Wrangling over standards for TV's future
news.com
By Jim Davis
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
July 2, 1999, 12:45 p.m. PT
The cable and consumer electronics industries continue to wrangle over details
about connecting digital televisions to cable networks, with more delays in the
introduction of cable-ready DTVs the probable outcome.
Trade organizations representing the two sides sent letters this week to the Federal
Communications Commission stating that they will try to reach agreement on a number of
outstanding technical issues by October 31, so that cable-ready DTVs and compatible
digital cable TV set-tops will be on the market by the second half of 2000.
A vastly simplified TV connection, and control of a potentially huge convergence market, is
at stake.
DTV sets now available can't directly receive digital signals from the cable TV set-top
converter boxes now found in 65 percent of U.S. homes. Consumers
have to hook up antennas to their TVs to get high-definition DTV signals
from broadcasters in their original, digital form.
What the politely worded letters sent this week reveal is a significant
struggle for the control over how convergence will play out in the family room. The issue of
copy-protecting content as it passes from a cable set top to a DTV is still an issue, as is
the matter of integrating cable system technologies into DTV sets so a separate TV
set-top isn't needed.
Even something as seemingly simple as passing data from a TV set-top to the actual DTV
set takes on a measure of importance many times the size of the zeroes and ones that
make up a signal, because they all relate to deciding who will benefit most from the
transition to a digital era.
It's all about the portal
Digital television promises to bring programs with movie-theater-like quality into homes.
But many broadcasters will also use the digital broadcasting era to send as many as four
programs in the same place where a consumer dialed in one channel before.
With the proliferation of content, the issue of finding what one wants to view becomes more
complicated; thus, electronic program guides (EPGs) will be the equivalent of Web
browsers for digital TV. As such, they also represent a significant piece of screen real
estate to control, especially as cable companies start to use these guides to offer viewers
the ability to buy merchandise related to ads or shows they've seen. That's something that
participants in the commoditized TV market want to take part in by building cable-ready TV
sets that bypass the cable set-top box.
"There's a frenzy about portals on the Internet, but the average person spends about an
hour online. The average consumer spends seven hours a day watching TV, and TV is in
99 percent of U.S. homes," said Joshua Bernoff, principal television analyst with Forrester
Research
"If you imagine that [with DTV] you can have the equivalent of a portal experience, that has
the potential to be 10 times the value of an Internet portal," he thinks.
What's more, the TV and TV set-top will likely be connected to a growing array of digital
devices such as digital VCRs, DVD players, handheld computers, digital cameras and
camcorders, and even PCs. TV manufacturers are focused right now on controlling the TV
viewing experience, but they have a chance to play host to convergence in the home, too,
say some in the high-tech industry.
"TV can be king, but if they broaden their perspective, they can be king of a whole system
of devices in the home," said Mark Bridgwater, vice president of marketing for Digital
Harmony. "They can use that position (as intermediary between consumer and system) to
control everything." Digital Harmony is an independent company hoping to become a Dolby
Labs of sorts by charging fees for ensuring all kinds of digital devices actually work
together, testing them, and licensing its logo to companies which pass muster.
The battle lines
The question of who benefits from the revenue potential of digital TV ultimately relates to
who has control over technology standards.
The question of which device is controlling the TV experience--the TV or the cable
set-top--is a subtle point, said Forrester's Bernoff. "A lot of these technical standards
issues are about trying to figure out whose going to be in charge of experience," he said.
TV manufacturers, in particular, are motivated to take control because "right now, the TV
business stinks. There's no profit."
"The TV industry looks at digital television and sees they can sell TVs that have some
margins and [generate] ongoing revenue streams. But they can't achieve that without help
of people in distribution--the cable companies," said Bernoff.
Take one example: The Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association said in its letter
to the FCC that it wants to make sure that cable systems pass on data from their TV
set-tops to a cable-ready DTV. This data can either be in the form of enhanced TV content
that, for instance, links to a Web page, or data used to tell the EPG what shows are on at
what times. So far, there is no standard way for a TV set to recognize this data.
Also, future cable set-tops due out next year will have removable security modules
similar to a PC Card one can plug into a notebook computer. TV makers want users
to plug these modules in to a TV set so that they can receive pay-per-view
programming and premium services such as HBO. That also circumvents the
control that the cable operators such as AT&T's cable division has over the EPG.
The National Cable Television Association said in its letter that CableLabs will
develop an "incubator" for interoperability testing and has invited manufacturers to
"work with the cable industry in a laboratory environment" to address technical
issues, although apparently the ability to set standards may be out of
manufacturer's reach for now.
Even once standards are reached, moving from a list of specifications to devices
that work is still a long process.
There is an awful lot of posturing, said Richard Doherty, president of Envisioneering
Group consultancy, but progress towards manufacturable systems hasn't occurred
as fast as every party would like it to, he noted.
CEMA said it wants to have "build-to" standards ready by the end of the year in
order to have cable-ready products available by the end of 2000.
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