SolveYourProblem
HDTV Article Series
Buying
a High Definition Television (HDTV)
What
Are The FCC Rules about HDTV?
The relationship between the FCC and the HDTV
industry is long and somewhat complicated. It is complete with
opposing companies forming alliances for the greater good,
angry cable companies, and confused consumers. In the end,
HDTV is here to stay.
HDTV History
The FCC first became involved with HDTV in 1987. At this time,
the FCC ruled that HDTV standards needed to be compatible with
current NTSC service. Therefore, the standards were confined
to existing UHF and VHF frequency bands.
In 1988, the FCC had 23 different HDTV and EDTV standards
proposals. All of the proposals were for analog or mixed analog
and included a variety of options for bandwidth, resolution,
and interlace. By 1990, however, the FCC declared that HDTV
would be broadcast simultaneously. It also announced that its
preference was for a full HDTV standard, rather than the previously
proposed EDTV, which had a reduced resolution.
The General Instrument Corporation submitted
a proposal for all digital HDTV system later that same year.
Later still,
the ATRC also announced its intention to develop digital HDTV.
Zenith, AT&T, and MIT soon followed in their footsteps.
This threw four major contenders in the mix for HDTV. All of
these systems were tested over the following year.
By February 1993, the FCC decided to move forward
with all digital HDTV systems, but couldn’t determine which
company
should continue the testing. Therefore, the FCC ultimately
decided to form an alliance amongst GI, AT&T, Phillips,
MIT, Sarnoff, Zenith, and Thomson. In this way, the best features
of all four previously tested systems would be used to create
the HDTV standard. The remainder of the year was spent determining
the features of the HDTV standard.
The systems were constructed in 1995, and the FCC set the
new standard by the end of the same year. By late 1998, HDTV’s
were available on the market. Furthermore, the FCC dictated
that the top 10 markets needed to start digital TV broadcasts
no later than April of 1999 and that it must be broadcast to
the top 20 markets by October of the same year. With this plan
in place, HDTV would reach approximately 53% of all households
with televisions.
Currently, the FCC standard specifies that HDTV format is
1920x1080p and contains digital surround sound. Furthermore,
the FCC has a goal to phase out conventional NTSC broadcasting
by 2006.
Consumer Impact The ever-growing consumer interest in HDTV has forced the
FCC to work more quickly on regulating HDTV. Consumers are
anxious to take advantage of the new technology, but unhappy
with the FCC’s slow progress in getting broadcaster’s on board.
In fact, the broadcast regulations set forth by the FCC are
not monitored or truly enforced. Instead, broadcasters are
expected to simply comply with FCC regulations in regard to
HDTV.
Consumer protests have also drawn a great deal of attention
to the FCC’s “down resolution” proposal. Down resolution is
the purposeful reduction of resolution quality that is provided
through a broadcast. Many broadcasters purposely implement
down resolution in order to discourage home recordings and
piracy.
The Home Recording Rights Coalition (HRRC) has, however, addressed
the FCC about this issue. The HRRC’s stance being that down
resolution punishes those who have purchased HDTV’s for better
picture quality, only to have that quality reduced. The FCC
has responded by stating that broadcasters can’t purposefully
decrease resolution. The FCC has, however, stated that it is
ok for broadcasters to utilize a decreased bandwidth for broadcasts,
so long as the quality of the picture remains the same.
The FCC is, however, attempting to respond to consumer concerns.
In addition to regulating broadcasters, the FCC has mandated
that all televisions made after March 2007 contain digital
tuners rather than analog tuners. Digital tuners are not the
same as HDTV tuners, but a television must be capable of receiving
digital signals in order to receive HDTV signals.
Despite the controversy surrounding HDTV and FCC regulations,
nearly half of all consumers intend to make their next television
HDTV according to a recent survey by the Consumer Electronics
Association. This is partly due to the FCC’s mandate to switch
to digital tuners. In fact, 2005 sales of digital televisions
surpassed those of analog sales for the first time.
With the combined FCC regulations and the consumer interest
in HDTV, this technology will be around for a long time.
# # # # #
SolveYourProblem.com : 2007
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