[opendtv] Re: HDTV-Brochure_2005final
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2005 10:34:06 -0500
At 2:02 PM -0800 1/19/05, Dale Kelly wrote:
>Bert said:
>> 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.
>
>You've captured exactly the thought process of the time.
Correct. The time in question here was significantly prior to the
time when the NAB hitched your wagons to HDTV.
The Japanese were moving forward with MUSE via satellite
distribution. The Europeans were getting nervous, concerned that they
might not be able to keep the Japanese HDTV system out unless they
rolled their own.
And broadcasters here we growing nervous about the growth of cable.
>
>After our initial Advanced Television meeting the future agenda
>was determined to be twofold:
>1. Advancement of HDTV production systems
>2. The improvement of the current analog broadcast system.
>
>In support of item two, Farouja Labs developed an NTSC
>based system which I believe they called Super NTSC.
>They demonstrated the system at NAB (~1982) and it looked
>very good. I believe that it incorporated a line doubled display
>but I don't recall the details.
Yup. At THAT time we were beginning to understand that the production
system and the emission system could be decoupled. Faroudja
understood this VERY well, having already developed several key
technologies to improve the display of NTSC. Super NTSC took
advantage of the fact that the NTSC signal does not fully occupy the
6 MHz channel; if you look at the signal in 3D space, you will find
that there are some big holes that are not used. Super NTSC encoded
additional information into these holes and then added some post
processing (including a line doubled display) to take advantage of
the extra information in the NTSC compatible signal.
You could call this the a precursor to EDTV.
HDTV was attractive for several reasons:
1. As a content creation bypass technology - the CBS story I related yesterday
2. The higher quality images from HDTV improve even NTSC emission
quality, and with Super NTSC, more of that quality could be delivered
while retaining backward compatibility with NTSC.
While all of this is an accurate portrayal of the thinking at THAT
time, THAT thinking changed in 1987 when the NAB, with support from
the networks and large station groups, hitched their wagons to HDTV
as a way to protect the spectrum.
Bringing HDTV to the masses was never the intent. Near as I can tell,
little has changed in the past 17 years.
Regards
Craig
>
>
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
>To: "OpenDTV (E-mail)" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2005 12:32 PM
>Subject: [opendtv] Re: HDTV-Brochure_2005final
>
>
>>> 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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>
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