of network vps confirmed for the
main program, including Bob Seidel of CBS (who has interesting things to
say about HD ENG), Jim DeFilippis of Fox (who has interesting things to
say about JPEG2000 compression), Glenn Reitmeier of NBC Universal, Randy
Hoffner of ABC, and Jerry Butler of PBS. Jim Burger's Washington update
will also return. It's looking likely that we'll have a
digital-cinematography-camera panel with a bunch of manufacturers who
haven't participated previously (yes, there are that many) and with the
first information on Sony's 4K camera, a compression update (including
the possibility of live "multipass" encoding), and lots of information
on the consumer extended-color-gamut xvYCC standard.
The acceptance period for submissions for the main program is officially
over, but, if you've got something earthshaking, go ahead and send it to
me. Who knows? I apologize to the delay in letting potential presenters
know their status. Decisions are expected later this month. We already
have about five times more submissions than slots.
- The demo area is already well over half full. Information about
the
demo-area requirements is now available online here:
<http://www.hpaonline.com/mc/page.do?sitePageId=23997>
and you may fill in and submit demo-space requests here:
<http://tinyurl.com/t6gdx>
Please note that our Dictator of Demos, John Luff, has a new e-mail
address <john.luff@xxxxxxxxxxx>. Please do not contact him at any other
address.
If things go as expected, Windows users should bring USB drives to the
demo area to go home with EXTREMELY fun stuff (free)!
- Here are some more confirmed breakfast roundtables. Chris Lennon of
Harris will be moderating two roundtables on the SMPTE BXF (broadcast
exchange format). JVC's Carl Mandelbaum will moderate a roundtable on
the hot topic of reference displays (especially now that CRTs are
getting scarce) on Thursday morning, and JVC's Craig Yanagi will
moderate one on a new form of 24p workflow on Friday morning. Kathleen
Milnes, president of the Entertainment Economy Institute, will repeat on
Thursday morning her popular 2006 roundtable on the workforce in post.
Les Zoltan, founder of DVEO, will do a Friday roundtable on
understanding transport streams. Grant Carroll, CTO of Channel Wolves,
will be doing a Friday roundtable on getting the most from your
compositing toys (which tool for which treatment). John McKay of Virtual
Katy (and "Lord of the Rings") will be doing a Friday roundtable on war
stories from the audio post room. Andy Liebman of EditShare will be
doing a Friday roundtable on why too much fibre isn't good for you. Avid
is planning roundtables on managing security across the WAN,
next-generation pre-visualization tools, and 23.976 vs. 24.00 (details
on days and moderators to follow). Mark Kapczynski of MESoft will be
doing a roundtable Thursday on software engineering for digital workflow
automation. Art Rancis, vp of InPhase Technologies, will be moderating
two roundtables on secure long-term archiving (good for more than 50
years). Dr. Richard Cabot of Sensurround will moderate a Thursday
roundtable on increasing the post engineer’s bandwidth to cope with
multi-channel audio, and his partner will moderate one on Friday, a
surround audio post & QC gripe session; bring your problems! Philippe
Soeiro of Autodesk will moderate a Thursday roundtable on color
management in post production, and Autodesk's Jill Ramsay will moderate
one Friday on 3D-centric feature animation and VFX pipelines. David
Newman, CTO of CineForm, will moderate roundtables both days on
compressed high-resolution workflow using CineForm intermediate.
Marylise Tauzia of Atempo will moderate a roundtable Thursday on digital
archiving for post-production, media, and creative professionals and on
Friday on advanced data protection for Mac OS and heterogeneous
environments. Jim DeFilippis of Fox will moderate a roundtable on
mezzanine HD compression on Thursday morning. Peter Wilson of HDDC in
the UK will moderate a roundtable called "Compression Is the Root of All
Evil" on Thursday and one called "How Green Is My Digital Transition"
(about power consumption) on Friday. John Footen of National
Teleconsultants will moderate a Thursday roundtable on workflow analysis
tools and techniques, and Bob Slutske from the same organization will
moderate one on Friday on approaches to organizational change when faced
with technological change. Peter Putman of Roam Consulting will moderate
a Thursday roundtable on 8-VSB reception, including information on his
recent tests of the latest receivers. Jim Burger of Dow, Lohnes will
moderate a Friday roundtable following up on Washington, DRM, & Digital
Video: They're Just Here to Help!
Despite all of the above, there's plenty of room for more. Any
registered attendee who wants one may have a roundtable on any topic,
and there's no deadline (at least until we run out of space). Just
contact me.
- We're also accepting suggestions for the three team names for the
softball challenge this year. Previously, we've had Speed, Quality, and
Economy; Production, Post, and Distribution; and Compact, Standard, and
Large, among others.
- Registration is open. Here's info:
<http://www.hpaonline.com/mc/page.do?sitePageId=39859>
Here's the form to submit (all but press):
<http://tinyurl.com/y4yke8>
This one's for press:
<http://tinyurl.com/y2talh>
- Here's a quick overview:
<http://www.hpaonline.com/mc/page.do?sitePageId=37545>
- These FAQs are less quick:
<http://www.hpaonline.com/mc/page.do?sitePageId=23995>
- Here's info on this year's hotel (new place). We get a good deal:
<http://www.hpaonline.com/mc/page.do?sitePageId=37607>
- Don't hate yourself for the rest of your life. BE THERE!
<http://www.hpaonline.com>
- Cheap U.S. STBs - John Taylor, vp of government relations for LG USA,
told Broadcasting & Cable that his company plans to have $60 set-top
boxes available by January of 2008:
<http://tinyurl.com/ym88qv>
- STB energy-use standards - Warren Communications News reported that
California's Energy Commission put off its rules for a year. The story
is no longer on their site:
<http://www.warren-news.com/>
The generic energy-use story has made it to Forbes:
<http://tinyurl.com/hlg36>
See also next item.
- NTIA filings - The National Telecommunications and Information
Administration got a bunch of filings.
- In a highly unusual move, the Association for Maximum Service
Television (MSTV), the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), the
Consumer Electronics Retailers Coalition, the National Association of
Broadcasters (NAB), and the Natural Resources Defense Council jointly
asked both NTIA and the Environmental Protection Agency to declare
set-top boxes Energy-Star efficient if they consume no more than eight
watts when on and one watt when "off" and power down automatically under
certain conditions:
<http://www.twice.com/article/CA6385568.html>
- According to a report in Warren Communications News (no longer on
their site), KTech wants NTIA to publish pass/fail criteria for
self-certification:
<http://www.warren-news.com/>
- In another joint filing, CEA and NAB called for not excluding homes
with cable or satellite and for allowing such "frills" as an electronic
program guide. LG had a similar filing and -- be still my heart! -- also
called for minimum performance standards (including energy efficiency).
Microtune also called for performance standards (compliance with ATSC A/74):
<http://www.twice.com/article/CA6375304.html>
- Outgoing Republican Senate Commerce Committee chair Ted Stevens
also opposes excluding cable
and satellite households, according to an aide:
<http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6378960.html>
- In a related story, TV Week said House Energy and Commerce
Committee
incoming chair John Dingell and fellow committee Democrats sent a letter
to NTIA after the election along the same lines:
<http://www.tvweek.com/news.cms?newsId=11084>
- Another Warren Communications News story said Funai, in follow-up
comments, wanted antenna/box combos to be eligible for coupons. Funai
put the price of such combos at $100. Again, the story is no longer on
their site:
<http://www.warren-news.com/>
- Here's another story on more filings:
<http://www.tvtechnology.com/pages/s.0082/t.450.html>
- U.S. channel sharing - The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has
preliminarily ruled that fixed devices (so far) may transmit on TV
channels unused in certain markets. Certain channels are, at least
temporarily, excluded:
<http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-267867A1.pdf>
The decision wasn't appreciated in broadcast circles. This story is from
Broadcasting & Cable:
<http://tinyurl.com/ym88qv>
Here's another from the Association for Maximum Service Television (MSTV):
<http://www.tvtechnology.com/dlrf/one.php?id=1412>
This one's about the issue at the IEEE Broadcast Symposium:
<http://www.tvtechnology.com/dailynews/one.php?id=4296>
- HDMI -
- A number of wireless HDMI systems were shown at the International
Broadcasting Convention in September. Now LG, NEC, Panasonic, Samsung,
Sony, and Toshiba have formed the WirelessHD Group for 60 GHz
transmission of uncompressed HD over short distances. This story is from
EE Times - Asia:
<http://tinyurl.com/y4dg86
- Here's another report of problems with the high-definition
multimedia
interface:
<http://reviews.cnet.com/4531-10921_7-6650194.html?tag=blog>
On a different, but content-protection-related subject, here is the
speech that NBC Universal CEO Bob Wright made to the third-annual
anti-counterfeiting and piracy summit at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in
Washington on September 29:
<http://nbcumv.com/corporate/Bob_Wright_CACP_Remarks.pdf>
- CableCARDs -
- This story says there are more than 200,000 in use:
<http://www.cedmagazine.com/article/CA6375677.html>
- CEA wants to speed adoption of two-way CableCARDs by making OCAP
(the
OpenCable Application Platform) optional:
<http://www.ce.org/Press/CurrentNews/press_release_detail.asp?id=11174>
Not all consumer-electronics manufacturers signed on to the new proposal:
<http://www.twice.com/article/CA6390050.html>
- And CableCARD slots were gone from TVs at the LG line show except
those
with built-in PVRs:
<http://www.hdtvexpert.com/pages_b/LGline2007.html>
- IBC - Here's another report on the International Broadcasting
Convention from Broadcast Engineering's Beyond the Headlines newsletter:
<http://tinyurl.com/laaom>
- Who has HDTV? -
- A Leichtman Research Group study found HDTV sets in one of six U.S.
households, generally of higher income, and 26% of those had more than
one set:
<http://www.tvweek.com/news.cms?newsId=10956>
- But this story would seem to indicate many fewer actually get any
HDTV. It says about 9.5% of DirecTV subscribers get HD (a little less
than that for new subscribers). It puts HD sets in 25 million U.S. homes
(many more than Leichtman), but HD reception in just ten million:
<http://www.tvpredictions.com/directvsubs110806.htm>
- See also the International news section for info about HDTV in the
UK.
- HD DVD and Blu-ray -
- Samsung is fixing a problem with early Blu-ray players and
providing
an upgrade to existing users:
<http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/060914/samsung_blu_ray.html?.v=3>
On the HD DVD side, the introduction of Toshiba's second-generation
players has been delayed by problems with a component from another company:
<http://www.twice.com/article/CA6392402.html>
- Warren Communications News reported that iSuppli said Sony's Play
Station 3, with Blu-ray player, costs more than $800 to make but has a
suggested retail price of $499 (Toshiba's first HD DVD player was
reported to be similarly sold for less than it cost to make). The story
is no longer on their site:
<http://www.warren-news.com/>
Microsoft is offering an HD DVD USB accessory drive for the Xbox 360 for
$200. This story compares the two games and their HD drives:
<http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1561414,00.html>
- There was reportedly a "frank exchange of opinions" about the format
war at the CEA Industry Forum:
<http://www.twice.com/article/CA6381702.html>
- Broadcom is the latest to come out with something that's suppose to
end the war by allowing combo players:
<http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/061109/lath012.html
- There's also this Warner Bros. patent for a multi-layer hybrid disk
serving both formats:
<http://www.twice.com/article/CA6373870.html>
- Panasonic has come up with a 100 GB Blu-ray disk they say will last
for 100 years:
<http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061019-8032.html>
- There might be more at ***The Technology Retreat***. BE THERE!
<http://hpaonline.com>
- USDTV's bankruptcy - NexGen Telecom has bought the assets and is
keeping Steve Lindsley as CEO:
<http://www.cedmagazine.com/article/CA6391656.html>
- Telco TV -
- Is the "last mile" good enough? That's the subject of this story:
<http://tinyurl.com/eozvg>
- Verizon's FiOS had over 100,000 subscribers as of this article:
<http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6375527.html>
- There might be more at ***The Technology Retreat*** from the other
big
player. Register NOW!
<http://hpaonline.com>
- May 1 -
- The NAB lists 1584 U.S. DTT stations operating in 211 markets.
Please
note the new URL:
<http://www.nab.org/AM/ASPCode/DTVStations/DTVStations.asp>
- The FCC issued two sets of numbers since my last memo:
- As of September 12, 1704 stations (98.9% of the number they're
currently using) had been granted either a construction permit or
license, and 1591 were on the air, either with temporary authority (489)
or at full power (1102). As of October 3, it was 1704 (99%), 1592, 470,
and 1122:
<http://www.fcc.gov/mb/video/files/dtvsum.html>
- This chart shows more full-power stations than not in all
categories:
<http://www.fcc.gov/mb/video/files/dtvonairsum.html>
- There has been no change of status of the top-4-network
top-10-market
stations due on the air May 1, 1999. It's still 38 fully licensed and
two on temporary authority:
<http://www.fcc.gov/mb/video/files/dtvstat.html>
- There has also been no change in status of the top-4-network
stations
in markets 11-30; 74 are fully licensed and five are operating on
temporary authority:
<http://www.fcc.gov/mb/video/files/dtvstat11.html>
- Here's a list of the 1122 stations either fully licensed or on
program-test authority:
<http://www.fcc.gov/mb/video/files/dtvonair.html>
- Here's a list of the 470 on temporary authority:
<http://www.fcc.gov/mb/video/files/dtvstas.html>
- Doug Lung's RF Report noted 982 fully licensed U.S. DTT stations in
the FCC's CDBS database as of September 17:
<http://www.tvtechnology.com/dlrf/one.php?id=1411>
992 as of October 2:
<http://www.tvtechnology.com/dlrf/one.php?id=1426>
1000 as of October 17:
<http://www.tvtechnology.com/dlrf/one.php?id=1440>
1005 as of November 2:
<http://www.tvtechnology.com/dlrf/one.php?id=1454>
and 1016 as of November 13:
<http://www.tvtechnology.com/dlrf/one.php?id=1471>
- The FCC also just released analog station totals through June 30
and
September 30; I've included March 31 for comparison:
March 31 June 30 September 30
Full-power TV 1752 1753 1754
Class A low-power 589 573 568
Low-power TV 2157 2171 2189
TV translators 4549 4564 4517
Total analog 9047 9061 9028
The first URL is for the March 31 figures, the second for June 30, and
the third for September 30:
<http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-265530A1.pdf>
<http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-268507A1.pdf>
<http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-268509A1.pdf>
- Other FCC news:
- The FCC has released the seventh further notice of proposed rulemaking
in the 1987 inquiry into advanced television (which led to U.S. DTT).
This one is called "Advanced Television Systems and Their Impact upon
the Existing Television Broadcast Service," and covers channel assignments:
<http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-06-150A1.pdf>
- They've also issued the request for data for their "Annual Assessment
of the Status of Competition in the Market for the Delivery of Video
Programming." The first URL is the news release:
<http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-267863A1.pdf>
<http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-06-154A1.pdf>
- And they've decided that certain low-power non-TV transmissions in
supposedly unused portions of the TV bands will be okay. Again, the
first URL is for the news release:
<http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-267867A1.pdf>
<http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-06-156A1.pdf>
- The October 25 meeting of the FCC Technical Advisory Committee covered
broadband issues:
<http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-2051A1.pdf>
- The September 26 commission meeting covered children's programming
obligations for DTT:
<http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-267502A1.pdf>
- Can you sue if you think your HD isn't good enough? So far, yes.
DirecTV wanted to force arbitration of a suit filed by subscriber
Phillip Cohen in November 2004, but a Court of Appeals unanimously
agreed with a lower court that the suit can go on:
<http://www.metnews.com/articles/2006/dire091906.htm>
<http://www.tvweek.com/page.cms?pageId=312>
In a related story, here's a recommendation that you complain about
dropped HD channels for a refund:
<http://www.tvpredictions.com/directvrefund101506.htm>
This story covers both:
<http://www.tvweek.com/page.cms?pageId=292>
- Here's a report on Sinclair's A-VSB testing for mobile DTT:
<http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6388372.html>
And here's their vp of engineering, Del Parks, discussing DTT:
<http://www.tvnewsday.com/articles/2006/11/09/daily.1/>
- How much time can you still waste before U.S. analog cutoff? MSTV
provides a handy countdown clock on their web site. Of course, that's if
the date doesn't change again (the December 31, 2006 date lasted over
five years):
<http://www.mstv.org/>
- Turnabout-is-fair-play department: Bored with the videogame you're
playing? Turner Broadcasting System is offering programming for the Xbox
360:
<http://www.tvweek.com/news.cms?newsId=11018>
- Yikes! It's been so long since the last memo that I haven't written
about this here yet. Sony introduced its HVR-V1 camcorder at the
International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) and then a U.S. version in
New York City.
I don't normally write about product introductions, but I think this one
is special. It uses 1/4-inch imagers, which, based on quality reductions
from 1-inch to 2/3-inch to 1/2-inch to 1/3-inch, should look pretty bad.
But they don't. To me, the pictures look a lot better than they have any
right to look. That seems to be because Sony has reoriented the sensor
grid by 45 degrees, so there are little diamonds instead of little squares.
There's a pattern of 960 by 540 diamonds with the corners just touching,
which means there's room for another set of diamonds in between. Sony
doubles one of those numbers; I'd prefer to say it's two times 960 x 540.
By going to 960 x 540, they're able to make the individual sensors
bigger (Panasonic does the same in the AG-HVX200), which improves
sensitivity, dynamic range, and diffraction loss. By having the doubled
diamond-shaped sensors, each vertex is surrounded by four sensors, two
in the same column and two in the same row, which eases interpolation,
so the camera can derive a very nice 1920 x 1080.
You don't get something for nothing, and what the camera loses is
diagonal resolution, but, most of the time, that's not a big deal. It's
quite a nice idea:
<http://bssc.sel.sony.com/BroadcastandBusiness/minisites/HDV/home.shtml>
- When the little plane hit the New York apartment building, Fox News
got live pictures on the air via a Palm Treo mobile phone using
CometVision from Comet Video Technologies:
<http://broadcastengineering.com/news/mobile_phone_fox_news/?r=1>
You can ask Fox vp Jim DeFilippis more about it at ***The Technology
Retreat*** -- IF you're among the lucky few who get to attend. JUST DO IT!
<http://www.hpaonline.com>
- Here are some reports from CEDIA (Custom Electronic Design &
Installation Association) Expo:
<http://www.hdtvexpert.com/pages_b/cedia2006.html>
<http://www.hdtvexpert.com/pages_b/cedia2006trends.html>
This one is about anamorphic projection:
<http://blog.ultimateavmag.com/cedia2006/091606Optoma2/>
This one is about stitching multiple projectors:
<http://blog.ultimateavmag.com/cedia2006/091606Optoma1/>
This one is from Digital TV Design Line:
<http://tinyurl.com/z4pq6>
<http://blog.ultimateavmag.com/thomasnorton/>
<http://blog.ultimateavmag.com/cedia2006/091606direct/>
- The October issue of ATSC's "The Standard" is available here:
<http://www.atsc.org/news_information/newsletter/Standard_Oct_06.pdf>
- Here's a report on the large number of RealD 3-D theatrical
installations and the financial benefits they bring:
<http://displaydaily.com/2006/11/17/coming-soon-to-a-theater-near-you/>
- International news:
- Digital UK, leading the British switchover, complained that
"digital-ready" TVs accounted for just 36% of summer sales:
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6120442.stm>
But sales of all "digital TV products" exceeded analog for the first
time in the third quarter. This story is from advanced-television.com:
<http://tinyurl.com/ynxfer>
And, citing 58,000 new subscribers in the third quarter (for a total of
96,000), BSkyB CEO James Murdoch called Sky HD the "fastest consumer
rollout of a new product." This story appeared in the Multichannel News
International e-mail newsletter, but I don't have a URL for it.
Murdoch's quote is also in the HD story below.
- UK regulator Ofcom has restated the number of Freeview-only
households, revised downward from 7.1 million at end of March to 6.4
million (with very little growth in the second quarter), third in
households behind pay satellite and analog broadcast, and second in TVs
(but WAY behind analog):
<http://www.ofcom.org.uk/research/tv/reports/dtv/dtu_2006_q2/dtu_2006_q2.pdf>
- Like NTIA, the UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is
planning an assistance program to help people get digital reception,
and, like Dingell and the Democrats, they are orienting it towards the
elderly, disabled, and needy. Still, it seems a little ironic that one
of their priorities in helping people get digital television is for the
blind:
<http://www.gnn.gov.uk/content/detail.asp?NewsAreaID=2&ReleaseID=242838>
- According to Continental Research's Autumn 2006 Digital TV Report,
over a million UK households have "HDTV-enabled" TV sets, roughly six
percent penetration in July, up from two percent in February. This story
is from advanced=television.com:
<http://tinyurl.com/ydhkxl>
- Let It Wave's bandlet-based upconverter technology is "producing"
the 1080i signal being carried by France Television on DTT channel 50,
according to this story:
<http://www.broadcastnewsroom.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=81436>
- Spain has six million DTT households, 2.25 million of them since
November of 2005:
<http://www.advanced-television.com/2006/news_archive_2006/Oct9_Oct13.htm#m8>
- Madrid is subsidizing DTT in apartment buildings with SMATV (satellite
master-antenna television systems) to 50% of the cost. This story is
from advanced-television.com:
<http://tinyurl.com/y5vfpr>
- Here are a couple of stories on Czech cancelled DTT allocations:
<http://www.tvtechnology.com/dlrf/one.php?id=1399>
<http://www.tvtechnology.com/dlrf/one.php?id=1404>
- Greece is said to "lag" in digital. This story is from Katherimini:
<http://tinyurl.com/ylebuj>
- Here's a story about DTT in Kyrgyzstan:
<http://www.iwpr.net/?p=bkg&s=b&o=324340&apc_state=henh>
- This one on Malaysia is from Star Techcentral:
<http://tinyurl.com/njxfm>
- The Philippine government has ruled that analog-TV transmissions must
end by the end of 2015. This story is from the Manila Times:
<http://tinyurl.com/sju5u>
Here are the draft rules for DTT in the Philippines:
<http://www.ntc.gov.ph/whatsnew/MEM%20CIRC%20digitaltv.pdf>
- Penetration of DTT in Taiwan (4% for set-top receivers) reportedly
lags behind penetration in Hong Kong, Korea, and Japan:
<http://www.digitimes.com/systems/a20061012PB201.html>
- In Japan 27% of TVs shipped in the second quarter were reportedly HD,
bringing household penetration to 64%, but due to its larger market
size, Europe led in HD shipments. This story also has HD statistics by
display technology and brand:
<http://www.digitimes.com/displays/a20060927PR204.html>
The next link is to a story on DisplaySearch statistics. Both groups
show that HD plasma is again more prevalent than standard-definition:
<http://broadcastengineering.com/hdtv/plasma-panel-sales-rise/?r=4>
- Australia there were (as of the linked report) 105 models of DTT
set-top receivers from 27 brands, starting at A$90 (US$69 list price).
Of those 36 from 19 brands were HD, starting at A$290 (US$224):
<http://www.dba.org.au/index.asp?sectionID=18>
There were also 72 models of integrated DTVs from 12 brands, starting at
A$1099 (US$847). Of those 48 from 9 brands were HD, starting at A$2199
(US$1695):
<http://www.dba.org.au/index.asp?sectionID=78>
- Almost two million (1,998,000) DTT receivers had been sold to
Australian dealers and installers as of September 30. Household DTT
penetration has reached an estimated 23%, and the HD proportion is
rapidly rising, though it's difficult to get an exact figure off the
chart at this link:
<http://www.dba.org.au/index.asp?display=news&newsID=897>
- Here's a story on DTT in Colombia:
<http://www.bnamericas.com/story.jsp?sector=2¬icia=369937&idioma=I>
- According to In-Stat, of 1.2 billion television households worldwide,
355 million have cable, up from 349 million at the end of 2005. China
(106 million) and the U.S. (69 million) are the two largest cable
markets. This story is from advanced-television.com:
<http://tinyurl.com/ts7d3>
- Panasonic's 103-inch plasma TV is no longer the largest one-piece
television display. JVC showed a 110-inch H-DLA rear-projection unit at
the CEATEC (combined exhibition for advanced technologies) show in Japan:
<http://www.twice.com/article/CA6377556.html>
There's also now a 100-inch LCD from LG.Philips:
<http://www.tvpredictions.com/lcdguinness101106.htm>
The implications of these displays (as well as 4K LCDs from CMO and
Sharp) on the need for something beyond 1080-line HDTV is the subject of
my November (print-only but free) column in Videography magazine.
- Here are some other stories about CEATEC:
<http://www.twice.com/article/CA6377841.html>
<http://blog.hometheatermag.com/maureenjenson/>
<http://blog.hometheatermag.com/geoffreymorrison/>
<http://blog.ultimateavmag.com/fredmanteghian/>
This next one covers both Fox Blu-ray titles and a home $10,000
motion-sensation leather recliner from D-Box:
<http://www.videobusiness.com/article/CA6377275.html>
- More HD programming, availability of HD consumer disk systems, and
rapidly falling HDTV prices have not substantially increased interest in
buying an HDTV (18% in 2006 vs. 16% in 2005), according to this
interpretation of a CEA survey of 1,000 U.S. adults:
<http://www.tvweek.com/page.cms?pageId=342>
Prices, however, are now REALLY falling. There are many brands and
retailers offering 42-inch HD plasma TVs for under $1000. LCDs are
dropping, too:
<http://www.tvweek.com/page.cms?pageId=389>
<http://www.twice.com/article/CA6392403.html>
<http://displaydaily.com/2006/11/13/how-low-can-you-go/>
This story in Display Daily lists a Vizio P42HDTV for $988 at Wal-Mart,
a Sanyo PDP-42H2A for $899.95 at B&H Photo, a Philips PF7220A/37B for
$933.61, and a Samsung HP-S4253 for $972:
<http://tinyurl.com/yh5zo7>
- Toshiba plans to ship a 8-GB SD card this January (that would make a
32-GB P2 card):
<http://www.twice.com/article/CA6393637.html>
- Warren Communications News reported that JVC has come up with a 125:1
compression system for HD on optical disks. The story is no longer on
their site:
<http://www.warren-news.com>
- I've decided to use a tabular form for all the data based on the sales
figures from CEA. The first column is the week of 2006. The second is
the cumulative drop in sales to dealers through the end of that week
compared to the same period in 2005. The third is the drop in my
ten-week running average. The fourth is that week's sales of "digital
televisions." The fifth is cumulative dealer sales of "digital
televisions" in 2006. The sixth is the percentage of all 2006 television
dealer sales through that week that were "digital." As usual, revisions
of the CEA data might be responsible for figures not adding up as expected:
Week non-H/DTV 10-week RA DTVs DTV Cum %DTV
34 -45.4% -43.3% 861,159 11,733,173 63.6%
35 -45.1% -40.8% 433,518 12,166,691 63.8%
36 -45.7% -43.2% 381,339 12,548,030 64.1%
37 -46.6% -49.6% 427,926 12,975,956 64.5%
38 -46.5% -49.8% 506,221 13,482,177 64.6%
39 -46.7% -50.5% 548,948 14,031,125 64.7%
40 -47.3% -53.7% 433,631 14,464,756 65.0%
41 -47.2% -52.8% 468,738 14,933,494 65.0%
42 -47.4% -53.7% 549,661 15,483,155 65.3%
43 -48.0% -55.6% 737,446 16,220,601 65.9%
44 -47.0% -51.3% 495,794 16,716,395 65.5%
It's pretty clear that anything that CEA doesn't count as a "digital
television" is rapidly on the way out, but I find it interesting that,
with the analog cutoff looming less than three years away, more than a
third of the TVs currently being sold to U.S. dealers don't even meet
CEA's loose criteria to be counted as "digital televisions." I also
find it interesting that more DVD players are being sold in any week than
"digital televisions."
To qualify to CEA as a "Digital Television," a display need only be
capable of dealing with at least 480p; it need not be capable of either
receiving digital signals or displaying them, although now that the 100%
"tuner mandate" has kicked in for sets 25-inch and larger, it would seem
that most do have such capability. CEA says about 82% of the "digital
televisions" sold in 2005 (when not all TVs 25-inch and up were supposed
to have DTT-reception circuitry) were HDTV.
- Yes, I'm still behind in ads, but I wanted to let you know that J&R
has been advertising Panasonic's TH-42PD60U 42-inch 16:9 integrated
plasma DTV for $999.99 for about two weeks.
- Tech-Notes number 135 has come out:
<http://www.tech-notes.tv/Archive/tech_notes_135.pdf>
- DVD news: Again, I'll use a table for the CEA dealer sales data. The
first column is the week of 2006. The second is the cumulative
percentage gain or loss of sales compared to the same period in 2005.
The third is my ten-week running average for the above:
Week DVD 10-week
34 +24.7 +44.5
35 +26.7 +44.5
36 +25.7 +35.6
37 +26.9 +37.3
38 +28.0 +40.8
39 +26.0 +31.4
40 +25.1 +23.2
41 +24.4 +19.4
42 +24.4 +21.5
43 +21.4 +13.7
44 +22.7 +19.5
I continue to be astounded by the growth. Every week, more DVD players
are sold to dealers than even what CEA loosely counts as a "digital
television." I continue to see these sales as a big hurdle for any
next-generation system to leap.
- PVR news:
- Warren Communications News reported that TiVo's series-3 PVRs include
a serial ATA port for external storage. The story is no longer on their
site:
<http://www.warren-news.com/>
- TiVo has also introduced a "broadband enhancement" to allow sharing
home movies over the Internet:
<http://www.twice.com/article/CA6391067.html>
- According to Nielsen statistics, the average American home has more
television sets (2.73) than people (2.55):
<http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2006-09-21-homes-tv_x.htm>
- Kagan's Media Trends 2006 notes that, "in 2004, consumer outlays on TV
entertainment climbed to 1.76% of median household income. That compares
to just 0.26% in 1968 before the advent of home video and the
multichannel universe":
<http://www.kagan.com/ContentDetail.aspx?id=239&tcode=BI6EAK#TOC>
- According to the CEA Market Research study Broadband and the Home of
Tomorrow, cable and DSL each accounted for 29% of U.S. residential
Internet connections, up from 15% and 4%, respectively, in 2000:
<http://www.ebrain.org>
- According to the FCC, 92.8% of U.S. homes subscribe to any form of
phone service (traditional, wireless, cable, etc.), DOWN from 95.5% in
March 2003:
<http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-268003A1.pdf>
- According to the Conference Board and TNS, one in ten web surfers
watch some video online, 62% news clips, almost half entertainment; 53%
stream free, 49% download free:
<http://tinyurl.com/ygw3a2>
- Adding video requires such a tiny amount of real estate on a chip that
it's being added to washing machines and sewing machines (it's been in
refrigerators for years):
<http://www.eetimes.eu/uk/194300191>
- Portable-video news:
- According to Nielsen, less than 1% of the items played by iPod users
on either iTunes or their iPods were video; among video-iPod users, it
rose to 2.2%. By duration, video represented 2% of time spent by the
first group and 11% of the time spent by the second. Almost 16% iPod
users have played at least one video on either their iPod or iTunes; a
third of those don't own video iPods. Nielsen says about 15 million U.S.
households (13%) have at least one iPod, 30% of those video; Apple says
they've sold 70 million iPods to date. This story is from Reuters:
<http://tinyurl.com/ydjpvf>
- Paramount Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal Studios, Warner
Bros. Entertainment, Disney Enterprises, Columbia TriStar Television,
and Columbia Pictures have sued Load 'N Go Video for offering a way to
load DVD content onto portable video players. This story is from
Information Week:
<http://tinyurl.com/ymj46k>
- According to CEA's Digital Imaging Study Update: Sharing and Storing
Photos and Video II, 9% of "primary still-image captures" are by mobile
phones, and 47% of those who classify their mobile phone as their
"primary image-capture device" (they're up to seven megapixels) also
own digital still cameras:
<http://www.twice.com/article/CA6393097.html>
- Upcoming Dates (DTV and non-DTV):
- November 29-30, Javits Convention Center, New York, HD World
<http://www.hdworldshow.com/>.
- December 5-6, Hilton Universal City, High Definition Summit
<http://www.multichannel.com/contents/pdf/HD%20Summit1sheetHDWEB.pdf>
- January 8-11, Las Vegas, International Consumer Electronics Show
<http://www.cesweb.org/default.asp>.
- ***January 30-February 2, The Westin at Mission Hills, Rancho Mirage
(Palm Springs area), California, ***HPA Technology Retreat***
<http://www.hpaonline.com>.
- March 28-29, Orange County Convention Center, Orlando, IEEE
International Symposium on Broadband Multimedia Systems and Broadcasting
<http://www.ieee.org/organizations/society/bt/BMS07/07bmsindex.html>.
- April 14-19, Las Vegas Convention Center, NAB convention
<http://www.nabshow.com/>.
- April 18-21, Atlanta Convention Center, Satellite Expo 2007 with
C-band Pioneers Reunion <http://www.bobcooper.tv/c-band-reunion.htm>.
* - new or revised listing
TTFN,
Mark
PS Permission is granted to forward this or any other Monday Memo. Next
week's memo might be late.
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>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways:
- Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at
FreeLists.org
- By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word
unsubscribe in the subject line.
Other related posts:
- » [opendtv] 061121 Twang's Tuesday Tribune (Mark's Monday Memo)
