Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Zenith - One and Only -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Robert Utne who wrote (3335)	10/29/1997 7:18:00 AM
From: Robert Utne	Respond to of 6570

My read on the current HDTV/SDTV situation: HDTV (by popular definition, 1000+ lines of horizontal resolution.) provides a picture whose resolution is about six times greater than SDTV. HDTV will deliver approximately two millions pixels per frame and SDTV will deliver about 300,000 pixels per frame, yielding a picture that's about 20% better than analog TV or about the same quality as DSS or DVD, today's highest quality video source. Both HDTV and SDTV will offer:a much wider picture (width-to height ratio of 16:9); Dolby Digital Surround Sound.(5.1 channels of independent sound) and clearer reception -digital technology eliminates ghosting and interference. It will also deliver a more consistent picture. Since it requires less data to generate a SDTV picture, broadcasters (and satellite and cable companies) will be able to transmit multiple channels of SDTV within their 6MHz digital channels. What they can send in a 6 MHz channel depends on the type of program material that is being sent. For fast-action sports like basketball, it requires most of the channel to send a single HDTV program. For more typical video like game shows, they could send one HDTV and one SDTV program concurrently over the channel. For film-based material (all movies and 70-80% of prime time programming), they could send two HDTV programs simultaneously. In addition, broadcasters carry immense amounts of data over the channel Compatibility issues: Currently, cable TV, DSS, VCRs and DVDs are not HDTV nor SDTV compatible. Progressive scans (used by the computer industry) cannot deliver HDTV quality (1080 x 1920 lines at 60 Hz into a 6 MHz channel) as provided by Zenith's patented VSBi scanning transmission. This technology just doesn't exist. However, both progressive and interlaced scan abilities will be featured in every new HDTV and SDTV set to allow the broadcasters full flexibility: most likely, interlaced scan for HDTV and progressive scan for SDTV. The market: There are an estimated 250 million TVs in the United States today with one out of four families purchasing a new TV every year. Worldwide, the figure approaches 1 billion TV sets. The only competitor to the US ATSC digital standard is the European version. The ATSC Standard has also been recommended for adoption in Canada and Mexico, and is actively being considered for adoption in other countries in South and Central America, Australasia, and Asia. While the competing European digital TV standard offers HDTV capability, on paper, no one has announced any plans to implement HDTV capability using that standard. US time table: Commercial DTV broadcasting is scheduled to begin in late 1998 and be first available in the largest 10 markets and will gradually expand to all markets within about three years. The first stations to broadcast via DTV will be the major networks: ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX and PBS and commercial cable/satellite channels such as CNN, MTV, TNT, TBS and premium channels such as HBO, ShowTime and Pay-Per-View. There has been no HDTV/SDTV inaugeration announcement to date by cable or satellite providers, however direct satellite systems could grab the early lead due to new improvements in compression and modulating offering more band width to their sysytems. Presently, of the 1,200 TV stations in the US, less than 100 have signed up to start broadcasting via DTV by 1999. Estimated Product Availability and Pricing: The first HDTV-ready sets that come out in late 1998 will range from $8,000 to $15,000 and will be large sized projection models of 60" or more. Expensive picture tubes and chip sets are the major cost factors and should rapidly drop based on manufacturing economies of scale, availability and competition (estimated $4,000 to $10,000 by 2000). Panasonic recently announced a 40" picture tuble that provides the resolution and brightness required for HDTV and Mitsubishi/Lucent Technologies have announced the development of the required "ATV Decoder Chip Set" for use in HDTVs and DVDs. The chip set consists of an ATV Demodulator/FEC (DEMOD), an MPEG-2 System-Layer Demultiplexer ( DEMUX), an ATV MPEG-2 Video Decoder, a Dolby AC-3 Audio Decoder, an ATV Display Processor, and a Line Doubler/Tripler for an HDTV monitor. Large (28"and more) liquid crystal displays screens (thin enough to hang on the wall) may come to the market as early as late 1999. SDTVs will be direct-view (table top sets) in the 28" to 36" size and also will be introduced in 1998 and are estimated to cost from $1,500 to $2,000 more than existing sets. Non-recorable DVDs offering HDTV and SDTV comatibility should come to market in 1998 and re-recordable DVDs in the early 2000s. Converter Boxes also will be sold beginning in late 1998 or early 1999 to make every analog TV HDTVand SDTVcompatible. These boxes are expected to cost between $200 and $300 and will ensure that current TV purchases won't become obsolete. Purchasers of todays TVs need an S-Video input to easily take advantage of the converter boxes. By 2001, prices should drop another 25%.