[opendtv] Europe now debates i vs p
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "OpenDTV (E-mail)" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 10 Sep 2004 10:47:57 -0400
If there's anything I can glean from the US HDTV
transition, it is that the i vs p debate was and
continues to be completely pointless, as long as
both options are accommodated. Much ado about
nothing, yet it goes on still.
Bert
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Flat world gives HDTV hope
By Junko Yoshida and David Benjamin, EE Times
September 09, 2004 (3:38 PM EDT)
URL: http://www.eet.com/article/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=3D47101921
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - Explosive sales of flat-panel displays
in the consumer TV market might be the key that finally unlocks
the long-dormant potential of high-definition digital TV in
Europe, according to a panel of old HD hands at the
International Broadcasting Convention here Thursday (Sept. 9).
To turn the key, however, said panelist Lars Haglund, senior R&D
researcher at Sverige Television (STV), Sweden's public TV
network, HD broadcasters must wean themselves away from
interlaced matrix display and adopt progressive scanning, which
is far more compatible with flat [LCD and plasma] displays.
Europe, which pioneered the successful Digital Video Broadcast
(DVB) standard, has thus far focused only on standard definition
digital TV. Europe has revived discussions of the new HDTV spec
only recently.
Citing an urgent need for production equipment that can deliver
television images of 720 lines of horizontal resolution at
50-hertz progressive scanning, Haglund said, "We need a lot of
true high-definition programming to put out an HD service. We
need 50-hertz equipment now!" SVT is planning to have its new
"play out" center with a 720P/50 core operational by August 2006.
Although SVT isn't ready to offer 720-line progressive services,
producing programming in 720p is considered as the first
necessary step toward that goal.
Speaking more cautiously, because his company supplies hardware
to broadcasters in both the interlaced and progressive scanning
camps, David Bancroft, manager of advance technologies at France's
Thomson, acknowledged, "We will probably see interlaced becoming
harder and more expensive to support in the long run. For that
reason, we would like to see progressive scanning taking hold."
The renewed momentum behind the progressive scanning debate also
comes from a growing trend in which more TV production facilities
are beginning to use IT technologies. Bancroft said, "It's harder
to sustain a separate technology just for TV."
The main obstacle to Haglund's dream and Bancroft's forecast was
sitting with them in the panel in the person of Ikuo Wada, deputy
director general for corporate planning at NHK, Japan's
state-subsidized public TV corporation and the world pioneer in
HDTV.
NHK broadcasts more HD programming to a larger installed based of
HD TV sets than any other country, all in the 1080/50 interlaced
matrix it has been refining since the first analog HDTV broadcast
in 1986. Wada said Japan has little reason to change its
technology from interlaced to progressive scanning now, because
"de-interlacing technologies" are becoming commonly available
that, he claimed, will moot the issue. Many high-end flat
displays already come with "very sophisticated signal processing
systems," he added.
The other leader in HDTV is the United States. Panelist Mike
Strein, director of media development and planning for ABC
Television, said his network broadcast 800 hours of HD
programming last year, "and 98 percent of it was 720 progressive
scan."
With Japan committed to interlaced and the U.S. leading the world
in 720p, the balance will be tipped by the next major market
scheduled to adopt HD: Europe. Bancroft made clear which way
Europe - and, thanks to the flat panel boom, probably the world -
is leaning. He said, "If we have the opportunity to grab at
progressive scan, it's a good opportunity to take, and Europe
seems to provide that opportunity right now."
Copyright 2003 CMP Media
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