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Digital Television (DTV)
- Question: Where can I find the Commissions rules regarding
DTV?
- Answer: The Commission has created a special
page regarding DTV and has compiled all of the items that are in
the DTV docket (MM Docket No. 87-268) on one page.
- Question: What new television standard did the Commission adopt?
- Answer: In the Fourth
Report and Order in our digital television ("DTV") proceeding,
we adopted a standard for the transmission of digital television. This
standard is a modification of the ATSC DTV Standard proposed in the
Fifth
Further Notice of Proposed Rule Making and is consistent with a
consensus agreement voluntarily developed by a broad cross-section of
parties, including the broadcasting, consumer equipment manufacturing
and computer industries. As explained below, the Standard we adopted
does not include requirements with respect to scanning formats, aspect
ratios, and lines of resolution. For clarity, we will refer to this
modified standard as the "DTV Standard."
- Question: What information is contained in the ATSC
Document A/53 "ATSC Digital Television Standard?" Where
can I find it and other
ATSC technical documents?
- Answer: The Digital Television Standard describes the system
characteristics of the U. S. advanced television (ATV) system. The document
and its normative annexes provide detailed specification of the parameters
of the system including the video encoder input scanning formats and
the pre-processing and compression parameters of the video encoder,
the audio encoder input signal format and the pre-processing and compression
parameters of the audio encoder, the service multiplex and transport
layer characteristics and normative specifications, and the VSB RF/Transmission
subsystem..
- Question: Where can I find additional information about DTV
On-line?
- Answer: ATSC has their own
site on the World Wide Web which contains the lasest information on
DTV developments?
- Question: Who is ATSC?
- Answer: ATSC was formed
by the Joint Committee on Inter-Society Coordination (JCIC) to establish
voluntary technical standards for advanced television systems, including
digital high definition television (HDTV).
- Question: Where can I find the Final Technical Report from
the Advisory Committee on Advanced Television Service?
- Answer: ATSC has the report
on-line at http://www.atsc.org/papers/a_cats/acats.html.
- Question: At what rate (Mbps) is HDTV delivered and how much
bandwidth would a single TV channel require for any one of the 18 formats
of HDTV?
- Answer: 19.3 Mbps which can be transmitted in a 6 MHz channel
in any HDTV format.
- Question: If current technologies of cable (broadband cable)
are not sufficient for HDTV transmission, what other transmission protocols
are currently available?
- Answer: FCC licensed DTV (HDTV) transmissions can be passed
through any US cable system if the system has a 6 MHz channel available.
- Question: Is the FCC going require that HDTV be available over
cable by year 2003?
- Answer: The required carriage of DTV stations on cable systems
is currently under consideration by the Commission in CS Docket 98-120
adopted July 9, 1998. (See Cable
Television Fact Sheet - Cable Carriage of Broadcast Stations)
- Question: How compatible are today's vcr's, dvd players, and
betacam players with HDTV sets?
- Answer: Initially and for the near future, all DTV's will be
capable of displaying analog NTSC signals.
- Question: What will be used to record HD programming at the
consumer level (HDCam?).
- Answer: At this time, no manufacturer has announced a consumer
recorder for HDTV. But it is not technically difficult and will probably
be built on a Super VHF platform. Same is true for a consumer camera.
However, this might take a little longer to get the price down to the
consumer's pocket book level.
- Question: What will be used for HD i/o (firewire?)?
- Answer: Probably, but this must wait for industry agreement
between Cable TV providers and consumer electronics manufacturers.
- Question: What are the channel assignments for digital television?
- Answer: Under the FCC spectrum plan, we have provided most
existing broadcasters with access to a 6 MHz channel for digital broadcasting
within a core digital TV spectrum, i.e., TV channels 2 to 51. Because
of the limited availability of spectrum and the need to accommodate
all existing facilities with minimal interference among stations, however,
during the transition some broadcasters would be provided DTV channels
outside of this core spectrum (channels 52 to 69). These broadcasters
would have to move their DTV operations to a channel in the core spectrum
when one became available. Broadcasters whose existing NTSC channels
were in the core spectrum could move their DTV operations to their NTSC
channel at some time in the future. Broadcasters whose DTV transition
channel and existing NTSC channel were both outside of the core area
could obtain a new DTV channel when channels in the core spectrum are
recovered.
After the transition period (2006), the VHF channels (2-13) will
remain available for DTV and the analog TV service will end on all
channels.
- Question: How many times better is the resolution of DTV compared
to analog TV?
- Answer: It is felt that most analog television broadcast stations
transmit a picture that contains 480 vertical interlaced lines with
approximately 340 horizontal pixels per line. Compare this with DTV
which is capable of sending pictures which are 1080 vertical interlaced
lines with 1920 horizontal pixels per line.
- Question: How many programs can a TV station send in one channel
simultaneously?
- Answer: The answer to this question is relative to the level
of picture resolution desired in each channel. You can get more programs
per channel if you except a lower quality (e.g VHS tape quality), than
you could if you expect a higher quality program (e.g over-the-air broadcast)
where it expected to be 4 programs per channel. However, you may see
broadcasters use the entire channel for one very high quality program
(e.g High Definition Television (HDTV))
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