[opendtv] 20060726 Wolfsson's Wednesday Words (Mark's Monday Memo)
- From: Mark Schubin <tvmark@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: tvmark@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2006 17:51:17 -0400 (EDT)
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:
- PVRs and PVR data - TiVo is starting a research division with info on
commercial viewing. It will be based on a nightly sample of 20,000 users (out
of 4.4 million). Some data so far:
- TiVo users spend more than half their viewing time watching
transmitted (rather than recorded) programming.
- When they watch recorded programming, they skip 70% of commercials,
but they do so selectively.
According to the story, 8-10% of U.S. TV households use PVRs.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/26/technology/26adco.html>
- AVCHD - Sony has announced the first two HD camcorders using the new
format. The HDR-UX1E optical-disk-based model will be $1400; the HDR-SR1E
hard-drive-based model will be $1500:
<http://www.twice.com/article/CA6354744.html>
FYI, a recent Consumer Reports review of two low-cost HD camcorders, the
Sanyo Xacti VPC-HD1 and the Sony HDR-HC3, said, "Though the Sony produced
videos that were noticeably sharper and clearer than those from the Sanyo
camcorder, neither camcorder bowled us over":
<http://tinyurl.com/rt7nv>
- U.S. DTT adaptor vouchers - The National Telecommunications &
Information Administration (NTIA) has issued a notice of proposed rulemaking
(NPRM) seeking comments on the program to distribute vouchers. Among other
things, they'd like to know who should be eligible to get them (they plan to
exclude any household that does not rely exclusively on off-air reception) and
how to define an eligible adaptor. Comments are easy to submit (e-mail is
okay) and are due by September 25. You'll find links to the press release,
FAQs, and other material here:
<http://www.ntia.doc.gov/>
This is the complete text of the NPRM. It's not very long and is
relatively easy to read (if you ignore the boilerplate notices at the end):
<http://tinyurl.com/m8xk3>
The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) would like the NTIA to
consider providing vouchers to households that have off-air-only sets as well
as cable and satellite:
<http://www.nab.org/newsroom/pressrel/Releases/072406_DW_NTIA_Converters.htm>
I'd like them also to consider at least satellite households not
subscribing to local-into-local TV-station delivery.
The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) looks forward to participating
in the development of the program:
<http://www.ce.org/Press/CurrentNews/press_release_detail.asp?id=11093>
Here are some news reports. The first is from USA Today:
<http://tinyurl.com/kaa2b>
<http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6355923.html>
<http://www.eetimes.com/rss/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=191000674>
- May 1 -
- The NAB has not updated its list since the last memo, and Doug Lung
has not posted a new figure from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
database since the last memo.
- The FCC, however, has updated its lists as of July 13 (but posted
them later):
- 1703 U.S. TV stations (98.9% of those the FCC is currently
using for its calculations) have been granted DTT construction permits or
licenses, and 1584 are on the air for at least some amount of time at some
power level:
<http://www.fcc.gov/mb/video/files/dtvsum.html>
- There has been no change in the 40 ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC
outlets in the top-10 markets due on the air May 1, 1999; 38 are fully licensed
and two are operating on temporary authority:
<http://www.fcc.gov/mb/video/files/dtvstat.html>
- There has also been no change in the 79 of those outlets in
markets 11-30 due on the air November 1, 1999 (the 80th is in Mexico); 74 are
fully licensed and five are operating on temporary authority:
<http://www.fcc.gov/mb/video/files/dtvonairsum.html>
- This summary table still shows non-commercial stations leading
commercial ones:
<http://www.fcc.gov/mb/video/files/dtvonairsum.html>
- These are the 1039 stations either fully licensed or on
program-test authority:
<http://www.fcc.gov/mb/video/files/dtvonairsum.html>
- These are the 545 stations operating on temporary authority:
<http://www.fcc.gov/mb/video/files/dtvstas.html>
- Charles Swartz has retired as head of the Entertainment Technology Center at
the University of Southern California for health reasons:
<http://www.dcinematoday.com/dc/pr.aspx?newsID=575>
To offset that sad news, here's some good news. Image and perception
master Charles Poynton and SIGGRAPH presenter, body/mind therapist, and former
TV Ontario researcher (on the series "Fast Forward") Barbara Morris were
married in Toronto on July 15. Both bride and groom had purple highlights in
their hair.
- The New York Times has an article on the acceptance (or lack thereof) of
digital cinematography:
<http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/24/technology/24digital.html>
- The latest FCC figures on high-speed (at least 200 kbps in at least one
direction) and advanced (high-speed in both directions) Internet access (for
the end of 2005) show:
- 42.9 million high-speed residential lines, 57.5% via cable modem
- 39.3 million advanced residential lines, 62.4% via cable modem
- 62.3% of the advanced lines are at least 2.5 Mbps in the faster
direction.
This is the news release:
<http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-266593A1.pdf>
Here's the complete report:
<http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-266596A1.pdf>
- International news:
- According to a story in Business Week using figures from the German
research firm GfK, two million European households have HD displays, but only
800 thousand can get HD programming:
<http://tinyurl.com/zvhro>
- The Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) group claims 114 countries either
have or plan to use DVB-T for DTT:
<http://www.dvb.org/news_events/news/over_100_countries_now_co/index.xml>
- According to advanced-television.com, Sky Italia has 3.9 million Italian
households and Italian DTT 3.8 million:
<http://tinyurl.com/s3k8q>
- The European Union has given Italy two months to respond to concerns
about access to DTT there:
<http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/060719/eu_italy_tv.html?.v=1>
- Germany is also conducting investigations into DTT legal issues there:
<http://www.worldscreen.com/newscurrent.php?filename=ec72006.htm>
- The first UK Switchover Tracking Survey found 66% of the population knew
about the transition. Perhaps surprisingly, 78% of 65-74-year-olds knew of it
but only 47% of 16-24-year-olds:
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/5199144.stm>
- Here's an update on Azerbaijan:
<http://www.today.az/news/business/28340.html>
- The July issue of the Advanced Television Systems Committee's
publication The Standard highlights World Cup HD ATSC transmissions in
Guatemala:
<http://www.atsc.org/news_information/newsletter/ATSC_July06_Standard.pdf>
- This story notes the success of HD in Canada without any mandates:
<http://televisionbroadcast.com/articles/article_1357.shtml>
- Flash memory news:
- J&R advertised Panasonic 2 GB SD cards for $44.99.
- SanDisk's Extreme IV series of Compact Flash cards has a sustained
transfer rate of 320 Mbps. The 8 GB card has a suggested price of $639:
<http://www.twice.com/article/CA6355087.html>
- Artec's T14A is a tiny USB ATSC receiver for $89, including antenna:
<http://www.artec.com.tw/ehtm/be124.htm>
This story says, "You'll also need an analog TV tuner installed on your
machine":
<http://www.mobilemag.com/content/100/334/C8775/>
- Based on figures from CEA, sales to U.S. dealers of non-H/DTV television sets
for the first 27 weeks of 2006 were down 45.6% from the same period in 2005; my
ten-week running average was also down 44.9%. Sales of so-called "Digital
Televisions" to U.S. dealers for the 27th week were 301,909 units and for the
first 27 weeks 8,308,751 (compared to 5,436,052 for sets not called "digital"
by CEA), accounting for 60.5%.
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, although now that the 100% "tuner
mandate" has kicked in for sets 25-inch and larger, it would seem that most do
have such capability. CEA says about 82% of the "digital televisions" sold in
2005 (when not all TVs 25-inch and up were supposed to have DTT-reception
circuitry) were HDTV.
- DVD news: According to CEA's figures, sales of DVD players to U.S. dealers
for the first 27 weeks of 2006 were up 21.8% from the same period in 2005; my
ten-week running average was up 42.8%! I still find these figures amazing!
- Upcoming Dates (DTV and non-DTV):
- August 10-11, Georgia Public Broadcasting, Atlanta, SBE/GPB seminar on
ATSC 8-VSB fundamentals and measurements
<http://www.broadcast.net/~sbe5/GPTV_Seminar_Flyer.pdf>.
- September 27-29, Hotel Washington, Washington, D.C., IEEE Broadcast
Symposium <http://www.ieee.org/organizations/society/bt/sympo.html>.
- October 3-5, Hotel Fort Des Moines, Des Moines, Iowa, Iowa DTV Symposium
<http://www.iptv.org/dtv/2005/>.
- October 4-6, Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles, Jackson Hole Tech
Symposium <http://www.jhfestival.org/symposium2006/>.
- October 18-21, Renaissance Hollywood Hotel, SMPTE convention
<http://www.smpte.org/conferences/148cfp.cfm>.
- ***January 31-February 2, The Westin at Mission Hills, Rancho Mirage
(Palm Springs area), California, ***HPA Technology Retreat***
<http://www.hpaonline.com>.
- April 14-19, Las Vegas Convention Center, NAB convention
<http://www.nabshow.com/>.
- April 18-21, Atlanta Convention Center, Satellite Expo 2007 with C-band
Pioneers Reunion <http://www.bobcooper.tv/c-band-reunion.htm>.
* - new or revised listing
TTFN,
Mark
PS Permission is granted to forward this or any other Monday Memo. Next
week's memo will 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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