Digital TV Facts: The Latest

Degradation of local HD broadcasts by cable companies would be prohibited, under a behind-the-scenes proposal from FCC Chairman Kevin Martin reported in Multichannel News.

Cable (and satellite) TV companies that put the squeeze on high-definition quality have aroused the ire of subscribers who have purchased HD packages and costly home-theater equipment. The problem is channel capacity—and systems that don’t have enough of it know that they can squeeze in more channels by skimping on signal quality.
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Cable TV customers who have not upgraded to digital service would nonetheless enjoy continued access to local stations, under a plan circulated by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin.

Without federal action, local channels could disappear from the television screens of some analog cable subscribers following the switchoff of analog TV broadcasts on February 17, 2009. While cable companies have proposed their own remedies to this pressing problem, the issue has long remained on the back burner for regulators.

If Martin’s plan is approved by the commission, cable systems will carry required local stations in both digital and analog form starting in early 2009, Ted Hearn of Multichannel News reports. Subscribers to traditional analog cable service would be able to receive local channels as they do today. Unless regulators act, some cable customers who own conventional analog television sets will need to get digital cable boxes for local-channel access.
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A cable company scheme to make hay from the digital TV transition has entered a new phase. An Ohio cable operator, as you may recall, floated a plan to offer local channels for free via cable TV in lieu of government-discounted DTV converter boxes. Two other small cable companies are now on board, TWICE reports, and a web site has been launched under the banner of the “Save Our Sets Coalition” (SOS).

As I’ve said before, this is an innovative plan. But the air of disingenuousness about it is just getting thicker. Read the rest of this post »

• The digital TV transition poses problems for people with disabilities, coalition tells FCC. Concerns include closed captioning and video description services.

• DirecTV must stop airing ads claiming consumers prefer its picture quality over cable; court’s preliminary injunction cites “unfairly designed” survey that compared digital satellite TV with analog cable.

• The public owns the airwaves, yet FCC digital TV rules fail to address broadcasters’ obligations to local communities, public advocacy groups complain. FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps agrees [so do I! –Ed.], says the commission has been “asleep at the switch.”

• FCC comment deadlines: Comments on the FCC’s Digital Television Consumer Education Initiative are due September 17. Reply comments must be filed by October 1.

Four consumer electronics companies are fighting an FCC proposal to allow personal or portable “white space” devices to share digital TV spectrum. DTV reception is threatened by the wireless broadband devices, the manufacturers maintain.

LG, Samsung, Hitachi and Panasonic are registering their opposition with the FCC at the urging of the Association for Maximum Service Television (MSTV), according to TWICE.

The manufacturers’ statement said “digital television will be impaired if unlicensed devices fail to properly detect and protect a DTV station’s channel, or if they operate on a station’s first adjacent channel.”

MSTV lobbies on spectrum issues for television broadcasters.

Companies that market digital TVs and converter boxes are appropriately nervous. If white-space devices hinder television reception, they can expect to be on the receiving end of consumer complaints. Among the rival consumer electronics manufacturers not joining in the protest is Philips (selling television receivers under the Philips and Magnavox brands), which has developed a prototype white-space device.

At cnet, Marguerite Reardon examines the white-space debate. The Washington Post also weighs in with an editorial.

Earlier:
• DTV interference from ‘white space’ prototype
• DTV channels: Time to start over?
• What if broadcasters stopped broadcasting?

Reader Dan writes:

Where the HECK can I BUY one of these converter boxes? I’ve been trying to get one for several years…Tweeter, Best Buy, Circuit City, seem to have no idea what I’m talking about. I can’t find anything for sale on any website….

I see products for sale with stickers on them warning that converter boxes will be needed, but as nearly as I can tell those boxes are figments of somebody’s imagination.

Dan’s question is shared by other antenna-based viewers who are actually paying attention to the impending digital TV transition—and those five or six people want answers!
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The federal government’s DTV converter box coupon program will be operated by IBM, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced today. The Commerce Department agency awarded the contract to IBM Corp. after reviewing proposals received in May from competing vendors.

The $1.5 billion subsidy program will provide two coupons, each good for $40 off the purchase price of a converter box, to U.S. households that request them. A digital-to-analog converter box connects to a traditional analog TV, allowing it to continue displaying over-the-air broadcasts even after the analog TV shutdown on February 17, 2009.
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• The U.S. government has “grossly underestimated” the number of DTV converter boxes Americans will need, says PBS President Paula Kerger.

• Microsoft defends “white space” broadband prototype devices against charges of interfering with digital TV broadcasts. The company cites defects in a previously tested device…and submits a new one to the FCC.

• DirecTV and Time Warner Cable settle dispute over HDTV quality claims.

• ATSC wants the FCC to update its digital TV standard, following the standards body’s six-part framework.

Proposed “white space” devices, designed to share digital TV spectrum, will be the topic of a technical meeting hosted by the FCC next week. “Interested parties” are invited to visit the FCC Laboratory in Columbia, Md., to observe and discuss test setups and evaluation procedures for white-space devices.

The meeting, announced by the commission’s Office of Engineering and Technology (OET), is scheduled for August 16. Space is limited. For reservations, send e-mail to Patricia.Goff@FCC.gov; include the name of your organization and the number of attendees.

Earlier:
• DTV interference from ‘white space’ prototype
• DTV reception threatened by interference?
• Converter-box performance: Reports raise concerns

NTIA’s fall public meeting on the digital TV transition will present panel sessions featuring industry and advocacy-group leaders. Confirmed speakers include:

• David Rehr, National Association of Broadcasters
• Kyle McSlarrow, National Cable and Telecommunications Association
• Gary Shapiro, Consumer Electronics Association
• Loriene Roy, American Library Association

The Digital Television Transition Public Meeting, Expo and Networking Event will be hosted by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the federal agency responsible for the DTV converter box coupon program.

Organizations and companies participating in the DTV expo include the FCC, television and consumer electronics trade groups, DirecTV, EchoStar and Verizon FiOS.

The event takes place on September 25 at Commerce Department headquarters in Washington.

Earlier:
• CEOs take stage at DTV coupon meeting

• Link: NTIA

Your local station should now know which channel to call home after the transition to digital TV is completed. The FCC announced final DTV channel assignments for more than 1,800 stations yesterday.

After analog TV broadcasts terminate on February 17, 2009, many stations will assume new channel numbers. No worries, though (well, almost; I’ll explain later). Surprisingly, viewers won’t generally need to learn new channel lineups, because stations will retain their customary on-air identities. Channel 11 will still promote itself as channel 11, for instance, even if it has moved to channel 32.

The familiar channel numbers from the analog era can be preserved to a large extent, thanks to “channel virtualization.”
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Shocking news today for suburban Detroit readers: HDTV broadcasts can be received with an antenna! For free!

Cable TV companies have allegedly conspired to hide this fact, along with the existence of free DTV multicast channels—but The Oakland Press is now setting the record straight.

The newspaper headline is Onionesque: “High-definition TV available over the air, attorney says.”

Nonetheless, it’s true. Sadly, to many readers, it is no doubt news.

Here’s another fact The Press should stress: If you want to watch high-definition shows in actual HD, you will need an HDTV.

• Link: The Oakland Press