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To: Humblefrank who wrote (28970)	1/30/1998 3:55:00 PM
From: BillyG	Respond to of 50808

OpenIt! initiative for settops from the father of MPEG............ techweb.cmp.com OpenIt! initiative set for set-tops By Junko Yoshida With additional reporting by Yoshiko Hara SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Leonardo Chiariglione, the man who pulled together the development of MPEG specifications as MPEG Convener, is trying to launch another, new cross-industry initiative called "Open It!" The new initiative is to develop specifications for an "open set-top box" that allows users to navigate through different offerings from different service providers, according to Chiariglione, who heads the Multimedia and Video Services Research Division at Telecom Italia. The Open It! efforts are meant to remove the last roadblock preventing the proliferation of MPEG-2-based set-top boxes. In Chiariglione's view, the fate of MPEG-2 is compromised by proprietary access control systems imposed by different service providers. Current set-tops are tied to a single service provider, thus putting the service providers in a position to subsidize the box. Meanwhile, consumers do not like their access to be constrained to a single service provider, he explained. In a speech this week at the Photonics West show here (Jan. 27th), Chiariglione had a sobering assessment of MPEG-2. "In spite of all the hopes set on MPEG-2, this is not taking off. MPEG-2 is not a success," he said. Chiariglione pointed out that some million satellite set-top boxes have been sold, but the growth is stagnating. Meanwhile, mass deployment of MPEG-2 based set-tops for cable is "still an expectation." "Every Christmas DVD promises to become the 'big hit,' but it hasn't happened yet," he added. Under the scenario of new Open It! initiatives, Chiariglione promises the development of specifications for an open set-top box. "A user sits on his/her armchair and needs not stand up, uses a remote control device, navigates through different offers from different service providers and selects a program, pays and watch the program." The first Open It! meeting is scheduled for Mar. 6, although the location of the meeting has not been determined yet. Chiariglione noted that he has already spoken with key technology and management executives at about 50 companies, and has gotten their support of the new initiative. The new initiative echoes new sentiments and serious conerns growing in Japan. Chiariglione pointed out, "Look at Japan, for example. In rolling out DirecTV and JSkyB services in addition to existing satellite broadcasting services, Japan is further fragmenting the small market." In a similar but a move separate from Open It! initiatives, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) last week asked Japan's related industries to provide the minimum compatibility among digital TV receivers and set-tops. As the first step, MPT asked the Association of Radio Industries and Businesses (ARIB), a cross-industry organization composed of broadcasters and equipment vendors, to develop specifications that would allow consumers to use the nation's communication satellite (CS) receivers for receiving competing digital satellite services from PerfecTV (and JSkyB) and DirecTV. ARIB is an organization which has practically built formats relating to digital TV in Japan. Last October, ARIB set a common standard for CS receivers. Receivers in the forms of set-tops and TV with a built-in CS receiver compliant with the ARIB standard will soon reach the domestic market. Those receivers will download a setting-up program and set itself to one of the two CS services. "Thus, users can use a receiver for each of the two CS TV services. Whether the receiver can receive both CS services simultaneously or only one at a time depends on each manufacturers' product implementations," said an MPT official. "We at MPT intend to guarantee the minimum compatibility in which users can use their receivers to receive any of the available CS services." Based on the CS standard, MPT is now asking ARIB to have the similar compatibility in the broadcast satellite (BS) and the terrestrial receiver standards. "Front-end differs depending on CS, BS and terrestrial, but the core processing of digital TV is the same. So if a common interface is defined, it should be possible to provide a common platform for receivers," the official said. ARIB is working to finalize the standards by spring next year. Open It! initiatives has a very ambitious goal to get the whole specifications done by September, 1999. Planning on a fast-track specification development, Chiariglione said, "This is doable. And a lot of people I talked to also agree with me." He said, "Talk to anyone in MPEG-2 business - chip vendors are box manufacturers. They are deeply disappointed in their business so far." He added, "Technologies to make the Open Set-top possible are here. This is a matter of a will of doing so."

To: Humblefrank who wrote (28970)	1/30/1998 3:56:00 PM
From: BillyG	Respond to of 50808

FCC to decree on digital services By George Leopold and Junko Yoshida WASHINGTON -- The Federal Communications Commission will open an inquiry soon that will determine which digital-TV resolutions and services cable operators must carry once broadcasters start offering digital services later this year. Some broadcasters want cable operators to pass through only HDTV signals of at least 1 million pixels as a way of ensuring the "integrity" of the HDTV signal. FCC officials said a draft of a notice of proposed rulemaking for so-called DTV "must-carry" rules is making the rounds in advance of its release later this month. Reply comments would likely be due in April, approximately when the National Association of Broadcasters holds its annual industry conference in Las Vegas. FCC Commissioner Susan Ness, who is expected to take the lead on the review, said in December she expected the inquiry to come before the Commission this winter. Ness said the agency will have to consider the impact of digital TV on the cable industry in terms of what resolutions it must pass through and the number of programming streams cable industry must have provided from broadcasters. Further, she said the FCC will have to consider the possibility of letting broadcasters and cable operators work out these issues on their own, perhaps through local carriage agreements. With digital TV set to be launched in the top 10 U.S. markets this fall, Ness stressed that it is time for the FCC to act on what will likely be the next step in the long-running HDTV saga. Paul Misener, chief of staff to Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth, said the must-carry review will tackle a series of "dicey" issues raised by digital TV, including whether cable operators must offer HDTV, lower-resolution standard-definition broadcasts or other planned digital services. Other FCC sources said the Commission is entering unchartered waters as it begins the must-carry review. "We don't have any precedent for this," said an aide to Ness. Regulators said existing cable must-carry rules for analog channels won't apply to the multichannel digital-broadcast world. Digital TV will force regulators to redefine basic concepts like carriage and resolution as they slowly work their way through the inquiry. Cable-industry suppliers aren't concerned about the prospect of having to pass through HDTV signals. Companies like Scientific-Atlanta have demonstrated the capability of passing over a cable-TV line HDTV signals to an HDTV receiver that would decode and display the high-resolution signals. "We can pass that capability through," said Jim McDonald, Scientific-Atlanta's chief executive. "That's not a problem from a systems standpoint." If the must-carry issue requires cable companies to carry the HDTV signals, it could mean that a set-top may have to carry the burden of incorporating more memory and processing power imposed by the 1080i specification. Scientific-Atlanta, however, has suggested that one way to get around the issue is to use a cable set-top only as a pass-through unit for HDTV signals, letting a DTV receiver handle HDTV, rather than doing so on a set-top itself. While it remains to be seen how other industries may plan to respond to the coming DTV "must-carry" debates, Microsoft Corp., for one, has already made its first move to leverage the DTV must-carry issue to revive the HD-0 format debate originally proposed by Microsoft-led DTV team. By sensing the cable industry's reluctance to support all of the 18 video formats specified by the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC), Microsoft has recently gotten Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI) to agree to support the computer-industry-driven HD-0 formats in its set-tops. TCI's decision to support HD-0 rather than the entire 18 ATSC video formats could be based on the cable industry's assumption that yet-to-be-determined DTV "must-carry" rules may swing in its favor. As far as the DTV must-carry issues are concerned, Microsoft is rallying behind the cable industry. Microsoft is trying to get the FCC to listen to its view on the must-carry issue. How the FCC structures the DTV must-carry rules will profoundly affect designs of the new-generation digital cable set-top. The CableLabs-led OpenCable initiatives, for example, have not specifically addressed the issue whether the box should be capable of receiving and decoding 18 different video formats. Broadcasters hope the FCC will require cable operators to carry HDTV or multicasting programs in an unadulterated form. But David Beddow, senior vice president of TCI Ventures Group made it clear that "our position in the cable industry has always been that 1080i broadcasting is wasteful from the bandwidth's standpoint." Asked if the OpenCable specification will also support the HD-0 formats, Don Dulchinos, project leader of OpenCable at CableLabs, said, "without knowing what video formats broadcasters will use, we don't know what we need to support yet." He described the HD-format issues as "cable operators' business concerns on their channel capacity," rather than technical issues the OpenCable is originally set up to solve.

To: Humblefrank who wrote (28970)	1/30/1998 5:27:00 PM
From: John Rieman	Respond to of 50808

The PerfecTV/JSkyB merger................................... skyreport.com PerfecTV and JSkyB To Merge Operations This Spring Jan. 30, 1998 Japan's PerfecTV, the country's first DTH satellite service, will merge with Japan Sky Broadcasting on April 1, according to reports. The companies are likely to merge on an equal basis, with the eight major shareholders having equal stakes. Those involved include Itochu, Mitsui and Co., Nissho Iwai and Sumitomo, all of which have backed PerfecTV since its launch in fall 1996. Sony, Fuji Television, News Corp. and Softbank are partners in JSkyB. PerfecTV offers 100 channels to about 500,000 subscribers. JSkyB was scheduled to launch its 100-channel service this spring. The combined entity will compete against DirecTV Japan, which started a 90-channel service on Dec. 1. A merger plan will be formally announced in mid February.