More Details About HDTV Pact 343
Masem writes "The NYTimes reports that a pact between the makers of HDTV systems and cable and satelite providers appears to be a consumer-friendly route to pushing HDTV technology. The solution proposed by the two groups will remove the need for a set-top box to receive the programming (save for on-demand or interactive services) in upcoming HDTV sets, and will standardize on the DVI port for these (Existing HDTV's, however, will probably still need some set-top device for compatibility - the deal specifically requires set top boxes to send both analog and digital signals as to support older HDTVs). The proposal must still get FCC approval before it becomes set in stone."
NEWS FLASH!!! (Score:0, Informative)
Re:The Last Word (Score:5, Informative)
My guess is this is a way to allow people to shift a pay-per-view event to a more convenient start time, with the 90-minute limit in place because most PPV shows repeat at least once, on a different satellite or cable channel, within that timeframe.
That is, if the next showing of Signs begins at 8:30, but your friends are coming over at 9, you can wait until 9 to watch it.
The alternative is to disallow all HD taping of ppv programs, which was (IIRC) the original plan.
david.
Congress needs to Address the NFL Sunday Ticket (Score:1, Informative)
Because DirecTV is so difficult to receive and often so expensive to have installed, NFL Sunday Ticket is restricted to a lucky few -- and is something of a rich man's toy. Cable, on the other hand, is already in the majority of American homes, already readily available to almost everyone else, and cable installation charges rarely exceed $100.
If you're infuriated, as you should be, that NFL Sunday Ticket can be obtained only via a monopoly that most Americans don't or can't get, be aware that the league's monopoly arrangement with DirecTV is up for renewal at the end of the year -- which is why Congress should get interested.
The DirecTV exclusive was a fluke. In the early 1990s, rumors circulated that the NFL would stop free, over-the-air broadcasts and move its product to cable pay-per-view. Congress threatened antitrust retaliation. The NFL responded by making a big public commitment to free broadcast, while granting a monopoly on residential pay-per-view to the brand-new service called DirecTV, then being promoted as something anyone easily could receive.
The decision enabled the NFL to assure Congress that games shown on cable would remain free, and at the time was hailed as a consumer victory: free games preserved, while anyone who wanted more could opt for DirecTV. Now that the cost and unavailability of DirecTV have become clear, in retrospect was happened was a consumer disaster.
Forbidden to sell Sunday Ticket, cable providers may on Sunday afternoons show only whatever game the local CBS or Fox affiliate chooses. (Note to conflict-of-interest fans: Because ESPN and ABC air NFL night games that do not compete with CBS and Fox afternoon offerings, the corporate parent of ESPN.com has no dog in this hunt.) Aside from home-team games, local affiliates tend with smart-bomb efficiency to lock in on the worst matchups of the week. Or they insist on showing what seems like "regional" matchups, when a much better national game is available. For example, reader Scott Krasner of Charlotte reports that a week ago Sunday, the Charlotte local affiliate aired the Potomac Drainage Basin Indigenous Persons-Green Bay matchup, a boring blowout, when the much-more-heralded Tampa at Philadelphia game was available on the same network in the same time slot.
this isn't compliant with the hdcp license itself (Score:5, Informative)
sections 3.3/3.4 clearly state that it's not legal to have a dvi/hdcp receiver with any analog outputs (save 16/48 audio).
not having dvi on your set (or not having a mitsubishi 'promise') is nigh a death knell for future hdtv compliance.
here [hometheaterhifi.com] is an excellent writeup on the present situation
Re:Joe User won't have a choice (Score:4, Informative)
Stations will not be allowed to sell off their analog bandwidth. The current plan calls for stations to be required to choose one channel to keep - either their existing analog channel or their paired digital channel - and return the other one to the government. Of course the government could change its mind & allow stations to keep both, but I see essentially zero inclination on Congress' part to do that.
Strictly speaking, broadcasts will not be required to be HD in 2006, nor will TV's be required to be HD. The requirement is to be digital. There's a difference. It is possible to broadcast a digital signal with the same 480-line resolution currently used by analog. And many broadcasts will stick to this standard definition digital for some time to come.
(Standard-definition digital is still a big improvement over analog. Especially because some of the dirty tricks necessary to stuff color onto the old black-and-white signal are no longer necessary with digital. I have a standard-definition digital TV tuner card [hauppauge.com], and the resulting pictures & sound are pretty incredible.)
Re:Joe User won't have a choice (Score:5, Informative)
TV stations can do whatever they want with their allotted segment of the digital spectrum. All the nets except Fox and UPN (is UPN a net now?) are broadcasting HD content at least part time, but SD programs are going to be with us for a long, long time as well. Old programs that get run in syndication, for example, will be broadcast in SD, over a digital transmission.
Interestingly, though, Mark Cuban of HDNet (and the founder of Broadcast.com, and the owner of the Dallas Mavericks) has secure the rights to go back to the original film prints of some very old shows, like Mission: Impossible and Hogan's Heroes and do new HD transfers for broadcast in 1080i. Most television programming-- except for sports and news and anything broadcast live-- has been shot on film and then transferred to video. Re-transferring those old shows in 1080i makes for some amazing looking reruns.
Sorry, I wandered off the topic there. The point is, all TV will soon be digital, and digital TV may or may not be in HD. Your existing TV will continue to work after 2006, but you'll have to have a set-top box to convert the digital signals from your antenna to analog signals for your TV, just like your cable or satellite box does now. Because the demand for these boxes will be huge, the price on them is certain to be very low, probably on the order of $50 or less.
Re:Wrong. (Score:3, Informative)
The original plan, which this article does not contradict, is to only output 640p resolution on the analog ports. I can currently receive 1080i HDTV via comcast cable box.
My TV is a Toshiba 50H82 [toshiba.com], which I picked up for $1800, so its a nice HDTV, but not exactly top of the line.
I can CLEARLY see an improvement at 1080i vs the 640p of a DVD. I'm certainly not going to be happy when the next generation of cable boxes will only output at 640p. A TV isn't a computer, I shouldn't have to "upgrade" my TV after 2-3 years.
Re:Congress needs to Address the NFL Sunday Ticket (Score:5, Informative)
I pay less for my 150 channels of DishTV than the local cable costs.
You can get free installation [dishnetwork.com] if you sign up for 1 year of service at $22.50 or above.
For an extra $50 you can get a PVR (Tivo type thingie).
Of course you still can't get NFL sunday ticket, but heck who wants to bother with football anyway? The game is boring and unwatchable unless you have a PVR and can record the game in advance and scan forward over the commercials.
Re:will Joe User want this? (Score:5, Informative)
Bwah-ha-ha-ha! Dude, 720p and 1280x1024 are equivalent resolutions! Programs recorded in 720p have a resolution of 1280x720 (1.778:1 aspect ratio), at 60 frames per second progressive-scanned. Once you fit that picture inside a 4:3 aspect ratio screen, you end up with a 1280x1024 raster size running at 60 Hz.
Of course, the box you linked to will actually down-sample 1080i broadcasts to 720p for display on a computer monitor. But hey, what's a little resolution between friends?
Why can't these home theater techie-wannabes just learn how pixel resolutions work?
Why can't these computer geeks learn how video signaling works? You want a cheat sheet? Here are the common ATSC formats expressed as raster sizes just for you.
broken within a few hours (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Yes. (Score:2, Informative)
I've seen a lot of deeply unimpressive HD presentations... and I've seen one that just blew me away. The unimpressive ones make me wonder "what's the point?", but all I have to do is remember the good one and I start lusting after a nice HDTV setup again.
The setup wasn't even all that good really... it was a 34"-ish HDTV (one of the drawbacks of HD is that it doesn't do well on small screens - 36" is the quietly talked about minimum size), displaying a 1080i feed from a Sony HD video camera. The footage wasn't all that impressive either - just a shuttle launch. And I was watching it with about 30 other geeks clustered around at a Unix SIG meeting, so far from "ideal" viewing conditions.
But... wow. It was so crisp and clear that it looked like a picture window. No grain, no zig zags, no junk at all. It's really not something that can be described... it just has to be seen.
Setting up HD isn't all that difficult from what I understand (again, I don't have a set yet... I have a ton of money put aside for one, considerably more than is needed nowadays, but don't have the space for it yet), it's just that it doesn't behoove itself to multi-screen displays like they use in most stores. Heck, most places they aren't even showing an HD feed - just a standard feed running into the HDTVs. Which means it just looks somewhat better than a normal TV at best. And in most cases it actually looks worse -- because taking a 4:3 image and stretching it to 16:9 makes everyone look like dwarves. Stocky dwarves. Again, it's not that hard to setup, but they just don't bother (or someone has fooled around with the remote and screwed it up).
Where can you find a good HD setup? Most mid to high end HiFi stores will have one. If you have a friend who loves HDTV then they'll probably have one. Beyond that, I dunno.
Re:Hail our benevolent HDTV masters! (Score:4, Informative)
I'm not sure that you do have this right...
1) TV imprisonment ended at least 15 years ago; cable-ready TV freed us for non-pay NTSC programming and cable-ready HDTV will free us for non-pay HDTV programming.
2) Failing to send output through the analog connection for selected materials was a possible way to close the "analog hole." This ensures that hole remains open for non-pay HDTV.
3) My read is that this standard will make it possible for any manufacturer to construct cable-ready HDTV equipment, including Tivo and the like. The inclusion of Firewire connectors permits those digital recorders of digital signals to digitally transfer them to your digital display.
Of course, this is all concerning only "non-pay HDTV." Currently this would definitely include broadcast HDTV. Whether A&E, MTV, QVC and the rest of the "Expanded Basic Cable Service" cadre will be labeled "pay programming" when they make HDTV signals available is still up for grabs.
Re:Wrong. WRONG! (Score:2, Informative)
Re:WHAT? You still watch BROADCAST?!!! (Score:5, Informative)
The second 'C' is for 'Communications.' For example, telephone service, which is over cable. See the FCC's Web Site [fcc.gov] to see what their jurisdiction is over.
HDCP is lame (Score:3, Informative)
Check out Niels Ferguson's Censorship in action: why I don't publish my HDCP results [macfergus.com]
Re:Do NOT impose that restriction on camcorders (Score:3, Informative)
The "copying bit" idea is probably the best idea. Breakable, in the end, but once again, Hollywood simply needs to go after the people that break it. Have a bit set in each broadcast that says "recordable, not copyable". Anything you make has that same bit set to "recordable, copyable."
Re:"Allowed" to record!? (Score:4, Informative)
You order a PPV program and then don't watch it for a couple days? Uh... and why the hell did you order it then instead of two days from now?
Did you miss the bit that said "PPV/VOD only"? This does not apply to standard material. Not even to shows on HBO and other premium channels.
The only case I can see there being an issue is when it's the last showing of a PPV movie, and you just don't have time to watch it right now... but may tomorrow, or next week, or whenever. Then, yes, you're SOL.
There can be something of a case made for "but I wanted to watch it multiple times", but frankly, you can still dump it to tape or other recordable media (e.g. - HD). Yes, there are D-VCRs available that capture the full digital stream. Yeah, you'll have to have a cable box for one, but you're going to need a cable box to get PPV/VOD anyway, just like the article says.
So, again, what's the issue?
Re:this isn't compliant with the hdcp license itse (Score:4, Informative)
You would not be able to pass the signal through the TV to make it analog (except with a camcorder or some soldering), but you can certainly make a device that has both an HDCP output and an analog output.
-Alison
Re:HDTV tuner PCI card? (Score:1, Informative)
Hauppauge also makes two cards. [hauppauge.com]
Bewere of the AcessDTV card which uses Digital Restriction Mechanisms.
Maynard user loves his HDTV (Score:2, Informative)
Cheers,
--Maynard
But you can get NFL Sunday Ticket a la carte! (Score:5, Informative)
My family comes from Wisconsin and lives in Louisiana, so NFL Sunday Ticket looked like it would be an excellent birthday gift for my dad last year. Unfortunately, it's only available on DirecTV, and you can't go out and buy a receiver at your local store without buying a year of service or paying the $150 extra (the "penalty" for no service). Neither of those options were acceptable, so I started e-mailing, and when that went nowhere, I got on the phone.
Well, it turns out that you *can* get NFL Sunday Ticket a la carte. It is the only a la carte service DirecTV will sell you, but they *will* sell it to you (probably for the express reason of avoiding "abuse of a monopoly" lawsuits). You just go to your friendly neighborhood used stuff site (I chose eBay, as much as it pained me to finally register, hehe), and you buy a *used* receiver (or even a whole used package).
DirecTV will charge you a few bucks for a new access card (since you don't know where the old one's been, I'd definitely do that), and then when you call, you simply tell them that you want to activate a used system with *only* NFL Sunday Ticket. ("Yes, just NFL Sunday Ticket.... No, I don't want that; I just want NFL Sunday Ticket.... No, I hate TV, but I want NFL Sunday Ticket....") A few hairs later, you've got your nice system all up and running, with no additional committments.
So, if you're comfortable enough with a compass, wrench, and RG-6 tools, you can have NFL Sunday Ticket for the price of the season, a used receiver, and a new access card. Not a bad deal, at least compared to flying to Green Bay and buying, er, "resold" tickets every game.
(Oh, and as long as I'm here... "GO! PACK! GO!")