Cable, DBS May Not Be Ready for HDTV
multichannel.com
By MONICA HOGAN
The first high-definition television receivers on the market may not be fully compatible with digital-cable or direct-broadcast satellite set-tops, some consumer-electronics executives warned.
They said cable and DBS executives have to get off the fence if they want to be considered among the leaders in HDTV.
"If they want compatible receivers in the marketplace, they should make that known to the manufacturers," said Ed Milbourn, manager of advanced-television-systems planning for Thomson Consumer Electronics Inc., which makes RCA ProScan and General Electric sets.
Milbourn said the first RCA HDTV models, due out late next year, may not include digital interfaces for DBS or cable because those industries have not yet committed to a time frame for delivering HDTV.
It's not that TV manufacturers want to disregard cable and DBS subscribers -- it's just that building multiple interfaces into televisions to allow them to be connected to different digital set-top boxes means higher costs for HDTV receivers, which are already expected to be much more pricey than comparably sized analog televisions.
Some cable and DBS executives have said that they plan to wait to deliver HDTV until the market demands it. But those that take a wait-and-see attitude should know that the early adopters of HDTV may not be able to receive true high-definition signals anywhere but off the air with the first HDTV sets.
TV manufacturers are trying to make sense of the chaotic HDTV situation, as are most other executives. A task force headed by Cox Communications Inc. CEO James Robbins is spearheading cable's discussions, although Tele-Communications Inc. president and chief operating officer Leo Hindery has publicly expressed skepticism about HDTV. DBS companies are ambivalent about the technology. And some broadcasters are strongly considering abandoning HDTV in lieu of a "multicasting" service of data, interactive and video channels.
The problem for cable and DBS is that the so-called early adopters who are likely to buy expensive HDTV sets are their best customers -- many of them are multipremium subscribers with high monthly bills for cable or DBS.
In an interview, ABC Television Network president Preston Padden said consumer-electronics manufacturers "don't know what to start making" when it comes to digital TV.
Today's digital cable boxes won't pass through an HDTV signal because they don't have the physical interconnect to do so.
Bob Van Orden, director of the digital-video-systems unit at Scientific-Atlanta Inc.,
said the IEEE 1394 "Firewire" interconnect that is likely to be adopted by cable and the consumer-electronics field is too expensive to incorporate now because it's not yet widely produced.
The consumer-electronics industry is looking at Firewire for possible use in digital VHS recorders and digital video disc players. One issue that could slow down development of the new digital-interface standard is concern from Hollywood studios that consumers could replicate perfect digital recordings if Firewire were adopted before anti-copy techniques were put in place, said Tom Elliot, senior vice president of technical projects for Cable Television Laboratories Inc.
After engineers create a digital-interface standard for cable, there's still the issue of making HDTV sets compatible with the different DBS boxes already on the market. Models from PrimeStar Partners L.P., DirecTv Inc.'s Digital Satellite System and EchoStar Communications Corp.'s Dish Network may each require a separate digital interface. This adds not only to the cost of HDTV sets with multiple interfaces, but to consumer confusion over which HDTV model to buy.
It's too early to say whether any of today's DBS integrated receiver/decoders will interface with early HDTV receivers at all. But Dave Baylor, senior vice president of operations for DirecTv, stressed that the satellite television industry's ability to deliver an HDTV signal is not in question.
"DirecTv uses packetized transmission today that would allow us to transmit the Grand Alliance [HDTV] standard," Baylor said, referring to the consortium that developed HDTV standards.
DSS receivers have digital data ports on the back of the box that could deliver a signal to an HDTV set.
That's only, of course, if the HDTV set has an interface for the particular DBS system in question. It's possible that companies like Thomson, with interests in both DSS and HDTV, will make sure that their HDTV models can interface with DSS, even if they aren't compatible with EchoStar or PrimeStar products. But, like most consumer-electronics companies, Thomson has not yet released specifications for its first HDTV sets.
Eventually, it's possible that manufacturers will build DBS IRDs directly into their digital TVs. That's more likely to happen with DBS than with cable, at least until there's an agreed-upon digital-cable standard that could be marketed through consumer-electronics stores nationwide.
Different modulation standards in cable and broadcast television may add some cost to cable-compatible HDTV sets. In addition to signal modulation, the cable industry must address encryption. Several groups are working to come up with a single encryption standard, but that's not likely to be worked out before the first HDTV sets are built.
Cable and DBS companies have failed to commit to DBS, even though top programmers such as Home Box Office and Discovery Communications Inc. have announced firm plans for HDTV.
For DBS, it's mainly a question of bandwidth. For every true HDTV channel that a DBS company delivers, four or more standard-definition digital channels must be dropped.
Asked whether HDTV represents a good use of DBS bandwidth, Baylor replied, "It's a good use, but it's a question of whether it's a better use than the alternatives. If we're talking about the Olympics in HDTV, that's probably a great use of bandwidth. If it's the nightly news, the value added is probably not much."
As for the broadcasters, Padden said ABC wants to be coordinated with the other networks on issues of technology. He added that it's too early to say whether the hardware necessary to receive new broadcast data and interactive services will be built directly into HDTV sets, or whether a separate set-top box would be required.
"As the ideas for multiplexing evolve, the set manufacturers will certainly have to be involved in order to take advantage of all of the broadcast services out there," said Jack Bergen, senior vice president of corporate relations for CBS Television Network.
While many executives remained unconvinced of the urgency to transmit HDTV signals -- standard-definition digital is a marked improvement over analog, they said -- others were more certain of HDTV's future.
Cynthia Upson, vice president of strategic communications for the Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association, is convinced that HDTV will take off in the U.S.
And Harry Thibedeau, manager of industry affairs for the Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association, agreed.
"The early adopters are waiting in the wings," he said. "The techies will be waiting at the assembly lines to snatch up the first HDTV sets." |
