Digital TV Facts: The Latest

Samsung’s DTV converter box, debuting at about $75, will be sold initially through online retailers, according to Broadcasting & Cable.

Digital-to-analog converter boxes will allow owners of conventional TVs to continue watching over-the-air channels after analog broadcasts end on February 17, 2009.

Prices for competing DTV converters from LG and RCA are expected to be in the $60 range.

[Samsung’s Rich] Long imagines the price dropping by $10 in summer 2008 and another $10 that fall. “I expect we’ll do 70% of our sales in the backend [of ‘08].”

The Samsung DTV box should be available (according to an earlier announcement) in time for the federal government’s DTV converter box coupon program, which launches in January 2008.

Earlier:
• Cheap converter boxes: Retailers not on board
• RCA slashes price on DTV converter box
• LG digital converter box due in 2008

• Link: B&C

At Christie’s auction house in New York, LG Electronics yesterday held a major unveiling of…DTV converter boxes?

Um, no.

Instead, LG’s new premium LBX series of LCD HDTVs took center stage, with 1080p resolution on LG TruMotion 120-Hz flat panels of 42, 47 and 52 inches.

The new line is called “Opus.” It’s Opie Taylor’s Christian name, apparently, and they’re as sick as we are about Viacom’s refusal to release the show in the HD format that Mayberry deserves. Or something like that.

But here’s something LG actually said: Consumers can expect flat-panel TV prices—at least some of them—to drop further this year. Read the rest of this post »

News roundup time, video rangers:

• Spectrum wars: The broadcasting lobby isn’t so powerful after all, Drew Clark maintains. Oh, and forget about “white spaces.” What would it take to make them vacate the airwaves?

• DTV communications job: Powerful or not, the National Association of Broadcasters seeks a communications coordinator for the digital television transition.

• Must-carry-go-round: At Multichannel News, Todd Spangler on dual must-carry and Tom Steinert-Threlkeld on multicast must-carry.

• EU pushes mobile DTV: The European Commission adopts a mobile TV strategy encouraging the use of DVB-H as a single European standard.

• Goin’ all-digital in Kentucky: WLJC-TV of Beattybille, Ky., will cease broadcasting on analog channel 65 and operate WLJC-DT as a single channel, digital-only station on DTV channel 7 [pdf].

As momentum builds for the digital TV transition, Motorola has been notably absent from the DTV converter box party. Consumer electronics firms that have announced digital-to-analog converter boxes include LG, Thomson/RCA, Samsung and Jasco/GE. The devices, sometimes called digital TV adapters, will allow conventional television sets to continue taking in over-the-air broadcasts after the analog TV shutdown on February 17, 2009.

Motorola announced today that it will combine its TV set-top box business with its network equipment business, according to Reuters. The company, along with Scientific Atlanta, is a leading maker of cable boxes. Motorola demonstrated a prototype cable box with built-in digital broadcast tuner at the 2007 Cable Show in May.

But what about DTV converter boxes for antenna-only viewers?
Read the rest of this post »

“What this country needs,” in the words of Thomas Riley Marshall, “is a really good five-cent cigar.” Those words were said in 1917, when Marshall was Woodrow Wilson’s vice president. But America’s longing for bargain-priced consumer products endures. Today we’re waiting for an affordably priced, cigar box-sized device—the digital TV converter.

A DTV converter box hooks up to an antenna-equipped analog TV, allowing it to display digital channels. Several electronics manufacturers have signaled plans to market low-priced converter boxes, which consumers can purchase using $40-off coupons from the U.S. government. The subsidy program begins in January 2008. Thomson announced plans for an RCA converter box, initially priced at $125, in 2005. Anticipated prices for digital TV adapters have now dropped to the $60 range.

The question is, where are they?
Read the rest of this post »

The FCC will host a Digital Television Consumer Education Workshop on September 26 in Washington, D.C.

The purpose of the workshop is to provide an opportunity for all interested parties to jointly discuss the challenges associated with the upcoming transition and explore ways to develop coordinated consumer education activities. Organizations representing a broad range of consumers and other stakeholders will be represented, including those who represent senior citizens, low-income consumers, non-English speakers, people with disabilities, tribes, and public interest organizations working on behalf of underserved customers or those living in rural areas.

The agenda and speakers will be announced at a later date.

A live audio feed will be provided on the FCC web site.

• Link: FCC

If you want to watch local digital TV stations on your PC, two new products from AMD are worth a look.

The ATI TV Wonder 600 is a “stick tuner” that plugs into a USB socket on your notebook or desktop PC. The tuner can be used for watching local digital (including HDTV) or analog channels over the air, plus analog cable channels. PVR (personal video recorder) functions can be enabled using the ATI Catalyst Media Center software suite.

For desktop computers, AMD offers the ATI TV Wonder 650 PCI Express, a board that goes inside the box. In addition to over-the-air analog/digital/HD television and analog cable, the TV Wonder 650 can tune unscrambled QAM digital cable channels. (Note, however, that most digital cable channels are scrambled. But some cable systems send local stations, especially, “in the clear.”) Catalyst Media Center is also supported.

A “telescopic antenna” is included with the USB tuner stick, but viewers in areas where reception is difficult will probably need a better antenna to receive DTV stations dependably. For the TV Wonder 650, AMD recommends an amplified antenna.

Both tuners should reach stores by September.

Earlier:
• USB ATSC tuner stick from Pinnacle
• Thomson previews USB digital TV tuner

• Link: TV Technology

ABC plans to transform its low-profile broadband news channel into a full-blown cable network, according to TVNewsday. In its latest vision for ABC News Now, the network would partner with affiliates to offer local segments every half-hour. Station owners might love the idea, but it’s a raw deal for the public.

When ABC News Now launched on a test basis in 2004, it was available free over the air for several months on local multicast DTV channels. We won’t see that again, apparently—and it gets worse:

In addition to supplying the local news segments, the ABC affiliates would be expected to integrate the local and national feeds and distribute the package to local cable operators via a fiber or microwave link or by broadcasting it in encrypted form over a digital channel.

Because of the encryption, viewers with digital TVs would not be able to receive the service off the air.

That would be an outrage.
Read the rest of this post »

Local digital TV broadcasts would be available on mobile phones and handhelds, including free and paid services, according to a mobile TV roadmap from the Advanced Television Systems Committee.

Ad-supported television programming, video on demand and datacasting are among the services envisioned for the ATSC M/H standard, the ATSC’s Jerry Whitaker writes in TV Technology.

The standards group wants to ensure that new mobile TV services use spectrum efficiently enough not to crowd out existing HDTV telecasts. DTV receivers in use today probably would not be able to display the mobile DTV services. But any new services must operate on broadcasters’ DTV channels “without adverse impact on existing receiving equipment.”

The ATSC M/H standard is “a major priority in the ATSC strategic plan,” Whitaker writes, which “recognizes a growing consensus that mobile and handheld capability is essential to the future of local broadcasting.” Rather than starting from scratch, the new standard may incorporate mobile TV technologies already in development. The ATSC M/H timeline sounds pretty ambitious: Station owners hope to announce mobile DTV services before the shutdown of analog TV broadcasts on February 17, 2009.

• Link: TV Technology

Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) is planning a kickoff event for the House Digital Television Caucus this summer.

As of last month, 22 congressmen and -women had joined Walden’s newest group, but he hopes to draw more members in coming months, an aide said.

The caucus, according to a letter sent to legislators, will “communicate information on the transition to our constituents in creative and culturally competent ways.” It is set to disband after the television transition in 2009.

Walden, who formerly owned several radio stations, co-chairs the caucus with Reps. Rick Boucher, D-Va. The DTV Caucus, according to WikiCongress, was “formed in conjunction with the National Association of Broadcasters,” a powerful trade group that lobbies Congress on behalf of its industry. Through legislation, including the DTV Act, and oversight of the FCC, Congress regulates the broadcasting industry.
Read the rest of this post »

Should you still buy an analog TV? Stores are marking them down and clearing them out, making way for more digital televisions. The DTV transition will wrap up on February 17, 2009, and if you want a “classic-style” TV, this may be your last chance.

Let me say this upfront: I’ll pass on this deal. The value proposition of an obsolete TV set just doesn’t move me.

Granted, an old-technology TV isn’t completely worthless. Read the rest of this post »

Q. Will the government provide coupons worth $40 off the purchase of a cable box?

A. No, the coupons are not for cable boxes.

Two stories about set-top boxes have been in the news recently. Let’s untangle them, shall we?

The first story concerns over-the-air viewers, who are being introduced to digital TV converter boxes. These devices are for antenna-equipped viewers who own conventional, non-digital TV sets. A DTV converter box (or “digital TV adapter”) will allow an analog TV to continue receiving local stations after the termination of analog television broadcasts in 2009. The federal government can help you with the cost on that one: Any U.S. household may request up to two digital converter coupons, each worth 40 bucks, beginning in 2008.

The other story is for digital cable subscribers. As of July 1, new FCC regulations concerning digital cable boxes took effect. The rules are intended to give consumers the option of purchasing their own cable boxes. If you can find anybody to sell you one, though, the government won’t subsidize the purchase. Those $40 coupons are only good toward DTV converter boxes, not cable boxes.
Read the rest of this post »