[opendtv] Latin America Goes its Own Way on DTV

Looks like some of the same strange notions being recycled in Latin America, 
wrt DTV adoption. Namely, it's not about HDTV, it's more about interactivity. 
Instead, it eventually turns out to be more about HDTV and far less about 
interactivity, and starting out without HDTV only creates a problem shortly 
after the transition completes.

It seems to me that HDTV receiver costs to consumers are very low these days. 
For new markets, stand-alone STBs normally do not need to be HD-capable, since 
they would be connected to old analog TVs anyway. And the built-in HDTV 
receivers in HDTV sets now are just not a big cost item. HDTV sets of similar 
size to previous analog sets won't cost significantly more nowadays.

In spite of the early mantra, it definitely turns out to be about pretty 
pictures. I just don't see that it makes sense to introduce DTV sans HD 
capability from day 1. Even if the initial TV set sales are mostly SD.

Bert

---------------------------------
http://www.tvtechnology.com/article/84522

Latin America Goes its Own Way on DTV
by James Careless, 07.28.2009

OTTAWA
In the United States and Canada, the U.S.-backed ATSC DTV standard is the 
undisputed king. But in Latin America? When it comes to DTV standards, it's a 
free-for-all!

Consider: ATSC has been chosen by El Salvador, Honduras and Mexico, but the 
European DVB-T standard has been selected by Colombia, Panama and Uruguay. 
Several other countries are currently seriously considering DVB: Ecuador, 
Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Cuba, and a number of Central American and 
Caribbean countries, according to Peter Siebert, executive director of the DVB 
Project. "Other countries retaining DVB as an option, but with no short term 
decisions expected, include Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, and Paraguay."

Robert Graves, chairman of the ATSC forum said that most of the countries 
Siebert mentions also "are considering ATSC and ISDB [Japan's DTV format] every 
bit as much or more than DVB."

The region's largest country, Brazil, has its own homegrown HDTV standard. 
Known as SBTVD-T, this specification is derived from Japan's ISDB-T format 
operating in MPEG-4. Peru has adopted this same standard, reportedly under 
pressure from Brazilian President Lula Da Silva. In recent months, 
Argentina-which is also testing ATSC and DVB-T-has also shown interested in 
SBTVD as well as Ecuador and Paraguay. Argentina chose ATSC in 1998, but 
broadcasters in that country are also testing SBTVDATSC and DVB-T. Meanwhile, 
Venezuela is currently testing DVB-T and China's DMB-T/H HDTV format; the 
latter of which is being deployed in the PRC and Hong Kong.

Fourteen years ago, Graves said, the ATSC set the goal of seeing a common 
standard being accepted across the Americas. "It hasn't worked out that way," 
he said. "We now have three standards in the region; four, if the Chinese 
succeed in getting into the market as well."

MULTI-FORMAT MADNESS

TV format diversity is nothing new to Latin America. Even today, the region's 
countries use a mix of NTSC, PAL/PAL-SECAM, and SECAM formats for their analog 
broadcasts.

So why the multi-format madness, given the opportunity to make a clean break 
with the past and organize the Americas on a single standard? It's due to the 
fact that the countries in Latin America have different industrial targets, 
international alignments and service targets, according to Guillermo Wichmann, 
speaker of Argentina's DVB Coalition.

"Each country is selecting what better suits their objectives," he said. Also 
affecting these decisions are considerations such as "investment, employment, 
financing and cooperation commitment of the industries supporting each 
standard," plus "the payment of IPRs" [intellectual property rights royalties] 
to the owners of each HDTV standard."

Graves emphasizes that the influence of politics cannot be ignored. On this 
point, ATSC and DVB agree.

"Political considerations often play a strong role in the decision process and 
sometimes outweigh the technical and commercial advantages of a particular 
standard," said DVB's Siebert.

Case in point: "Back in 2006, Japan promised to build an IC plant in Brazil if 
they chose the ISDB-T standard," Graves said. "Three years later, there is no 
Japanese IC factory in Brazil and no plans to build one. But the country is now 
committed to its own version of ISDB-T-namely SBTDV-T-and is trying to sell it 
internationally."

Alvaro Gutierrez; an executive with the DTV equipment manufacturer SIDSA, a 
Madrid, Spain-based developer of DVB-based technology says that political 
factors are driving the decisions on DTV standards. "For instance, Brazil has a 
new standard and it??s working pretty bad, but Lula Da Silva is pushing very 
hard politically to its neighbor countries to choose [this form of] ISDB-T. So 
Brazil could export the technology in the region. But it's clearly a bad 
standard for the region; very expensive."

CHANGE MAY NOT COME SOON

At present, HDTV standards are in real turmoil in Latin America. However, this 
state of affairs may change, or at least settle down somewhat in years to come.

Politics notwithstanding, the expense of implementing a specific DTV 
transmission format and the cost of new HDTV sets is a big issue in Latin 
America. In general, the region "is not rich, and there are not many HDTVs in 
the market," said Gutierrez. "This will not change in the short-medium term, so 
some politicians do not care too much about HD. They are thinking in digital 
television in general, with interactive applications instead."

Cost explains one reason why China has high hopes for its DMB-T/H digital 
terrestrial television standard, developed with the help of Legend Silicon 
Corporation in California.

"When it comes to receiver prices, the potential economies of scale associated 
with China's DMB-T/H standard could change some minds," says Raj Karamchedu, 
Legend Silicon's director of product marketing. "There are 380 million 
television households in China alone, and the government there has set 2015 as 
the analog cutoff. Add the ability of this standard to support mobile DTV 
reception in moving buses-which is very big in China-the potential for mass 
producing this technology in cost-saving volumes is very high."

Wichmann, with Argentina's DVB coalition agrees that the push for DTV standards 
in the region is not HDTV-centric.

"TDT [Televisión Digital Terrestre; aka DTV] is not necessarily about HDTV in 
Latin America," he said. In other words, the push for DTV in this region is 
more focused on the benefits of digital signal transmission per se-mainly 
improvements offered by SD over NTSC, PAL and SECAM-than on bringing a 
widescreen HDTV to every home. "Many new HD services will be launched," says 
DVB's Siebert. "However, a significant part of the population will still not 
have access to HDTV screens and consequently, SD will continue to prevail for 
Latin American consumers for the foreseeable future."

Broadcasters in the region have mixed feelings about digital television. Some 
see DTV as an opportunity, while others fear the extra competition made 
possible from standards like DVB. "DVB is not a good option for broadcasters in 
general, because it's cheaper and faster to roll out, and it also supports 
multiple program streams," Gutierrez says. "A lot of broadcasters in the region 
have a very strong position in their domestic markets, so such DVB options are 
clearly bad for them-but good for the people."

Problems with spectrum coordination and roll-out schedules are also delaying 
the DTV transition in Latin America. For instance, "DVB in Colombia is going 
faster than ISDB-T in Brazil or ATSC in Mexico," said Wichmann. "Transmission 
and set-top box costs are other major factors affecting the DTV roll-out. Other 
countries still have to make their standard decisions, assign new digital 
frequencies and plan their analog switchovers."

Taken as a whole, these factors are delaying the DTV rollout in Latin America; 
at least in comparison to the United States and Canada. But they likely won't 
change the region's tendency for multiple formats based on conflicting 
political and economic strategies. As a result, it is quite possible that Latin 
America will support four (or more) HDTV standards by the time this technology 
replaces analog TV. That's just how things work here.
 
 
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