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There is a standard for the delivery of "frame compatible" stereoscopic video (DVB-3DTV). This is what is typically broadcast in a 3D channel today - a signal that uses the top and bottom (or side-by-side) of a typical video channel to carry half-resolution left and right eye, which has the advantage of not requiring any changes to the distribution equipment.

But yes, it is unclear what standard would be for non-glasses based 3D transmission. There was some work by Philips and Dimenco on a technology generically referred to as "2D Plus DOT" which included a base 2D image plus data on depth, occlusion and transparency.

Strictly speaking, DVB-T defines only the transmission aspects. As such, DVB-T2 may introduce notable changes but it seems to still use the MPEG-2 transport stream and thus will likely refer to the same specifications as DVB-T. It is true that as far as codecs are concerned it was not until 2005 (publication date of ETSI TS 101 154 V1.6.1) that optional support for improved AV codecs was introduced (H.264/AVC and HE AAC, with VC-1 added in version 1.8.1). However, aside from the resulting chicken-or-egg problem, this does not preclude DVB-T stations from using the newer codecs, and some are already doing so.

I too feel that the deployment is somewhat shoddy, but the theory is that there is no need to wait for a big change because buying a new decoder is relatively inexpensive. I don't quite agree because apart from being wasteful it is consumer-unfriendly to discover that an HD TV set sold as DVB-capable doesn't support some (HD) content because of the codec (beside the fact that it might not support HD DVB-T streams at all depending on whether it is HD ready, HD TV, Full HD or whatever the current marketspeak is), and that after somehow upgrading to get over that deficiency one is bound to learn that the system still doesn't support MHP or whatever technology under the DVB umbrella gets highlighted in the following months.

We may get ATSC as standard next year

To bad Argentina couldn't wait for DVB-T2, but on the other hand there should be a ton of reasonably good & reasonably priced ASTC 8VSB receivers on the market next year after the US analog shutoff.

So guess what's coming...

Content Protection and Copy Management (documents, EFF critique) a sort of super-DRM that applies not only to a single TV receiver, but pervades every device to which the protected content might be copied. Although there are reassuring words about this regime only applying to "premium" content, all the mechanisms are there to disable recording, restrict the number of devices having access to the content simultaneously and cause the content to evaporate after a certain period of time. So the broadcasters are clearly thinking about how to preserve their income stream.

Of course, we shouldn't be surprised, even public broadcasters are getting addicted to rights-management. Although you can make a perfectly good permanent copy of an off-air MPEG programme stream from any BBC broadcast, if you're part of the BBC's iPlayer pilot you donate your Internent bandwidth to their P2P service and in return receive a Windows Media file of the same programme at one quarter of the resolution which self-destructs 7 days after you first play it. It's not quite clear who this is protecting now, but it's not a great leap to suggest that unencumbered recording is now seen as an historic error by the controlling suits.

Of course, if you want TV programmes in their traditional sense, they have to be paid for somehow. The BBC, despite their current DRM frenzy, are guaranteed an income from the TV licence fee (or at least until the government decides otherwise). Advertising revenue is, though, inexorably dropping. In the UK the rules for commercial broadcasters were relaxed to permit sponsorship and, in future, product placement, but that's not going to make a huge difference to lower-profile content. There's also been a major scandal over the use of premium-rate phone lines which have been used to supplement the income stream of a wide range of programmes under the flimsy pretext of "interactivity". So the advertising model may well be doomed.

There are payment models which continue to work: pay per view (the traditional cinema model), subscription (eg cable, satellite) and the reviled but suprisingly resilient TV licence. If advertising-supported TV no longer makes economic sense, it might mean the end of broadcast TV as it's know in the USA, but it's not necessarily the end of broadcast TV in countries which have other ways of funding free-to-air television.

I suspect that applying DRM to try to shore up a declining industry is more likely to kill it off quickly, though!

Actually, the switchover will start in 2008 (http://www.dvb.org/index.php?id=229) and will finish in 2012. Have a look the the map of the switchover times at http://www.dtg.org.uk/consumer/switchover_map.html

BTW, I've already got digital television, as have about 66% of the rest of us Brits :-)

Cheers,
JohnT

If you want broadcast TV targetted at mobile applications, take a look at the DVB-H standard which operator O2 are currently trialling in the Isle Of Man

It seems the world will be divided in terrestrial digital TV broadcasting standards. As this map shows, the US and Japan will have different systems then Europe, Australia, and most of Asia. Does anyone know why the US has decided to go with ATSC? What advantages does it have? DVB seems to be fine for digital satellite and cable variants.

IIRC, analog terrestrial TV will be switched off in Europe in 2010. Some regions already are digital only; Munich, for example, will turn off analog service in a few weeks.

It does not have such a big impact in Germany, though, as only about 5-10% of all households still receive TV via antenna, the rest has satellite or cable. DVB settop boxes start at EUR 70, good ones are about EUR 100-120. The number of channels increases: most regions used to have anywhere between 3 and 12 channels; now, with DVB-T, it will be about 20.

It seems the world will be divided in terrestrial digital TV broadcasting standards. As this map shows, the US and Japan will have different systems then Europe, Australia, and most of Asia. Does anyone know why the US has decided to go with ATSC? What advantages does it have? DVB seems to be fine for digital satellite and cable variants.

IIRC, analog terrestrial TV will be switched off in Europe in 2010. Some regions already are digital only; Munich, for example, will turn off analog service in a few weeks.

It does not have such a big impact in Germany, though, as only about 5-10% of all households still receive TV via antenna, the rest has satellite or cable. DVB settop boxes start at EUR 70, good ones are about EUR 100-120. The number of channels increases: most regions used to have anywhere between 3 and 12 channels; now, with DVB-T, it will be about 20.

It seems the world will be divided in terrestrial digital TV broadcasting standards. As this map shows, the US and Japan will have different systems then Europe, Australia, and most of Asia. Does anyone know why the US has decided to go with ATSC? What advantages does it have? DVB seems to be fine for digital satellite and cable variants.

IIRC, analog terrestrial TV will be switched off in Europe in 2010. Some regions already are digital only; Munich, for example, will turn off analog service in a few weeks.

It does not have such a big impact in Germany, though, as only about 5-10% of all households still receive TV via antenna, the rest has satellite or cable. DVB settop boxes start at EUR 70, good ones are about EUR 100-120. The number of channels increases: most regions used to have anywhere between 3 and 12 channels; now, with DVB-T, it will be about 20.

*slaps self for not using preview* I'm not sure why the link vanished, but the map I was refering to is http://www.dvb.org/graphics/internal/Adoption-Map_ DVB-T.jpg.

NTL and O2 announced at IBC that they're doing a trial in Oxford. Nokia is pushing DVB-H quite heavily at the moment, as they intend to build handsets for this technology.

The main DVB page currently has links to other articles describing upcoming trials in the US and Australia as well.

NTL and O2 announced at IBC that they're doing a trial in Oxford. Nokia is pushing DVB-H quite heavily at the moment, as they intend to build handsets for this technology.

The main DVB page currently has links to other articles describing upcoming trials in the US and Australia as well.

NTL and O2 announced at IBC that they're doing a trial in Oxford. Nokia is pushing DVB-H quite heavily at the moment, as they intend to build handsets for this technology.

The main DVB page currently has links to other articles describing upcoming trials in the US and Australia as well.

DVB = Digital Video Broadcast
ATSC = Advanced Television Systems Committee

DVB (this text to bypass lameless filter)

SMB (this text to bypass lameless filter)

HTH

It's coming to Europe soon on Pay TV, there's a few HD feeds already about though, like Euro1080 on Astra 1 and various US networks come and go when trade fair's are on. There's also various tests, there's once coming up on Thursday by BBC/ProSieben on the Astra satellites. You can download a sample already.

TPS in France is going HD next year, Sky Digital in the UK are going HD 2006-07, Premiere in Germany are also announcing plans and I think Canal+ (inc Scandinavia) have something in the pipeline.

A consortium has just been set up to promote standisation in Europe, setting out minimum specs, the interconnects (HDMI) and issuing logos. Interestingly European kit also has to be able to scan at 720p60 and 1080i30 to be certified which are native HD resoutions in the US. There's various trials going on in the EBU setting out the desired format, it seems a progressive format is most disired because it matches the scanless native of modern displays (Plasma, LCD etc), so they're pushing 720p initially with the hope moving to 1080p by the time this is mainstream. The DVB group also has various developments in their newsletters.

The BBC are going to produce all their content in HD by 2010 and are already playing with their new toys

What's a "dvb"?

I assume it's Digital Video Broadcasting, i.e. digital TV.

There is in Europe; it's called DVB. The STBs include slots which you put your subscription card into to do the decryption. This could be integrated into TVs, though currently few TVs can do digital decoding.

No agreed-upon standards

You are right, 10 years ago there were no agreed upon standards. Now there are, which is why HDTV can now take off in the US.

no market

Just like there was no market for television when it first was released. The first TV broadcasts were of radio shows. Who the heck would want to pay $$$$ for a TV just to watch some guy speak into a microphone ?

Just like there was no market for color television when it was first released. Do you know how long it took for broadcasters to move from black and white to color ? Current belief is that the real number is closer to 1,000 sets sold to the public. Thats how many color TV sets were sold where first released. See TV History

Japan and Germany have had it for a decade

They had analog, uncompressed HDTV. i.e. No MPEG-2.

From Evolution of Television Japanese HDTV takes 20 MHz of bandwidth to send pictures with over 675,000 pixels. In the United States, a standard ATSC (Advanced Television Systems Committee) screen can have up to 1080 lines of 1920 pixels each, or 2,073,600 pixels per frame. (in 6Mhz of bandwidth)

Japan are moving towards digital HDTV. DVB now has provisions for HD transmissions.

"The effect of this announcement on the implementation of MHP is enormous (for MHP) as EchoStar is the largest DVB-S provider in the US with over 5 million customers and a footprint to cover all US households."

Well in the specs the mention MPEG2, DVB compatible.
DVB page is http://www.dvb.org

A linux group working with some DVB cards can be found at http://www.linuxtv.org/dvb/

I haven't looked into it for a while but I don't think DISH or DirecTV use a pure DVB compatible signal, but I may be wrong.

Wi-Lan isn't Wi-Fi (802.11b)- wi-lan is W-OFDM, wireless t1/e1- and they have a great technology for the reception of HDTV so that you don't get the silly black blocks that disrupt signal,-- but instead, the FCC chose to back 8-VSB, an inferior technology.

The greater question is, why is the FCC deciding this? They didn't decide which cell phone technology was going to reign, only which frequencies we'd use.

Sources? http://www.wi-lan.com

commentary: If we were to follow the 'lead' from the ATSC then this is what the future would look like. The Americans are still in denial about the Brazilian (and other) DTT test results (denying the basic facts that a single carrier system can never work for wireless DTT) and have carried out their own tests arriving at their own conclusions using incorrectly configured DVB-T equipment. The sooner the US drops its single carrier 8-VSB based standard in favour of an OFDM solution the better for all concerned. A report summarising why DTV is not happening in the US (example of flawed thinking: DTV does not necessarily mean HDTV). Unfortunately, DVB and ISDB have (so far) been unable to agree on a common OFDM way forward even though both standards are nearly exactly the same (ISDB improved the DVB-T standard with the addition of extra time interleaving, band segmentation and the option for 4k carriers). However, due to the wide acceptance of DVB-T and its myriad other supporting standards it is unlikely that ISDB compliant equipment will ever be deployed outside of Japan.

Take-up of Digital TV in the UK has been the most successful in the world in percentage terms (the US is not far behind); but can it continue to grow at the same pace? ITVdigital, the DTT service provider in the UK, launched with an early (2k carrier) release of DVB-T and had been reasonably successful (although I am sure some would disagree?) with over 1.2 million subscribers up to the end of 2001. Unfortunately, due to a combination of factors ITVdigital are in danger of closing down and are currently in administration. The BBC in their annual R&D review for 2000-2001 (Digital Television Distribution section) list some of the issues associated with DTT in the UK and give an interesting insight into how improvements can be achieved. Thanks to the wealth of experience gained in the UK other European DTT service providers will be able to provide a more advanced and improved service to their customers. Get the insider views on the UK DTT experience from the following newsgroup: uk.tech.digital-tv;

Since Echostar is a DVB-compliant satellite network the different channels are encoded as MPEG2 a/v streams are put in number of multiplexes of about 30 Mbps (this gives 5-10 services per multiplex depending on quality).
Using error-reducing codes, each multiplex is coded onto an analog transponder which is about 33Mhz wide. Remember that one transponder can carry one analog tv service.

Thus, the set-top box would (in the worst case) require one tuner per endpoint in your ethernet network.

There is a host of other problems I dont want to mention here including the scrambling systems, smart cards and digital rights management.

why the hell is everybody so intent on making some sort of BE/Linux hybrid?

Not to "save" the BeOS legacy/religion/apps obiously, but to save the linux kernel with all its drivers/features/fans/developers/sponsors/bouty from becoming a platform used for running nothing but posix webservers on headless pc hardware while it can be better (in design) then OSX for (even old) pc hardware.

This BefrankensteinAtOS is just a step toward what is my dreamworld:

- a cheap Nforce like mainbord with onboard graphics(nvidia, nuff said),audio(dolby 5.1 encoder),network(100mbit is 100mbit) and firewire (usb is now a "legacy connector" ;-))

- A dvb-c card

- two or four Clawhammer cpu`s

- Cooling that makes sense, not noise

- a linux-based kernel that loads directly from eeprom instead of an ugly old bios that doesn`t even understand todays harddrives. but still load ms-dos 3.00

- no more X, just every bit of experiance nvidia has with performace drivers

- A really fast gui, just try going back from Be`s Beos to windows

- a simple gui and cli shell that doesn`t eat more reasorces then it offers functinality but has a noice look and feel

- configurable translators

A filesystem that is fast, doen`t need complex journaling couse the oswrites metadata in a recoverable order and the hardware is fast enough to offer reasonable fast recovery anyway and has optional metadata (like the BeFS mime filetype)

I think this is really close to what others on slashdot want, note the lack of "evil" technology (except for perhaps nvidia).
After reading it back I found it also lacks girls and a social life but then again you can`t have it all ;-)
I guess for now I will have to do with the dano leak....

The solution is being lauched in November, 2001. It is being made available in North America and Europe. The company doing it is EMS with these products through an open standard called DBV-RCS

The solution is being lauched in November, 2001. It is being made available in North America and Europe. The company doing it is EMS with these products through an open standard called DBV-RCS

DVB is already up and running - one example is the UK's ONdigital service, so it would appear that I will be able to junk my current set-top decoder and replace it with a Linux-based one from Nokia at some point. Of course, if its doing the MPEG2 decoding in software its a blimming good job they plan to use a seperate RTOS for that part. I have enough problems playing DVDs with stuttering from background processes time-slicing, so I wouldn't want to hit that on my set-top.

Digital TV is here, now, in Europe. No built in copy control. Satellite, cable and broadcast digital television.

Copy control is built into the Digital Video Broadcasting spec. that European players are built to. Copy control is called Conditional Access. But all DVB spec. decoders must be able to play unencrypted content. The actual implementation of conditional access is usually down to a individual network (ie Sky Digital).

Here is more info

rev

• linuxtv
• inria.fr
• dvb.org
• protocol notes
• gilat
• europeonline
• drdish
• helius
• telemann.com
• broadcast.philips

DVB, Digital Video Broadcasting is the standard for European (and propably worldwide) digital television broadcasts.

The standard defines several modes for different transmission mediums, DVB-T for terrestrial, DVB-C for cable networks, and DVB-S for satellite.

And there are already digital AUDIO broadcasts, check this DAB, Digital Audio Broadcast site for more information.