Malone's HDTV plans...................................................
multichannel.com
TCI REBUTS CEMA; IS HDTV BY ANY NAME STILL HDTV?
By FRED DAWSON
Tele-Communications Inc. last week clarified its position on HDTV formats with a strong rebuttal to criticism from consumer-electronics companies, amid continuing confusion over which approaches to digital television will prevail in the marketplace.
"The technology in TCI's advanced digital set-top devices allows a television signal in any HDTV format to be transmitted to a customer's high-definition television set," said TCI president and chief operating officer Leo J. Hindery Jr., in a prepared statement.
A week earlier, at the National Association of Television Programming Executives conference in New Orleans, Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association president Gary Shapiro sharply criticized TCI. Shapiro contended that the new OpenCable digital set-tops ordered by the MSO will not transmit what CEMA defines as true high-definition formats.
"CEMA's information is incorrect, and it was extremely irresponsible for them to mislead the public," Hindery said. "The truth is that TCI has provided for additional choices and flexibility for all involved."
The issue is extremely sensitive, as signaled in Shapiro's reference to the need for must-carry rules that would require cable operators to deliver signals in the HDTV formats chosen by broadcasters.
Members of Congress have already warned broadcasters not to undermine the intent of the free allocation of digital spectrum for HDTV by delivering services exclusively tied to lower-level formats, which has prompted many broadcasters to downplay any plans that wouldn't include at least some HDTV programming.
TCI would much prefer to negotiate format and other issues with broadcasters as a matter of mutual business interests, as opposed to being forced into specific solutions by must-carry rules, said TCI spokeswoman LaRae Marsik.
"We think that the choice of formats should be market-driven, but whatever the market determination is, we have the capability to support it," she said.
TCI has said that its new set-tops, due to be deployed sometime in 1999, will be equipped with the capability to convert signals delivered in what Microsoft Corp. refers to as "HDO," which includes 480P (progressive scan) and 720P/24 frame iterations, to the analog NTSC (National Television System Committee) format for reception on traditional TV sets.
The ability to perform this conversion, thereby opening a vast audience to broadcasters' and other providers' digital programming, could help to sway programmers to operate in this format, as opposed to what CEMA defines as true HDTV, which is either 1080I (interlace) or 780P.
TCI chairman and CEO John Malone alluded to the benefit to broadcasters in this approach during his press conference Jan. 10, saying, "This could turn out to be a very positive aspect for the broadcasting industry as they try to make economic sense out of their entry into HDTV."
Malone added that the 480P approach "will enhance the quality received on any TV set and reach its maximum quality on HDTV receivers."
Such thinking has long inflamed consumer-electronics manufacturers, which have pegged their product strategies to a "bigger is better" stance that says that any display format with less than 1 million pixels won't stand up to consumer expectations when viewed on big screens. While consumer-electronics manufacturers say their HDTV receivers are designed to take in any of the 18 digital TV formats endorsed by the Federal Communications Commission, most are limiting their display capabilities to 1080I, 780P, or both. Some are adding special filtering equipment to enhance lower-level formats so that when they are displayed on the high-end screens, the quality gap will be mitigated somewhat.
"How long will it take a broadcaster that has standard-definition digital [SDTV] on his channels to realize that he's losing market share to the channel that is delivering true high-definition?" asked Lou Lenzi, vice president of multimedia services at Thomson Consumer Electronics Inc. "The name of this game is bigger and better pictures, and that is what will drive market penetration of digital television sets."
TCI officials said that if the broadcast industry ultimately agrees with this view and chooses to go with 1080I as the predominant HDTV format, the company will react accordingly.
Marsik said TCI could specify that its set-tops convert higher-level signals to analog if it turns out that this is the direction that the market takes, but the intention is to only convert the HDO formats to analog at this point.
After Malone announced the MSO's agreement on set-top software and HDTV formatting with Microsoft Jan. 10, there was a widespread perception that the commitment to HDO included a decision to downconvert higher-format signals at the headend so that only the lower, more bandwidth-efficient format options would be passed through to subscribers.
At the TCI press conference, Microsoft senior vice president Craig Mundie appeared to set limits on the signal pass-through capabilities of the planned set-top terminal
"This box, as currently specced, will provide for the original set of video formats up to and including 480P and 720P/24 that was originally proposed by Compaq [Computer Corp.], Intel [Corp.] and Microsoft as the base level for HDTV," Mundie said.
In an interview at that time, a Microsoft official indicated that this was the case, and that's how the HDTV-format decision was reported.
By leaving its options open, TCI avoids the controversies that a more limited approach to HDTV might provoke -- not only with consumer-electronics manufacturers, but within the cable industry, as well.
At the same time, however, it remains to be seen whether the manufacturers will ultimately prevail in pushing the full HDTV format over other options, given the uncertainties surrounding consumer perceptions of differences in quality among the various formats.
That uncertainty was reflected in the initial broadcast-digital product being shipped through the new strategic partnership involving Lucent Technologies Inc. and Harris Corp.
"We're shipping chips supporting 480I [standard-definition] at this point," said Paul Wolford, an executive in Lucent's new digital video group.
Harris and Lucent have teamed up to create a completely integrated encoding and transmission system for broadcasters that allows them to start out with the SDTV format and to later migrate to full HDTV without having to add a separate system.
As the encoding capabilities are upgraded to include full HDTV, broadcasters will be able to shift from one format to the other, as programming needs warrant, using the same chip set, Wolford said. He added that Lucent will demonstrate full HDTV capability over the chip set starting in April, and that it will begin shipping the multiformat version by midsummer.
Initial customers for the SDTV chip set are A.H. Belo Broadcasting of Dallas and Cox Broadcasting station WSB-TV in Atlanta. Most broadcasters have not indicated detailed plans as to what portion of their airtime will go to full HDTV and which formats they'll use. |
