Slashdot Mirror
Japan's TV Broadcasts To Be All-Digital By 2011
Azuma writes "Officially, Japan will end Analog broadcasting by year 2011. Terrestrial digital television broadcasting services started on Monday, December 1st in Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka, with Japan Broadcasting Corp (NHK) and private TV stations broadcasting special commemorative programs. The services will initially be available to around 12 million households. Here is an article from Chinaview. The Daily Yomiuri reports that small local TV stations are at a disadvantage due to high costs of the new technology."
At least Japan is giving more time than the FCC is. The FCC deadline of 2006 just isn't going to happen. something like 98-99% of Americans have a television. More Americans have a TV than have telephone service at home. A sizable number of these folks probably don't have the money to just run out to Best Buy and buy a new television because the FCC says they have to. I expect to see a bunch of noise made in the news about this once the deadline approaches, followed by lots of Congressional campaigns running on the "The big bad federal government wants to take away your TV... over my dead body!" platform. This will likely lead to the analog/digital cutover deadline being pushed back significantly.
"It is not how things are in the world that is mystical, but that it exists." -Ludwig Wittgenstein
I'll get a digital TV tuner when one is bundled in a video game console that I want. That's why I have a DVD player.
This still won't improve Japanese television much. All the shows come down to 4 types:
davejenkins.com |
Viewers will replace about 100 million old TV sets
Hmm... Just 8 years for the population to replace all of their TVs sounds a little quick. Or does absolutely everyone in Japan replace their equipment way often?
Wouldn't lots of people be pissed off if such a change was announced in the USA? Your opinions are welcome.
If they have to ask, then they should just give up now.
Sex - Find It
One of the great things about Japan is that it's on the NTSC video system, same as the US, so you can easily use Japanese video gadgets in the USA (other than region codes of course). Even though the frequencies for over the air broadcasts are different, if you use a separate tuner box, it's not an issue.
This definitely makes life much easier for electronics (DVD, VCR, game console) makers as well, as they can market a product in two of the the world's three largest electronics markets with minimal internal modification. But will the same compatibility hold once we enter the digital era?
-- Samir Gupta, Ph. D. Head, New Technology Research Group, Nintendo Co. Ltd., Kyoto, Japan.
Digital TV is a wonderful idea, crystal clear picture and all, but the real question is, will anyone really notice a difference. Do I really need to be able to count all of the wrinkles on Ted Koppel's face?
I'm currently working on a degree in Broadcasting, and the US mandated transition to digital is not going to happen in 2006, no matter what the FCC says. I'll be impressed if it happens by 2016.
At home, I still use a 11 year old television and an 18 year old television. I'm not going to replace then until they break, and I'll be damned if I'm going to buy (or rent, if the cable company gets its way) a digital converter box to watch tv.
It's not happening here in the US, why does Japan think that it's going to happen there?
Sure, our digital broadcasts aren't HDTV quality over here, but we've had Digital TV via Satellite for over 5 years now, and over cable and terrestrial for not that much shorter a time. Digital TV receivers are virtually free now (a non-subscription box can be had for around 50 pounds, so that shows how cheap the hardware is).
... I suspect price gauging of the poor old consumer, even if the receivers are more modern and HDTV, etc.
So why the costs for receivers are so high in Japan I don't know
HDTV capable TV sets are still extremely expensive though, but they aren't a necessity for receiving digital TV.
A few weeks ago I missed one of my shows that i watch every week, so i downloaded it from a torrent site (shh dont tell anyone =P).. anyway, the version I got was HDTV.. it was widescreen and so clear.. I have a tv tuner card in my pc and now I'm thinking of upgrading to a digital tv tuner card (wintv-d if you must know, i like hauppaugge wintv cards)... how does digital tv work? Do i need a special antenna to get digital channels or does it come over my normal cable? If I do need an antenna.. do i have to turn it to a certain direction to get a certain channel?
It seems too confusing, i just want widescreen high quality tv on my pc =(
thanks
Australia is like technology backwater and we're killing off analog TV by the end of 2008.
That's kinda how I feel about my small local television. I take it that my UHF dial won't pick up any of these new channels...
SCO.com uses Linux
The Daily Yomiuri reports that small local TV stations are at a disadvantage due to high costs of the new technology.
But won't the consumer be at an advantage as well cost-wise when crossing over from analog to digital? It's new technology and it's expected to be expensive at first... exactly the reason why I don't have an HDTV yet. The migration will be slow.
Besides, for all the little fish in the sea, you've got until July 2011 - eight years! And I'm pretty sure you'll still have plenty of analog-dedicated viewers in the meantime too.
What about the 'broadcast flag' ?
"an advantage" should read "a disadvantage" regarding consumer adoption. My very bad mistake.
dig*i*tal
adj.
- 1. Of, relating to, or resembling a digit, especially a finger.
- 2. Operated or done with the fingers: a digital switch.
I don't know about the rest of you but Japan's claims sure does sound fishy. What's next, Gadzooky smoke packets.(source)
MoFscker
BTW, for anyone new here "Dr. Samir Gupta" is not a doctor and doesn't work for Nintendo.
The new PSX (Playstation3?) will support terrestrial digital here in Japan - as well as being a DVD and PVR - a really very sweet device.
What I want to see are Digital TV decoder cards for PCs. I can then just capture the TV on my PC and playback Hi-Def onto my TV without having to buy any other hardware. However there seems to be no sign of them. I guess teh MPAA (and local equivalents) are very scared that users will work around their "not-recordable" bits in the video stream.
Gavin
So for you 50 pounds is virtualy free? That's ~$85 US dollars! Can I get a job where you work? You guys must be rich in the UK!
SCO.com uses Linux
Does digital TV rate up there with other moments that were compelling enough to warrant the investment by consumers?
1) 1920's -- Sound in the cinema.
2) 1930's -- Color in the cinema
3) 1950's -- Television
4) 1960's -- Color Television
5) 1970's -- Cable TV
6) 1980's -- Large Screen TV
7) 1990's -- Better Large Screen TV
Keep in mind the producer's investment costs get passed on to the consumer. The advances mentioned were not mandated by a regulatory agency and passed the consumer test on their own merits.
From what I have seen of digital TV it is gorgeous, but not something I would, by choice, spend $1500 on compared to what I can get from analog TV. I'm none too thrilled with the prospect of having digital TV and DRM forced down my throat at a higher cost.
So now seems like an appropriate time to tell you how the story came out. I recently bought a MyHD 120 card, and am very happy with the card (I plan on buying a couple more). However I can only get one Digital channel so far, and they're not broadcasting true HD yet. Digital does look nice, very nice, DVD nice, but still isn't HD. There is one channel in the area broadcasting HD, but I can't pull it in, even though I just bought a 3 foot square UHF antenna to do so. There are supposed to be 8 channels in my area broadcasting Digital, and I can only get one. And only one of the 8 are broadcasting HD (which I can't get as mentioned), and then for only about half of prime time hours. I'm told by sales people that the stations are only broadcasting currently at half power, but I have no way to confirm this. Even the one channel that comes in strong (full meter), suffers occasional complete drops, very much like early cell phone use. While the HD picture is probably going to be glorious (and digital is already very good), they really fell down on the job when it came to the carrier signal, and I think it safe to say VSB was an extremely poor choice. People are use to a signal fading in and out on analog, but still be viewable (you can still follow the story or hear the audio), when a sizable portion have digital, and find they loose signal completely from time to time, well there will be hell to pay. The FCC has quite the mess on its hands.
BTW, when the one channel I do get is not in primetime, I switch to the analog sister station. The upconvert of local programing is like a 56k streaming video. Painful to watch.
A year later and the Quest goes on.
Letter To Iran
3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375 ...
:)
If gzip (lameness filter) had found a way to compress that by better than 25.5:1, I'd have been mightily impressed.
I'm starting to suspect that the United States will never see conversion.
We have fast enough and cheap enough hardware now that it's feasible (nicer) home connections to stream down much-better-than-TV video over an Internet connection. There are a number of improvements to make in upstream distribution structure, but ultimately, despite the fact that IP currently provides essentially nothing by way of real-time guarantees, my guess is that we'll slowly start seeing more and more Internet-based systems. It just doesn't make sense to have a single purpose dedicated system just for TV.
I suspect that those cheap consumer broadband routers will start having a "smart bandwidth allocation" feature that the ISP will also grok which guarantees real-time delivery (well, over the last and slowest leg of the trip). It wouldn't be a very difficult system to devise -- system on local network allocates bandwidth from router, router talks to upstream system.
A healthy amount of precaching would be important -- this could be an issue in sports, where having a sub-one-minute precache is essential to many hardcore fans. It'd work wonderfully for almost anything else, though.
May we never see th
Here in Australia we have had HDTV broadcasting over the air for about two years (I think) and the price of HDTV's is dropping relatively fast. Last year a plasma screen was a good $2500 Au, now I see them about for $1250 Au, in a couple years they'll be the same price as a standard TV was 7-8 years ago. They're not that expensive... 2008 is plenty of time to at least get a converter box.
sweden is shutting down all public analog (terrestial) broadcasts in february 2008, why wait until 2011?
On no! It's God@#KJadlkja NO CARRIER
He who laughs last is stuck in a time dilation bubble.
Just to ensure that people are aware of the fact -- Samir Gupta is not a PhD, does not work for Nintendo, and is one of Slashdot's more colorful frauds. You can see the beginning of the Samir Gupta hoax on USENET years ago, in early discussions on the Sega Genesis.
However, an amazing number of new people with mod points, impressed with the bogus credentials, frequently mod up his posts.
May we never see th
berlin turned to digital terrestrial about 2 months ago and so will the rest of germany. people here are not very happy, they have to buy a decoder for every tv in the house and as a friend of mine with 3 teenagers (and tv sets) at home said, its damn expensive! he got cable! and it was cheaper with loads of better content.
who wants to rule the world?
The TV producers or the TV purchasers? Or maybe it doesn't matter, since the government feels it has a vested interest in lining the pockets of the former at the expense of the latter.
Groovy HD quality? Right, on your 20" home set tucked in a bookshelf, while the sounds from the street, kitchen or cat play so nicely with the uber-nuclear 17.1 sound that you get with digital TV.
Face it, home TV has hit a wall, that other than going to the cinema, you really don't get the measurable performance improvement that your cash outlay would indicate.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
Everytime I see an article or hear a discussion about DTV transitions, I hear a bunch of people ranting and raving about buying new TVs, or how their TV that Moses brought down from the mount works just fine and you can pry it from their cold, dead hands. It really does crack me up when you consider what's realistically going to go into this transition.
First of all, The US deadline is now 2007, not 2006, per random circuit court.
A) 108 million households in the US have televisions. Of those, just over 70% subscribe to cable or satellite. Satellite subscribers don't have a thing to worry about in this transition (unless they don't spend the $6/month to get televised local stations, which is definitely worth avoiding ghosting and reception issues). Satellite users really don't have to worry about this at all, since the sat systems will probably keep broadcasting in the same manner they were before the change; essentially a slightly differently implemented digital signal. Local stations will be transmitted in the same manner, and the signals will be decoded by their existing set-top box. No pain. Cable carriers could, in theory, take the exisitng off-air digital signals, convert them back to analog, and send them along over the lines (I'm not sure if any of the FCC rules have forbid this), although with continued uptake on digital cable services, they'll basically be in a situation similar to the satellite carriers. Of course, assuming they're not allowed to to retransmit in analog, it'll be back to how it was 10 or 15 years ago before cable-ready TVs hit the market; a $4 or $5/month (maybe even $10) for the box, with the option to purchase per FCC rules. The boxes still patch into the TV using the standard interfaces (composite/S-Video, RF for the old crap, maybe component or DVI for newer equipment).
That leaves the off-air folks, the remaining 30%. Now consider what off-air DTV is. It isn't neccessarily HD (HD is a subset of Digital). DTV is MPEG-2 encoded video with dolby digital/AC-3 audio and 480 lines of resolution. Know what else uses that same video system? If you said the $20 DVD player they had on sale last friday, you're right. Essentially, you need an IC capable of decoding the stream, an antenna to get the signal in, and some RF equipment that can tune to that signal. In bulk, we're talking maybe $50, especially considering these won't be purchased for at least another 3 years. THe current cost of outboard ATSC tuners is mostly due to the fact that there's a very small market actually looking for them and the fact that they're typically designed to a little higher standards, given that they're usually interfacing to nicer HD equipment.
So the remaining 30% of people breaks down thusly: people who don't care enough about TV to invest in cable or satellite, and people who can't afford to invest in cable or satellite. The former group might have one or two TVs (they don't care enough, remember), so using my random $50 price point (which I think is reasonably believable), they can retrofit their existing equipment for $100, or simply put that $100 into buying a new TV. You can get a new TV for $100, and if they buy it at that time, it'll be DTV capable (see below). For the people who are too poor to afford cable or sat, well, they were obviously capable of scraping together enough to get a TV. Not to be heartless here, but TV is not a right, and if you could afford to get one you can probably afford to save up $50.
This all counts out the fact that one of the circuit courts of appeal upheld the ruling that all TVs larger than 13" are required to have a DTV tuner starting 2006 (I think it's '06).
So what we basically have is a lot of handwringing over a bunch of scaremongering by media outlets ("current DTV boxes cost hundreds of dollars", "of course they do, there's not a huge demand for them") and the lack of understanding of simple television systems by a lot of people. Folks, it's gonna be a cheap-ass box that hooks into your cable jack or A/V input and tunes to a channel. It's not rocket science. You can go back to watching your 15 year-old wood-panel TV now, and you can keep watching it for years to come.
Over there in Germany, the state of Berlin and Brandenburg is shutting down analog broadcasting also. People on welfare without enough money to buy a digital receiver will get one nearly for free from the state. Nice, huh?
I think Germany's goals are somewhat close to Japan's in terms of "digital only" TV.
Several Japanese electronics giants have unnited to form a consortium and promote Linux in their hardware - Sony, Panasonic, Toshiba, Matsushita etc. Are they setting a 2011 target to give these firms enough time to come up with a mature hardware that works, rather than the hastily put-together Microsoft Windows XP Media Center stuff that is too expensive for what it delivers?
Knowing that the Japs are excellent planners, I think they've made a very reaslistic appraisal of the situation. Well before 2011, the SCO menace would be settled oncee and for all, likewise Media Center would be in Service Pack 7 or thereabouts.
-
If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
Come on - this is TV for crying out loud - does anyone actually give two shits if they watch Friends in analog or digital? And if they do, why on earth is the government involved? I can understand a government taking a high profile role in healthcare, pensions, crime fighting, defense, etc., but TELEVISION?
If the logic goes that they are preventing a standards war, my question stands - who cares? Maybe if the TV industry wastes enough money on a standards war, TV would become expensive enough that more people will question their viewing habits.
Without any goverment intervention, TV will become digital one way or another, eventually, just by natural technological progression. Why are we wasting tax dollars trying to hurry it along? Is it that freakin' important?
I can understand tax dollars trying to hurry along progression of medical technologies, defense technologies, communication technologies, but TV?? Who cares?
Don't give me that line about educational TV like PBS/Discovery Channel/TLC - they're great I know, but really, do they get that much greater in digital? I didn't think so.
Get real will you... The FCC deadline of 2006 just isn't going to happen. Money talks and when you have certain corporations dropping money into the pockets... strike that... into the good government for research projects, the FCC can do what it wants, and it will -- at will regardless of protest. And what will the public do, at least the vast majority? Nothing that's what
I expect to see a bunch of noise made in the news about this once the deadline approaches,
Yea sure you will. Just like when the country came together for 9/11 they're going to drop it all for a television set. We'll have a "Million Man Television March", arrange it, I'll go.
followed by lots of Congressional campaigns running on the "The big bad federal government wants to take away your TV... over my dead body!" platform. Are you serious? From whom the congressmen you state? The same people who automagically make big time lobby money from some of the vendors? OK. If you say so. Pass me some oxycodone please my comments end her
MoFscker
I used to live in a major Japanese city. There were only 7 channels available in my apartment, and the reception of two of them were so bad that I cannot record any programs on my VCR.
I would have enjoyed more channels if I had installed a sattellite dish, of course, but even with that the quality of the reception would have been dependent on the local weather since the analog signals of sattelite broadcast is more susceptible to transmission errors than digital ones.
in the UK, outboard DTT STBs now start at 50 bucks
here
This is both caused by, and helps encourage, the fact that more than 50% of uk household have DTV (cable, sat or dtt)
http://milkshake.dexy.org
Quotes from http://www.digitv.fi:
- Finland entered the digital era when the multiplex representatives started up digital television broadcasts on 27th August 2001. This means that there are now six new television channels in three multiplexes, and the four existing channels can be received as digital parallel broadcasts. Viewers have a total of ten channels to choose from.
- The area of digital broadcasts covers over 70% of the population. The television broadcasting network is to be digitalised in phases. The process is due to be complete at the end of 2006, when approx. 99% of Finns will reside within the transmission area of digital television.
- The government has set up a target that the analogue broadcasting discontinues at the end of 2006.
Anything involving that comedy duo of the tall blonde cheerful looking guy with a mohawk, and the short stubby bitter looking guy with the really thick glasses (what the hell are their names?). They seem to have hosted a million wacky shows, and all of those I've seen have been very funny (like the one where they [and their cohorts] had 1 minute 30 seconds to perform these bizarre skits involving Complicated and Very Strenuous Actions, with no prior rehearsals)
You must be referring to "Kyain" (pronounced "kyah-een") and the blonde mohawk dude is "Udo Suzuki" while the short dude is "Amano Hiroyuki". I still think they all suck though. I just watch SkyPerfecTV's BBC documentaries... (Better watch what I say, I work for a Japanese ad agency!!)
Digital TV is great. Although some things need more than "digitalize" to get better.
I can imagine a wide area in Japan all rolling on the ground with the pupils all enlarged (think Simpsons)
What the hell are you smoking?
Plasma's are still at least A$5000 for a reasonable SD model, and A$8k for an HD (> 1024x768) model.
The cheapest widescreen CRT's are A$1000, and the cheapest HD CRT is A$2000.
-- Shaun "Blessed are the geeks, for they shall Internet the earth"
Signal is transmitted across the country by cable, then rebroadcast as an analogue signal to the local transmitter where a TV receiver displays the picture.
Over the past 12 months or so, many stations have moved from transmitting analogue TV across the country to sending an MPEG stream down the wire for rebroadcast.
When packets get lost, the picture breaks up and the picture can at times appear to freeze until the next key-frame comes along.
Just to clarify here, the signal is sent digitally down the wire from Sydney to Perth, then rebroadcast via an analogue transmitter on a hill across the metro area.
So, just like a GSM phone, MP3's, VoIP, and any other digital signal, no packet - no information.
So while you say:
The answer will have to be:
Yes, if the reception quality is above a certain level, otherwise you'll get SFA.
As some of you know I'm travelling around Australia at the moment and I've now stayed in places, less than 10km (as the crow flies) from the analogue transmitter and have been able to just make out the sound without ever getting anything more than snow for a picture - in a digital world, I'd get nothing.
I now resort to downloading and/or streaming the news if I'm in such a fringe area - until such time as I've gotten around to getting another satellite dish...
|>>?
SCODigitalled
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
$1500? For digital? If that's the case, someone is seriously screwing up in the US. Or you have eight TVs in the house. You can get digital in the UK for 100 pounds (about $170 at the moment).
It makes one wonder if japan will actually make it. It is very clear that the US never will, with US HDTV penetration at less then 20%. Time will tell, though japan has had a track record for new technology adoption
If people with little money end up not buying TVs and going without, the end result would be a lot of smart poor folks. The resultant proletariat uprising would either set us all free or doom us to communism; I'm not sure which.
N4st0r, trixx0r h0bb1tz0rz! Th3y st0l3 0ur pr3c10uzz!
This is a pretty long timescale, considering it's techno-obsessives japan doing so... here in the UK 2010 is the turn-off time as far as I'm aware, so this surprises me.... 6-7 years is a long time in the technology world.
Maybe the manufacturers should start making digital converters at less than 80 quid before they try to sell them to people on housing benefits who are glued to their TV 24/7...!
I, for one, don't care. TV is bloody atrocious, generally speaking. I'll still get a digital thing though, it's inevitable isn't it?
While it is true that it _can_ provide better quality, it can also provide _lower_ quality. It is all down to how much compression the broadcaster puts on the video.
This is more than amply illustrated by the UK digital satellite broadcasts by Sky, where compression artifacts are highly noticeable. An example being the green pitches during soccer matches. The high compression looks at the pitch and says, that all looks quite similar, and renders it as a big green blocky splodge.
Spectrum is a valuable commodity, do you really think commercial broadcasters are going to "waste" it on picture quality, when they could squeeze in another three TV channels - ignoring all of the extra advertising revenue that could bring?
As far as English news sources in Japan go, I've always found the Daily Yoimuri highly dubious and I really don't see how a Chinese newspaper is relevant. Here's the story from the Japan Times, which I read this morning over my granola, thinking "Jeez, I should send this to Slashdot."
This story is pretty close to my heart since I'm working on a project in Japan right now that aspires to distribute digital TV content via the internet instead of conventional channels. My understanding is that every major electronics manufacturer in Japan is working on the same sort of thing, so reading that the Japanese government "has vowed to phase out analog broadcasting by 2011" doesn't necessarily mean that this country is headed the same way as the US. As usual, Japan will most likely do its own thing.
...Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.
Churchill
It is in fact silly to think that in 8 years, every television will have to be replaced by a HDTV because of a sudden revolution.
Why, already a large number of people have broadband internet connections in their home. (At least here in Europe you can easily get 8Mbit for a very reasonable price)
So chances are, in 1 or 2 years, some bright mind will start providing for all early adopting tech geeks by streaming HDTV standard compliant video from his website. This would only require an upgrade of whatever media player they'll be using.
Soon after people will develop cheap (linux based, ofcourse!) standalone players that only require a monitor and an xDSL connection. A surge in HDTV set sales will be the result.
Why should HDTV emerge from the same, centrally directed, mass-oriented cable companies? When did they develop something new? It will happen, but not in the form you're thinking of.
ALREADY. no need to wait until 2011, to get/give good reception?
/. putting stuff that matters into future storIEs? (Score:-1, Troll)
you won't be needing any 5000$ hdtv, or even a model rocket cam, to be able to sense the direction of the wwwinds of change, which are bullowing at gale force/farce.
even more to be thankful about? (Score:mynuts won, don't mention the monIE)
by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 30, @12:01PM (#7592801)
by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 30, @11:30AM (#7592655)
just kidding?
see also: stuff that really matters/chips ahoya @ a dime # dozen?
eating it/at all? (Score:-1, Troll)
by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 30, @10:02AM (#7592314)
?eating? in 3rd wwworld countries, for example
score: mynuts won, nothing to buy here?
Posted by CmdrTaco on Sunday November 30, @09:13AM
from the tang-makes-me-ill (how annoying that must be for us, & the folks over at tang.com?) dept.
morons write "What do you think babies aboard the ?other? side of the planet had for Thanksgiving? Roasted turkey? Wrong answer. In "less fortunate" areas, the pateNTdead eyecon0meter tells us, they had little of nothing, and gives details about space in their little bodies, where food ought to be. If the dining view, 200 miles of rough road, is unattractive, preparing 'meals' is even more so. For example, there is no food, so the babies must remain hungry for long periods at +- room temperature. And you need to avoid thinking about this scenario. The real 'stuff that matters' overview contains additional references, and includes directions by the creators, for their/yOUR newclear power, & planet/population rescue initiatives/mandates.
( Read More... | that makes sense )
consult with/trust in yOUR creators... the lights are coming up now in order to assist in the avoidance of overheating the main processor, &, facilitation of the aforementioned ncp/ppr programs/mandates.
for each of the creators' innocents harmed, there is a badtoll that must/will be repaid by you/US, as the execrabilious corepirate nazi perpetraitors of the life0cide against the creators innocents, will not be available to make reparations.
see you there? tell 'em robbIE?
With the change to all digital and HDTV looming, I've heard rumours that they are expecting makeup application times for actresses to double, as all the wrinkles and blemishes hidden by current TVs will be shown in all their high definition glory otherwise. Personally, I find this amusing as hell.
At least here in Europe you can easily get 8Mbit for a very reasonable price) Am I missing something??? Currently in France, I'm "suffering" with a 1Mbit connection and paying 30E/Month(cheapest available). Would you pleae define for me what price is considered "reasonable" for a 8Mbit connection???... Oh, and if you want to bet, I galdly accept the 1-2 years for streaming HDTV @ 100/1.
1. No sig. 2. ???? 3. Profit!!!
In Australia, we have a end date of 2008 for Analogue TV.
/. :) ), but the government didn't reverse the decision. Now we have CDMA as it's replacement, 2G and 3G. 3G is only popular because of it's price. A lot of people still love their 2G phones. My Dad doesn't like the offers that his phone network (starts with V ends with e) is giving him. He wants to stay with his Nokia 6210 (Cyber Silver Ed.), because it works.
We had a simular situation with Analogue mobile phones. Every bushman wanted it (which I can state, going to a remote location every weekend, that I can't live without
Ironically, the main benefit of DTT in the UK (since the collapse of the subscription-based model and the transfer of DTT to the BBC) is that you can now receive a wider range of digital radio stations.
Maybe we should simply close down TV altogether and use the spectrum for something more interesting. It's not like there's a public outcry for QVC 2.
Thank $deity for your vigilance. It is only by the tireless efforts of people like you that spelling errors are not allowed to pass unchallenged on Slashdot.
I'll be better next time.
No mod points, no meta-moderating/Firehose/all the other free work Slashdot wants me to do.
Anime.
Until of course the Americans dub it, after that it's All your base are belong to us./i.
Hit the nail on the head with this.
Ok, I live in The Netherlands, maybe I'm priviliged, I pay 85 Euros for a 8Mbit connection. But still, I'm sure France isn't far behind. Maybe in a year or so, you'll have the same prices in the high-population areas.
I have HDTV over an outside antenna, digital satellite and over the air analog. All it has to do is rain or snow or the wind blow strong and guess which is the only service working ... good old analog.
... maybe more than great. But I'd guess 5% of the time, I'm back to the stone age.
...
The new fancy stuff is great when it works
Now fast forward a few years to where there are no analog signals in the air
Is this an advance? Are we sure?
...that somebody actually makes TVs with digital tuners now. Maybe they'll think of selling them in the U.S. too! Right now the stores only have "digital-ready" boxes which are just hi-def monitors. There's usually some mumbling about a "set-top box" to make these incomplete TVs functional, but I don't see any of *those* in the stores either.
Um... they have digital satellite and cable in japan too(who the hell do you think makes or at leasts sells those devices)
Also have you seen the price for ANYTHING in japan. The prices in japan in general are high.
I have a friend from Japan, and she would go shooping in New york city and spend lots of $$$$ and she would say she was amazed at how cheap everything was.
All I want to know is what are they going to do with all the old signals? Will amature radio/tv geeks be allowed to use them?
Cheap DSL and full mobile phone coverage are easy to provide in densely populated Japan and Korea and much more difficult in the more spread-out United States.
I don't get this bit. How can the technology be too expensive to be accessible to tinpot local stations? Here in the UK the Sky Digital satellites are crammed full of channels which look like they're broadcasting out of the back room of somebody's house (and in all honesty they could probably fit all their viewers at any one time in the front room of the house). It looks to me as if all they need is a decent DV camera or two and a computer to plug it into. The computer can provide graphical overlays, play ads, mix sound, etc. etc and supply the signal to Sky down a leased line. Cost: Bugger all.
Compare that with what it would've cost even ten years ago to set up something equally as crap broadcasting on analogue. I'd imagine it's about a tenth the cost. So what's the problem in Japan? Is HDTV stuff crushingly expensive?
I'll tell you what's particularly awful - when you're watching a music show where the live act has lots of multicoloured stage lights around them. The codec in use just can't cope with these lights at all for some reason - the screen just degenerates into a mass of enormous blocks of colour. If digital TV is going to be the only way forward, they're really going to have to do something about this. It's just unacceptable. But what can they do?
In the UK digital set top boxes are shifting well and are coming down in price rapidly. There are also versions with 2 tuners and a HDD which acts as a basic PVR for about 210 about $350 - no subscription required). They are pretty inexpensive compared to a decent TV, and they will usually allow you to select a letterbox or pan-and-scan mode if you have an olde 4:3 TV. Do they sell 16:9 non-HDTVs in the US? I just bought a cheapo 16:9 tv (28inch) for my parents in law for about 230 ($400) and for the price it's phenomenal. - Andrew
Jonathan Green, is that you?
I doubt anyone will see this, because the story has fallen down under the slashdot main page...
but HDTV's are coming out anyway. ANY television over 36" sold from this year forward are high-definition capable. Most next year are going to have tuners built in.
Most plasma televisions are HDTV. Even glass tube televisions have to be HDTV by next year, I think.
You guys act like no one's done anything in the last 5 years for this HDTV business. Try going into your local electronics store and ask about HDTV.
Geezus.
hookers and grits.
There are a lot of people who want to grab up the bandwidth that becomes available when analog TV gets shut down. The governmant is going to be delighted to "sell" it.
Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
Digital TV is a wonderful idea, crystal clear picture and all
Digital TV, as it is currently offered on US cable services, is definitely NOT a wonderful idea. The problem is that the providers went cheap with the bandwidth, so they can get away with aggressive compression techniques that screw up the picture. And I mean screw it up badly.
To see what I'm talking about, take a look at a broadcast on one of the digital cable channels, e.g., channel numbers above 100 on Cox services. Look for scenes that have subtle gradients of colour, such as blue skies or sand dunes. The compression turns them into patchy splotches of colour, with the transition boundaries from one colour to another clearly visible.
One time I was watching the end of Full Metal Jacket on a digital channel, and saw how digital compression can completely ruin a movie. The scene where Joker (Matthew Modine's character) is struggling with the task of putting a mortally wounded sniper (who happens to be a young girl) out of her misery is a fascinating example of Kubrick's use of colour to create dramatic tension. Behind Modine is the flickering light of a fire, reflected from a wall in the room. In the theatre (or in an analog broadcast) the fire is a subtle play of colour, suggesting the presence of the demonic. In the digital broadcast, the fire light was a splotchy, busy mess of visual noise. It completely destroyed the mood Kubrick worked so hard to create.
test
And that is, of course, the whole point as far, as the big fish are concerned
DirectTV has been available in the US for 10 years at least, maybe more.
#6495ED - cornflower blue
reporter: gojira is crippring the anarog towels!
man: agghhh damn, gojira!
woman: zap him with the cell towers and repeaters, he can't take it all in the--
!@#@!^*&$#^%!*#@&^#*@ --+--
colonel: and that... was the last we saw of their civilization.
commander-in-chief: whut, no more shamoo-rice?
"Stratigraphically the origin of agriculture and thermonuclear destruction will appear essentially simultaneous" -- Lee
The "budget" plasma sets can't be manufactured/sold anymore?Do TVs have to support either720p or 1080i or both? Please explain.
And that has been Digital from the beginning? Even though MPEG2 didn't exist 10 years ago ...
Analogue Satellite TV has been in europe for nearly 20 years now.
Yeah, I think they started with mpeg1, then upgraded a few years later.
#6495ED - cornflower blue