FCC Proposes 'Next Generation TV' Standard

[mahatmakanejeeves]

FCC 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 Washington’s broadcast lobby as they have watched broadband providers cast themselves as the medium of the future. ... The FCC’s 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]

1. Oh, for pete's sake.

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]

2. which is why I never spend a lot of money on tvs

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]

3. I have a 37" 1080p TV.

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]

4. The sets are not obsolete, but merely require a converter.

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]

5. That's true. I have a couple of those converters.

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]

6. Actually the old TVs are running just fine.

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

History

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]

7. From the DCRTV mailbag:

http://dcrtv.com/mailbag.html

February 13:

More about the spectrum auction: The point being missed in the discussion is that these so-called “downgrades” of stations moving to weaker signals for cash will be short lived. Sure some stations may take the money and run, mostly marginally successful or already failing TV stations, but most others will use the spectrum auction money to upgrade to ATSC 3.0 or Next Generation TV and just rent or be allocated space on another channel. With Next Generation TV, stations like WHUT will just use space on WRC, WJLA, or WUSA. All the PSIP testing to do this is now being done. Your TV for example won’t know you’re getting WHUT on channel 7 along with Channel 7. It will still scan as WHUT 32. There will be as many as 5 HD stations per channel and as many as 20 SD 480i signals. Some stations will be 4K video at high frame rates, for say, sports. Others will be lower frame rates and standard 1080i or 720p. A place like Hagerstown or Altoona PA might have just one TV tower and transmitter for PBS & local or network programming all on one channel with multiple competing stations. Most certainly the TV table allotment will be a mess until this all shakes out. Sinclair might be frugal on talent, but they are spending quite a bit of money testing all this on channel 43. The reason for the FCC quiet period is to prevent collusion between companies ahead of time and make the process fair to both small and large TV companies. The current kink in the operation is that the mobile companies do not seem to be biting as hard as expected. The corrupt near monopolies that companies like Comcast have is going to make them obstructionist through lobbying. This is why allowing Comcast to buy NBC was a mistake. NBC might also not be a willing participant. WRC TV could say to WHUT, “No, we’re not interested in you using our frequency space.” We shall see. As always, the devil is in the details. — BaltoMedia.net (2/13/17)

February 9:

RE: American Sports Network. Sinclair has huge plans for ATSC 3.0 which is launching this year in South Korea and tested in the Baltimore/DC area on Channel 43. I think the station is called W19XXT. Sinclair was once in a major fight with the FCC over 8VSB and ATSC 1.0. They proposed the system used in Europe which is much better. As most people found out ATSC 1.0 was a complete failure for indoor reception way out in the burbs. But ATSC 3.0 uses a part of what Sinclair first proposed. The only reason the US ended up stuck with ATSC 1.0 was because Zenith, then the only US manufacturer of TVs was behind it. Well now, there is no US TV manufacturing business so the FCC is taking a wiser route on ATSC 3.0. Now to get to my longwinded point. Sinclair knows that it will be able to have many more subchannels under ATSC 3.0. They’ve already done tests from TV Hill to Hunt Valley. I have read that the theoretical limit could be as much as 100 channels, low def of course, in 6 MHz. In HD, there would still be at least 3-6, and possible 2-3 in 4K UHD. So this notion that WHUT wants to go out of business isn’t entirely true. They just want money for their 6 MHz. With ATSC 3.0, they could continue on somebody’s else’s at lower cost. Channel 43 is one of only 2 such ATSC 3.0 full power TV stations on the air currently, the other being WRAL in Raleigh/Durham. So WJLA ABC 7 will probably have American Sports Network next year or 2019. No currently available TV can receive Channel 43, well unless Sinclair does an ATSC 1.0 compatibility test of some box, which is possible. They’re talking at tuners that can get both and they will both coexist, so this will not be a complete turnoff/switch like The Big Switch. Here’s some more info: www.tvtechnology.com... — BaltoMedia.Net (2/9/17)