[opendtv] Re: Global standard

  • From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2012 17:41:30 -0500

Mike Tsinberg wrote:

> We always had a dream about a global HD broadcasting standard. In
> creating ATSC we were hoping to have as many countries as possible
> to sign up. It seems it does not work in case of broadcasting
> media. It is always government, political, 50-60 and other issues
> that make these standards more or less local or regional. We had a
> little more success with DVD at least creating same basic global
> platform but still culture and politics split it into regions.

I've never been able to figure this out. It makes the global TV broadcasting 
community appear incompetent, to me at least, when the audio community has 
managed to keep things standard for a long time. All records and CDs can be 
played anywhere. Until digital radio came around, aside from slight differences 
in the radio bands and perhaps in FM equalization (more high frequency 
de-emphasis in the US), mostly even radio was globally standardized. (Analog 
tuned radios, at least, had little trouble operating everywhere. Digitally 
tuned radios have to designed correctly to work everywhere, but it's no big 
feat there either.)

> However, internet is a different media altogether. And at this time
> it mostly intraoperative for video globally.
>
> Question: does it make sense to formalize standard or set of standards
> to be used for video content on the internet?

It's already happened, in fact, although Apple tried to screw that up too. 
There are different ways you can carry video, including live streams, over the 
Internet. The most basic is to use RTP and RTCP (Real Time Protocol/Real Time 
Control Protocol), which are documented in RFC 3551, updated by RFC 6184 for 
carrying H.264 compression. Most media players support this.

But there are also more proprietary techniques, e.g. Flash RTMP, now in the 
public domain, which allow streaming over web sites (encapsulated within HTTP 
packets instead if using UDP/IP, which many firewalls block). This has become a 
de facto global standard, although of course Kon can tell you how it doesn't 
work for everyone anymore!

It keeps evolving. With PCs, upgrading isn't so difficult, although eventually 
the hardware can't keep up. My old PC was jerky when viewing H.264 streams, for 
instance. I don't know about tablets and how easily they can be upgraded.

I haven't noticed any national efforts at messing up this good thing. Just 
individual corporations seem to enjoy doing so. Apple being one of them.

Bert

 
 
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