Update! digital standard sucksssss
Zenith patents worth something close to negative value.
My favorite line "they hope the problem just goes away"
What a crock.No kidding this company is bk.
October 11, 1999
Stations Challenge Digital-TV Standard
By JOEL BRINKLEY
ASHINGTON -- Facing angry opposition, nearly 300 of the
nation's 1,600 television stations filed a petition with the Federal
Communications Commission on Friday, formally requesting a
revision in the nation's digital-television standard that was approved almost
three years ago.
Led by Sinclair Broadcasting of Baltimore, which
owns or operates 59 stations nationwide, the
stations argue that the present technical standard
is flawed because the digital receivers now on
the market cannot easily receive a viewable
picture in anything short of ideal circumstances.
That problem "will likely lead to the failure of digital television in this
country," David Smith, Sinclair's chairman, said in a satellite news
conference beamed to other television station owners on Thursday
afternoon.
But his opponents, primarily equipment manufacturers and executives from
other affected industries, describe just as dire an outcome if the technical
standard were to be reconsidered.
"Reopening the standard will at the very least cause delay and could
completely derail the broadcasters' transition to digital television," said Gary
Shapiro, head of the Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association.
Sinclair, which operates more stations than any other company, and the
other station owners, which include Barry Diller's USA Networks, but no
stations from the major broadcast networks, drew their conclusions from a
series of tests Sinclair ran in Baltimore over the summer comparing the
American system with a European alternative. A report on those tests,
which Sinclair posted on the Internet last week, shows that in almost every
case the European system was able to receive digital broadcasts when the
American system could not.
The petition asks the FCC to modify the standard so that broadcasters can
choose to use either the American standard or the European alternative.
This would mean, though, that today's digital receivers would not be able to
pick up broadcasts from stations that chose the new system. About 50,000
consumers have bought digital television sets, though many of them have
been sold without digital receivers that can be purchased separately.
The FCC has not said what it will do with the broadcasters' petition,
although the most likely action would be to request public comments over a
several-month period before deciding what subsequent steps, if any, to
take.
The FCC's engineering staff issued a report 10 days ago, saying the
agency should leave the standard as it is. But other FCC officials, including
at least one commissioner, have said that the staff report was not the last
word and the commission should keep an open mind.
The FCC approved the nation's digital television standard in December
1996, following aggressive lobbying from the broadcasting industry. Digital
broadcasts provide razor-sharp pictures and high-resolution digital sound.
The first digital receivers went on the market in August 1998, and the first
digital broadcasts began on Nov. 1. Three weeks from Monday, every
network affiliate station in the nation's 30 largest cities, more than 120
stations in all, is supposed to begin broadcasting on its second, digital
channel. And sometime in the next decade, under the government's rules,
conventional analog broadcasting is to end, leaving only digital.
But Sinclair and the others say in their petition that the system is so
unreliable that the transition plan cannot work. The Microsoft Corp. told
Sinclair in a written statement on Friday that it supported the petition but
added that it would be inappropriate to sign, because Microsoft did not own
television stations. Microsoft is thought to favor the European standard,
because it is better suited for transmitting signals to handheld, computerlike
devices.
But a variety of manufacturers, retailers and network-television executives
all say they vehemently oppose changing the standard. "We support the
8-VSB position," said Robert Seidel, a vice president with CBS, using the
technical name for the present digital transmission standard. "This is not
the time to change horses."
All of the opponents acknowledge that the Sinclair tests exposed serious
problems with the equipment now on the market but add that future
products will be much improved.
"The solution to this problem is months away," said Craig Tanner,
executive director of the Advanced Television Systems Committee, the
industry group most responsible for maintaining and promoting the present
standard. "I don't know if it's four months, six, eight or 13 months."
But during a closed meeting of Tanner's group last Wednesday,
participants were not so sanguine, according to notes taken by one
unidentified participant that were circulated on the Internet later in the
week. They show industry representatives pessimistic that the problems
can be solved in the near future, and divided and uncertain about how to
counter the Sinclair petition. The circumstances under which the private
notes came to be made public have not been determined, but Tanner
confirmed that they were genuine.
One participant is quoted as saying, "There is no clear evidence that
anything we are doing will really solve the problem." Responding to that, a
representative from the Zenith Corp., which designed the transmission
standard, is quoted as saying: "We have to push DTV and stop any
negative comments."
Several companies, including Motorola and NxtWave Communications, a
start-up, are now demonstrating second-generation products that solve the
problems, according to the companies. The meeting participants say that
while the new chips offer improvements, they still fall far short of the
European system.
The note taker summarized the sense of the meeting by writing: "There is
no real plan as to how to go forward over the next 18 months. The group is
not well focused on action plans and reaction to the Sinclair activity. Some
of the group are hoping that the problem goes away." |
