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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFCC Proposes 'Next Generation TV' Standard
Ted Johnson
Senior Editor
@tedstew
February 23, 2017 | 09:02AM PT
Federal regulators gave an initial green light to a proposal to dramatically upgrade broadcast TV.
On Thursday, the FCC took a step toward approving use of a new TV standard that promises over-the-air viewers will get an Ultra High Definition picture, interactivity, immersive audio, advance emergency alerts, mobile reception and other features.
The standard is dubbed Next Generation TV, or ATSC 3.0, and it has long been on the wish list of Washingtons broadcast lobby as they have watched broadband providers cast themselves as the medium of the future. ... The FCCs action, in a 3-0 vote, merely puts the proposal up for comment.
....
It would make 3.0 transmissions voluntary, meaning that stations will not be forced to switch to a new standard. That is what happened in 2009, when stations migrated to digital broadcasting, a massive change that in many cases compelled viewers to purchase new sets.
The proposal calls for requiring that stations that choose to deploy the Next Gen TV transmissions continue to provide their existing channels to their viewers. Cable and satellite providers would continue to be required to carry the current broadcast signals, but not the new signals.
MineralMan
(146,329 posts)First, they made all the old TVs obsolete with digital over the air broadcasts, and now they want to do it again?
Who's behind this crap. Broadcast TV is all but dead, really, anyhow. I know that a lot of people use it, but they're a small minority of TV viewers. Most people are even dumping cable or thinking about it at this point.
I call this a moron move.
hlthe2b
(102,360 posts)Like everything else, they have become obsolete--even before they go "dead"...
I never understood why one would spend thousands$$ on a ginormous electronic dinosaur.
MineralMan
(146,329 posts)I waited until I could buy an HD TV for about $250. Now, I'm seeing ads for 50" class TVs for about that.
But that's too big for my living room viewing distance, so...
LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)The sets are not obsolete, but merely require a converter. Else I'd be unable to watch television on the tube TV in my bedroom... yet I do.
But few are as clever as you are in these things...
MineralMan
(146,329 posts)Still, HD TVs are so cheap now that I recycled all my old CRT sets one day when they were accepting them without a fee.
We're down to one TV in the house. Mostly we watch on other devices these days. My wife uses her iPad to stream the things she watches, and I tend to watch on my computer monitor. I have a TV dongle plugged into its HDMI port that picks up the broadcast channels around here. Or I stream stuff with my PC.
The TV is in the living room, and gets used for the morning and evening news. We're just not watching TV very much any more.
mahatmakanejeeves
(57,606 posts)I have a 1981-vintage 10" color GE in the kitchen. It was built in Hampton Roads, Virginia. It needs a convergence run on it, but I never seem to have the time to do that. I turn it on, and it performs beautifully. It shows no signs of giving up.
I'm no expert. I watch TV OTA. When the analog-to-digital transition came along I bought the set top boxes using the gummint coupon.
Digital television adapter
That was in June 2008. I suspect there will be an adapter that lets you watch ATSC 3.0 on an existing ASTC (digital) set. You will be limited to the resolution of the set; in your case, 1080 lines. The aforementioned GE gets its signal from a Sony SLV-N77 VCR, which itself is supplied with an analog signal from a Digital Stream DTX9950 coupon-eligible converter box. Those Digital Streams are really nice boxes. they have a great program guide.
I finally acquired some ATSC TVs. Working ones are showing up on trash piles around here. Panavision movies are the killer app for me.
You probably can't run Windows 3.1 software on your newest computer either. Or MacWrite, if that's what you have.
That's progress. Better, sure. Whatever.
<Shrug>
I believe Sinclair Broadcasting is running test broadcasts of ATSC 3.0 in Baltimore. Yeah, here it is:
ATSC 3.0
ATSC 3.0 will provide even more services to the viewer and increased bandwidth efficiency and compression performance, which requires breaking backwards compatibility with the original ATSC system. ATSC 3.0 is expected to emerge within the next decade.
On March 26, 2013, the Advanced Television Systems Committee announced a call for proposals for the ATSC 3.0 physical layer which states that the plan is for the system to support video with a resolution of 3840×2160 at 60 fps (4K UHDTV).
In February 2014, a channel-sharing trial began between Los Angeles television stations KLCS (a Public broadcasting station associated with PBS) and KJLA, a commercial ethnic broadcaster owned-and-operated by LATV, with support from the CTIA and approval of the Federal Communications Commission. The test involved multiplexing multiple HD and SD subchannels together, experimenting with both current MPEG-2 / H.262 and MPEG-4 AVC / H.264 video codecs. Ultimately, it has been decided that H.264 would not be considered for ATSC-3.0, but rather the newer MPEG-H HEVC / H.265 codec would be used instead, with OFDM instead of 8VSB for modulation, allowing for 28 Mbit/s to 36 Mbit/s or more of bandwidth on a single 6-MHz channel.
In May 2015, and continuing on for six months afterward, the temporary digital transition transmitter and antenna of Cleveland, Ohio's Fox affiliate, WJW, will be used by the National Association of Broadcasters to test the "Futurecast" ATSC 3.0 standard advanced by LG Corporation and GatesAir. In September 2015 further tests in the Baltimore and Washington, DC area were announced by Sinclair Broadcast Group's Baltimore station, WBFF, which is also a Fox affiliate. The Futurecast system had previously been tested in October 2014 during off-air hours through Madison, Wisconsin ABC affiliate WKOW. Unlike ATSC 1.0/2.0's Distributed Transmission System's pseudo-single-frequency network operations, WI9XXT's two transmitters operate as a true Single Frequency Network.
Further tests began in on January 6, 2016 of ATSC 3.0 with High Dynamic Range (using the Scalable HEVC video codec with HE-AAC audio) from Las Vegas independent station, KHMP-LD on UHF 18. It would later be joined in these tests by Sinclair's CW affiliate, KVCW simulcasting on a temporary test frequency (UHF 45).
mahatmakanejeeves
(57,606 posts)February 13:
February 9: