[opendtv] Re: HDTV-Brochure_2005final
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "OpenDTV (E-mail)" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2005 15:32:26 -0500
> Although 1125-line (total) HDTV equipment appeared
> at IEEE Intercon in New York in 1973 and 1974, the
> big push for HDTV in the U.S. began with the SMPTE
> winter conference in San Francisco in 1981 with an
> NHK system brought over by CBS. ... In July 1981,
> CBS filed at the FCC in opposition to allowing DBS
> in Ku-band saying that those frequencies would be
> needed for broadcast HDTV. At about the same time,
> Joe Donahue of RCA consumer electronics touted the
> widescreen nature of HDTV, noting that it was a
> difference consumers could see even in newspaper
> ads.
Which suggests to me that even if HDTV later became
an excuse for broadcasters to retain their allocated
terrestrial spectrum, this was not the original
intent of the concept. And more, terrestrial TV
spectrum was not thought to be the way HDTV would be
distributed. HDTV was instead, pure and simple, a
better TV system, but challenging for distribution.
At a 1986 IEEE Eastcon conference, we were told that
there would be six HDTV channels, transmitted only
via satellite. At the time, I thought this would be
a loser. Because instead of replacing normal TV, it
would be a side show, parallel to NTSC. A luxury for
the few. (And not even a contender for the VHF and
UHF TV bands.)
But in 1991, when the FCC mandated that HDTV be
spectrum compatible with NTSC, I started to get
excited. As an integral part of an updated TV
standard, it makes a lot of sense. And with JPEG
and MPEG just being introduced at that time, HDTV
was clearly technically feasible in 6 MHz.
> This began as a Broadcaster initiative, almost two
> decades ago, in response to the threat that the
> FCC might authorize frequency sharing in the
> "under-utilized" TV bands.
The fact that broadcasters might have seized on
HDTV as a way of retaining their terrestrial
spectrum, *after the fact*, does not mean that this
was HDTV's purpose.
Bert
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