IP: Brazilian story getting cleaned up

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

> From: Janos_Gereben <janos () netcom com>
> Subject: Brazilian story getting cleaned up
> To: farber () cis upenn edu
> Date: Mon, 29 May 2000 22:18:49 -0700 (PDT)
>
> Brazil favors Japanese digital TV standard
> Janos Gereben - the451.com
>
> [Tests place Japan ahead of American and European competitors in a country
> where only 20 percent of the population owns a TV.]
>
> Anatel, Brazil's federal communications agency, has just received the
> result of tests that compared the three major globally competing
> digital-television standards. Japan's system received the top
> recommendation in this country of 150m people with 30m TV sets. The low
> ratio of saturation indicates the importance of future TV technology in
> Brazil if a "leapfrog model" becomes the tool to catch up with
> technologically more advanced countries. (The U.S. population of 273m and
> Japan's 127m have close to 100 percent TV ownership. The American
> switchover to digital TV has a deadline of 2006, with a projected 6bn
> income to the government in licenses.)
>
> The three tested standards were Japan's ISDB (Integrated Services Digital
> Broadcasting), ATSC (Advanced Television System Committee) from the U.S.,
> and DVB (Digital Video Broadcasting) from Europe. Renato Cruz, of Brazil's
> National Telecommunications Magazine, told the451.com that ISDB gave
> "better results" over COFDM (Coded Orthogonal Frequency Division
> Multiplexing) modulation, which is expected to serve as the basis of
> service there.
>
> Recommendations from the Set/Abert Group favoring the Japanese model will
> be subject to public consultations between the government, the industry and
> the general public before a final decision is made by September, after
> consultation with Argentina, which is coordinating its DTV plans with
> Brazil. Two other members of the regional group, Uruguay and Paraguay, are
> not choosing their digital TV standard yet. Brazilian regulators said final
> decisions depend on economic issues as well as on technical considerations.
> The Set/Abert Group, making the recommendation, consists of television
> engineers and members of the Brazilian Radio and Television Association.
>
> According to Cruz, there is opposition in Brazil to the ISDB standard
> because it's commercially still unproven. Also, in the SET/Abert tests, the
> European DVB results were very close to the Japanese system's performance.
>
> Although public discussion seldom differentiates between HDTV and DTV, they
> are distinct. High-definition TV works in the analog mode as well - the
> Japanese have been broadcasting in that format - but digital HDTV has many
> advantages and is to be used by the Japanese despite their headstart in the
> other format. DTV allows full exploitation of the capabilities of HDTV, but
> it can also be used to carry multiple channels of conventional video and
> assorted digital signals.
>
> The Japanese digital TV model was developed by NHK, the Japan Broadcasting
> Corporation, beginning in 1968, proposed as a worldwide standard in 1983,
> and then vetoed by the U.S. and Europe in 1986. A year later, work began in
> the U.S., leading to FCC adoption in 1996 of ATSC. The European platform,
> DVB, is from the same time period; it was adopted by Australia as well in
> 1998.
>
> Regular broadcasting of HDTV programs began in Japan in 1989, based on
> NHK's hybrid analog-digital Hi-Vision format, which is just moving to full
> digital broadcasting this year. Programs have been processed digitally, and
> then broadcast in an analog mode, creating a situation in which sets were
> very expensive and technology fell behind others going to the full digital
> broadcasting system.
>
> One of the leading digital models, the Digital Terrestrial Television
> Broadcasting (DTTB) system uses advanced digital techniques to convert
> analog to digital signals, which are then compressed, along with other
> signals, before being broadcast from a transmitter. With digital
> transmission, sound and pictures are processed electronically and converted
> into binary digits. This code is then transmitted as a bit stream and the
> receiver converts the digital transmissions back to graphics, text, and
> sound.
>
> HDTV, enabled by digital TV, offers approximately twice the vertical and
> horizontal resolution of a PAL signal, providing a picture close to 35mm
> film and a sound quality approaching that of a compact disc. It is
> particularly suited to large-screen television display, with an aspect
> ratio of 16:9 (1.78 to 1) and at least 1,000 lines making up the picture.
> Currently, the U.S. National Television Standards Committee, or NTSC,
> standard has a 4:3 aspect ratio (1.33 to 1) and 525 lines.)
>
> DTTB systems can accommodate 6, 7 and 8 MHz channel spacing, with minimal
> or no apparent cost disadvantage. Australia uses 7 MHz channel spacing for
> analog services, the USA uses 6 MHz, and Europe usually uses 8 MHz.