[opendtv] 20060221 Twang's Tuesday Tribune
- From: Mark Schubin <tvmark@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: tvmark@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2006 23:32:50 -0800 (GMT-08:00)
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).
- Follow-ups:
- ***The Technology Retreat***, February 21-24 in Rancho Mirage -
- The pre-retreat seminars have thus far been outstanding. Charles
Poynton says you should keep an eye on LED-illuminated LCD as a problem-solving
display technology (increasing dynamic range and color saturation and gamut and
reducing motion artifacts). He also presented amazing stuff on other
technologies, such as motion-vector frame-rate-upconverting displays, more than
three color primaries, and much, much more. I also caught a bit on new
enhancement possibilities for VSB and digital-return-link technology at the
ATSC/SBE seminar.
- Glenn Reitmeier of NBC Universal is joining the consumer video
marketplace panel.
- Jeff Merritt will be conducting a breakfast roundtable each day on
Panasonic's 2K processor for D-5:
<http://www.hpaonline.com>
- UK DTT boxes causing rescue alerts - The International Cospas-Sarsat
System is planning to drop 121.5 and 243 MHz processing starting February 2009,
replacing that with 406 MHz, which is not a harmonic of digital-TV sampling
rates:
<http://www.cospas-sarsat.org/FirstPage/121.5PhaseOut.htm>
- Blu-ray & HD DVD -
- Many sources are taking note of the resolution-dropping requirement
for unprotected outputs (960 x 540 maximum):
<http://news.com.com/2100-1025-6040261.html>
<http://news.designtechnica.com/talkback102.html>
- Joel Brinkley says there are seven million unprotected TVs:
<http://blog.ultimateavmag.com/joelbrinkley/>
- This source says 12 million homes:
<http://www.tvpredictions.com/hdtvscrewed021706.htm>
- The Advanced Access Content System (AACS) negotiators have agreed
on an interim license, which should allow the new disk systems to come to
market:
<http://www.widescreenreview.com/news_detail.php?id=10870>
- Warren Communications News reported yesterday that HD DVD players
will require a "firmware upgrade" for "full 'iHD' interactivity." The story is
no longer on their site:
<http://www.warren-news.com/>
- Sanyo Xacti HD1 $800 HD camcorder - It was reviewed by David Pogue in
The New York Times:
<http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/16/technology/circuits/16pogue.html>
- Pre-NAB-convention news -
- Sony will have 1080/90i or 720/180p slo-mo systems, H.264 coding
for 720p, HDV decks, and an optical-block extension for up to 165 feet away:
<http://news.sel.sony.com/pressrelease/6510>
They've also announced an even smaller consumer HDV camcorder:
<http://tinyurl.com/gdtoe>
- Panasonic is introducing, among other products, a multiformat
2/3-inch HD P2 camcorder.
- Olympics HD problems - Complaints continue to arrive, but some of those
listed last week appear to have been local, perhaps due to excessive
multicasting by that market's station.
- Chinese standards - This time they're challenging H.264 and VC-1 to
avoid fees:
<http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=180204086>
- July 1 - I've been traveling a lot and haven't gathered the usual, so
I'm going to skip the ads this week. I might skip them next week, too.
- Mobile phones and TV - Okay, their screens are small, but who says you
have to use their screens? This article says they are pocket servers:
<http://broadcastengineering.com/newsletters/eng_update/20060216/#TV>
- May 1 - None of the lists I check have been updated since the last memo.
- International news:
- France reportedly had 850,000 DTT households at the end of 2005 (3.6%
penetration), with 1.3 million set-top receiver/decoders sold:
<http://www.dtg.org.uk/news/news.php?id=1483>
- UK regulator Ofcom has already conducted a workshop for potential
bidders for spectrum to be cleared by the DTT transition:
<http://news.independent.co.uk/media/article346499.ece>
- The BBC has committed to HD via satellite and data delivery. This story
is from advanced-television.com:
<http://tinyurl.com/hhx3r>
- South Korea plans to establish a task force to figure out how to speed
DTT penetration there:
<http://asia.news.yahoo.com/060221/4/2g5tj.html>
<http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/biz/200602/kt2006022119010711880.htm>
- Based on figures from the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), sales to
U.S. dealers of non-H/DTV television sets for the fourth week of 2006 were down
15.4% from the same period in 2005; my ten-week running average was down 19.3%.
It's too soon to judge anything from the 2006 figures, but the ten-week
running averages do seem to show a lessening of the negative growth rate of
non-"digital" TV sales.
Sales of so-called non-flat-panel "Digital Televisions" to U.S. dealers
for the fourth week were 262,985 units and for the first three weeks (after a
revision of previous figures upward) 616,704 (compared to 1,187,960 for sets
not called "digital" by CEA). Again, based on CEA's new system, the "digital"
figures now include flat-panel TVs.
"Digital Televisions" (most of which still appear to be HDTV displays
without DTT-reception capability) accounted for about 34% of the TVs sold to
U.S. dealers through the third week this year. It may be worth noting here
what that means. About 66% of the TVs sold to U.S. dealers so far in 2006 were
still plain non-H/DTV direct-view TVs with picture tubes.
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. Devices actually capable of
receiving DTT signals are still a small fraction of those numbers. CEA says
about 82% of the "digital televisions" sold in 2005 were HDTV.
- The ads - Again, due to my travels, I'm skipping the ads this week.
- DVD news:
- According to CEA's figures, sales of DVD players to U.S. dealers for the
first four weeks of 2006 were UP 35.7% from the same period in 2005; my
ten-week running average was also UP 7.6%. The 2006 numbers are still too few
to show any solid trend, but the ten-week running average seems to confirm a
strong second wind for DVD players.
- Upcoming Dates (DTV and non-DTV):
- ***February 22-24, Rancho Las Palmas Marriott, Rancho Mirage (Palm
Springs area), California, HPA's 12th-annual Technology Retreat
<http://www.hpaonline.com>.
- February 26-28, The Broadmoor, Colorado Springs, CableLabs Winter
Conference <http://www.cablelabs.com/conferences_public/>.
- February 27-28, Park Central Hotel, New York, Collaborative
Communications Summit <http://sites.securemc.com/folder4073/>.
- February 28, Dorchester Hotel, London, Collaborative Conferencing Summit
<http://sites.securemc.com/folder22719/>.
- March 9, Petersen Automotive Museum, Los Angeles, HD Expo
<http://www.hdexpo.net/>.
- *March 15-16, International Trade Center, Washington, D.C., CEA
Entertainment Technology Policy Summit
<http://www.ce.org/events/event_info/default.asp?eventID=HDTV06>.
- March 21-23, Loews Coronado Bay Resort, San Diego, DisplaySearch
flat-panel display conference <http://www.displaysearch.com/usfpd2006/>.
- April 6-7, Las Vegas, IEEE International Symposium on Broadband
Multimedia Systems and Broadcasting
<http://www.ieee.org/organizations/society/bt/index.html>.
- April 9-11, Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta, the National Show
(NCTA2006) <http://www.thenationalshow.com/?ref=nctaMenu>.
- April 22-27, Las Vegas Convention Center, NAB2006
<http://www.nabshow.com/>.
- April 28-30, Early Television Museum, Hilliard, Ohio, 2006 Early
Television Convention <http://www.earlytelevision.org/2006_convention.html>.
- *May 17, Film Row Cinema, Columbia College, Chicago, HD Expo
<http://www.hdexpo.net/>.
- May 20-23, Porte de Versailles, Paris, 120th AES convention
<http://www.aes.org/events/120/>.
- June 7-9, Orange County Convention Center, Orlando, Infocomm
<http://www.infocomm.org/>.
- June 27-29, Javits Center, New York, Entertainment Technology Alliance
<http://www.etaexpo.com/>.
* - 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>
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