Idea of picture from
Gary Brown (2002 Dec), How HDTV Works, http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/hdtv.htm.
HDTV will allow the broadcasters to transmit multiple channels and has an added feature of captions, which is still not available on most analogue TV services.
Among the features immediately available with HDTV it is easy to forget the yet unchartered territory of “Interactive Television”. Basically it is an Internet like technology where the viewer has certain control over the content being broadcasted. Additionally the viewer gets real time feedback on the effects of the controls placed in his/her hands. This does however require the use of an additional device on top of all the other accessories to the HDTV realm. As usual it does come at a cost.
To top it all off, HDTV has the capacity for multi channelling. Simply, an example of such a feature would be that on the same wide screen a viewer would be able to view multiple screens for the same event. For example, in golf tournament a viewer will be able to see the action on all the holes simultaneously with split screen image type technology. This will mean that a viewer is not restricted to a set broadcasting routine.
Mainly helped materials:
1.Tony Crecenti (2002 Semester 1), Lecture notes (Communication principles HET 314), Swinburne University of Technology)
2.Robert Mark Simons (1998-2001), Digital Television Australia: High Definition, : Accessed January 2003
3.Gary Brown (2002 Dec), How HDTV Works, http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/hdtv.htm.
4.Harpreet Singh, HDTV Wolverhampton University, UK, , Accessed January 2003
5.Steve Bennett Hi-Fi, Digital TV,: Australia Accessed Feb 2003
6.: Accessed Dec 2002
7. Accessed December 2002
Disadvantages of HDTV
As experienced with all new forms of technology, everything has a cost associated with it. Since HDTV uses vastly different forms of this technology for a viewer to be able to reap all the benefits of the HDTV experience, it is sadly the cost that the entire Australian population will have to live with. Following on broadcasters will need to purchase all new equipment to match the HDTV technology. The list required at a minimum is cameras, new titling and editing equipment, new tape machines, new rigs for their news vans, remote broadcast units, cables, sound equipment and control rooms. All the perks of the HDTV come with the drawback of all the special equipment required to record and broadcast that quality in picture and sound formats. The viewers will need to purchase a set top box to experience this new technology and the unfortunate reality of the commercial world dictates that until the number of people game enough to convert to HDTV does not increase, the cost of the individual units will still remain high. This in turn means that although the technology will be present it will be quite expensive at least for a few years.
The viewers will also need to purchase the wide screen to view the entire 16:9 format. Although the current TV sets will still be able to receive the HDTV pictures and the picture quality still being better than the current 4:3 format, it is only more sensible to go all the way and convert the set to a wider screen. Communities will then have to pay for the cost of erecting new towers to support the structures required for broadcast. It goes without saying that there will be considerable costs incurred by one and all before this technology becomes an everyday home reality.
Additionally despite the fact that the cost of providing the Dolby Digital sound technology over the MPEG audio will be minimal some broadcasters using stereo audio will substitute it. This is purely to alleviate the burden on the broadcasters but this does in fact lower the quality of the experience for the consumers. There is the other concern about services to the “Outback Australia” of HDTV services. Currently the government is still struggling to provide basic communication services to the outback and their needs to be a certain amount of caution that this technology in all it’s glory does not become an expensive exercise for our outback dwellers to access.
Technology with it brings with it all the burdens as it does all its fruits. The support structure for such technology could depend on a number of issues, which could create a Domino effect. For example, when the HDTV is implemented, all the faults associated with the system would require an entirely different level of technical knowledge to fix. For this all technicians who are currently supporting the provision of normal TV would either need to be re-trained or will be made redundant. In the event that they are retrain able, it will cost the company time and money and since the technology is very new a scheduled training update would need to be carried out as new information about faults come into consideration or when extra features are being added. Alternatively, if the employees cannot cope with the new technology they would need to be made redundant and this could add on to various social implications on the society in general, leading to job losses.
Additionally, there have been studies done to prove that initially the cost of changing over from the analogue technology to the HDTV technology would be high. This could mean that mostly the major broadcasting companies would gain the edge over community broadcasters who mostly rely on low budget production for the community, to not being able to access more viewers.
As with all technology, the general community needs to be reasonably confident in its usage and application. Generally, it can be inferred that new technology will cause some confusion as to the settings and since there are additional devices that need to be attached to the TV monitor, their usage and settings may be of some consideration. A fully self contained and self explanatory user manual would need to be introduced until people can generally feel confident in it’s operation. This period could mean that there would be a delay in customers fully appreciating the technology. The added confusion, which may be considerable, could be due to all the different brands available for this service. Each has to provide the use with a detailed list of compatible equipment that would provide the function for which HDTV was designed.
Space is another consideration when planning HDTV for the home. According to calculations the screen height would be at least twice the height of the current home TV. And since HDTV is wide screen, the width of the TV would be at least twice as it is high. Such purchase would involve blocking a passage and creating a new door, then constructing a corner cabinet solid enough to take the weight. Five loudspeakers would be bolted to walls on the sides and behind, above head height. Should the viewer choose not to purchase such a monitor it would be a waste of investment worth approximately in the range of $6,000 -$10,000.
Stewart Fist, Australia's Digital Television Decision (1998),Australia
Gary Brown (2002 Dec), How HDTV Works, .
Tony Crecenti (2002 Semester 1), Lecture notes (Communication principles HET314), Swinburne University of Technology)
Technical Description
“One cycle of an analogue video frequency can provide information to one to two pixels. A conventional NTSC (National Television Standards Committee) image has 525 lines scanned at 29.97 Hz with a horizontal resolution of 427 pixels. Which gives 3.35 MHz at 2 pixels per video cycle as a minimum bandwidth to carry the video information without compression”. Gary Brown (2002 Dec), How HDTV Works,
If one decides to move to an HDTV image that is 1050 lines by 600 pixels (keeping the same frame rate), then this means a bandwidth of 18 MHz. However there is a clash with the current technology since the channel allocation used presently are band limited to 6 MHz.
There are three technical solutions available for current broadcasting:
Compress the signal so that it will fit inside the 6 MHz existing bandwidths. This requires additional equipment and additional tests will need to be conducted to re-verify the margin of error when broadcasting the information.
“Digital TV relies on a compression and encoding scheme known as to fit its stunning images into a reasonable amount of bandwidth. In each image, the MPEG-2 software records just enough of the picture without making it look like something is missing. In subsequent frames, the software only records changes to the image and leaves the rest of the image as-is from the previous frame. MPEG-2 reduces the amount of data by about 55 to 1”. Gary Brown (2002 Dec), How HDTV Works,
2) Change the channel allocation system from 6 MHz to 20 MHz. This will require a change in legislation and a complete re planning of the frequency allocation by the Frequency Management Committee. Political and corporate will does need to be involved for formulation or change of the applicable laws governing the frequency allocations.
3) Allocate multiple channels for example two with compression and three without for the HDTV signal. This would be the most desirable since it requires very little change in the way of legislation and frequency reallocation. However additional systems will need to be set up to cope with the increase in broadcast channels.
Political impacts:
Some political considerations that is presently being given to this subject has had resulted in the following bills and laws being formulated to regulate the HDTV technology and it’s implementation.
Broadcasting Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 1) 2002
“This bill was introduced into the Senate on 25 September 2002 by the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer. [Portfolio responsibility: Communications, Information Technology and the Arts] The bill proposes to amend the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 to delay the introduction of high definition television (HDTV) requirements on commercial television broadcasting licensees and national broadcasters in mainland State capitals for six months until 1 July 2003. The proposed amendments do not change the commencement of the HDTV obligations in areas outside mainland State capitals, because the simulcast periods in these areas have not yet commenced”
Senate Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills, 16 Oct 2002: Australia
The above will to delay the introduction of HDTV on commercial broadcasting licenses are quiet possibly due to social impact where the government wants to give non-commercial broadcasters time to adapt to the technology while not competing against the highly successful commercial broadcasters.
“HDTV REVIEW 2004
Now there is a proposed review of HDTV in 2004, which allows for the repeal of the requirement for free-to-air broadcasters to provide HDTV beyond 2004. This creates the possibility that the free-to-air broadcasters will be able to out of HDTV, just 3 years after the launch of the service. ASTRA, in its 1997 report to the Government on digital terrestrial broadcasting, warned that HDTV was a cloak being used by the free-to-air broadcasters to capture spectrum and protect themselves from competition, rather than a viable product for consumers.
Both the Government and the free-to-air broadcasters are now indicating that HDTV may not be the primary driver of digital TV take-up as they had originally believed. This puts Australian consumers in the position of having no certainty that HDTV will continue beyond 2004, while being encouraged by the Government's pro-HDTV policy, and the free-to-air networks' impending broadcast and promotion of HDTV, to invest in new HDTV receiving equipment.
This situation will create consumer uncertainty about the future of HDTV and undermine consumer confidence in digital TV as a whole”. Foxtel Submission: Australia, Accessed January 2003 and February 2003.
On the other hand, as can be deducted by the review from FOXTEL, since they have not been presented with an opportunity to make a profit and introduce HDTV simultaneously, the company has sounded it’s intension to slow down the face of HDTV roll out or at least it will try. It’s inherent that any change of heart by major networks such as FOXTEL, who have had to comply with increased services their by merging with OPTUS vision, would have an associated cost passed on to the customers or to other areas. This is the dilemma between political sense and economic sense.
Conclusion
Conclusively, the introduction of HDTV is a reality and at the time of writing it is planned to commence its first trial multi channelling for ABC and SBS stations. Considering all the pros and cons of this issue it is evident that like any technology it will take some time and cost to get adjusted to but with the future demanding intense information consumption it will prove to be a necessary part of the future lifestyle.
References,
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Gary Brown (2002 Dec), How HDTV Works,
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Harpreet Singh, HDTV Wolverhampton University, UK,
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Harpreet Singh, HDTV Wolverhampton University, UK,
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Gary Brown (2002 Dec), How HDTV Works, :
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Robert Mark Simons (1998-2001), Digital Television Australia: High Definition,
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Andrew Bolstad, John Kenkel , Matt Knott, Steve Woerdehoff
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Gareth Grainger, Digital Television in Australia – Digital Technology
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Opinion Research Corporation International, (May31-June14 2000), HDTV Summary of Results, Princeton,
- ABC news radio (December), Parliament talks
- Tony Crecenti (2002 Semester 1), Lecture notes (Communication principles HET314), Swinburne University of Technology)
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Senate Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills, 16 Oct 2002: Australia
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Stewart Fist, Australia's Digital Television Decision (1998),Australia
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Geoff Smith (June 2000), Technology Issues Report, NSW Australia,
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Foxtel Submission: Australia,
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Professor Kelin J. Kuhn, HDTV Television - An Introduction, University Of Washington,
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Digital Television Committee,