700MHz Spectrum and The Digital Transition

I’ve written a few posts about the conversion to digital television in 2009. Analog will shut off and digital broadcasting will inherit the Earth…well America at least with other countries soon following. So what is going to happen to the space analog TV occupies now and…wait, why is this happening again?

As we might recall, Bill Clinton proposed a balanced budget during his administration. The deficit was wiped out and life was to continue better than ever. This was more of a projected budget and a premature assumption at that. This was the big kicker for the transition to digital broadcasting, although it has been delayed a handful of times. While it does offer better picture quality and more channels, it stands to make the government billions and BILLIONS of dollars…hundreds of billions even. Now we’re back in a deficit with the projected income already included.

The airwaves will be returned to the public, and by public I mean you buy stock in companies such as Google or Verizon who will then purchase a very tiny sliver of the spectrum for their own purposes or you can do it if you happen to have a few billion dollars floating around in your couch cushions: starting bid $4.6 billion.

There is no telling what will actually come out of the spectrum after it’s purchased by these companies but it would be ridiculous to expect anything in the first few years. Companies and people are going to research its uses, develop their own product and then offer you a new service or just horde it for themselves. Rumor has it wireless carriers will get first crack at it and then others after that. Some will remain in the hands of the government for the public safety network. Expect to see an improved Amber Alert System.

The truth is, you as a consumer aren’t going to see much right away, and when you do see something, you probably won’t realize or even remember where it’s coming from. But the devices and products should be pretty amazing especially if people companies like Google have anything to say about it.

Enable Discreet Audio Through HDMI in Playstation 3

This is a retraction to a story I wrote yesterday about the PlayStation 3 not supporting discreet 5.1 surround sound through HDMI. I have since deleted the story. After browsing more articles on the issue, I finally found one comment where someone offered a solution to the problem and if you’re having the same issue, here is the solution. Within the Playstation3, there are two audio settings: One is “audio settings” under settings which, in order to use HDMI, you must select “HDMI” as your output and then “auto” on the next screen. Then save your options. Once that is done, you want to go to BR/DVD Setting and find the audio options for this heading. You want to make sure the audio for HDMI is set to “Bitstream” and not “Linear.” Save your settings and you will be good to go.

Sorry again about the previous story and accusing Sony of the issue.

Digital Transition (Part 2): 480, 720, 1080…P…I

If you have haven’t visited Part 1, I highly urge you to do so. You’re ready to junk your entire television setup because you can only get digital television through a high definition set, new antennas, or a new satellite system? WAIT!!!! First ask yourself, what you have now and what you want. As I said before, there are common ways to get television aside from the Internet: satellite, cable, and over the air. I’m mostly concerned with over-the-air people since the satellite or cable provider will take care of you except for a new HDTV if you want to go that route.

Let’s first talk about those crazy numbers in the subject. You will often hear about and see two two-letter characters SD and HD, Standard Definition and High Definition respectively. The United States and a number of other countries use the NTSC (National Television System Committee) standard of 480 lines of resolution. It’s actually supposed to be 525 lines but some lines are hacked off to include data such as time base correctors (V-Hold), color-burst and closed captioning. Thank god our eyes can’t discern that many separate lines or else we’d notice. So this is where the 480 comes from…standard definition. Your typical, everyday TV has a resolution of 720 lines vertical and 480 lines horizontal. We’re only concerned with horizontal resolution.

When you start using the numbers 720 and 1080, you’re talking about high definition, typically in a 16×9 or widescreen instead of 4×3. Don’t like the black bars on the movie you’re watching on your TV; that’s because it was shot in widescreen and whether you believe it or not, you’re seeing more of the image. 720 isn’t a lot more than 480 but 1080 is, so why is 720 considered high definition, well that’s where the I and P come into play.

When shopping for a new high definition television, you may see 720p or 1080i/p. I stands for Interlaced whereas P stands for Progressive scan. What happens in interlaced is your television draws every other line in a frame and then draws in the others once that half frame is complete for 30 frames a second. So in a 480i set (standard definition), 240 lines will draw followed by the other 240. In progressive scan all the lines are drawn one directly after another so in the time it takes for interlaced to make one frame, progressive can do two frames. That’s how 720p is high definition; 720 lines at 60 frames per second instead of 30.

1080 is such a high resolution it doesn’t need to be progressive to be considered “high definition” even though some people will say 720p looks better than 1080i. This is highly subjective. The Holy Grail for high definition in home is 1080p, 1080 lines of resolution at 60 frames per second. Many TV’s today don’t even accept a 1080p input or will fake it internally. There is no broadcast 1080p content available. Film is actually 4000+ lines or resolution or what we refer to as 4K, but don’t expect to see that at home anytime soon.

So you’re the man or woman on the mountain that only received television over the air through a roof-top antennae or rabbit ears and you want to keep getting your television. I have some bad news and some good news. You will need new hardware, but the good news is you will only need one new piece of it. Antennas that have been around for decades are already receiving a digital signal…it’s true! The problem is televisions more than a few years old lack the digital tuner to decode these channels so you can take one of two routes.

Presently, all new televisions sold MUST come with a digital tuner built into them, even the small tubed TVs. So you can replace your older model with a newer one, and the prices are coming way down very fast one these. These second method is to add a new piece of hardware to your existing setup. It’s called a digital to analog converter. What it does, when you plug your antennae into it and then hook the converter to your TV is take the digital signal and convert it into an analog one your television can understand. The best part about this is Congress has approved a program where a household can receive two $40 vouchers to cover the cost of this box and most aren’t any more than $80. Once you have that hooked up you’re set to go with more free broadcast channels than you had before at a minimal cost.

Now if you want to receive high definition over the air, you will need a high definition television than can display 720 or 1080 lines of resolution, which will cost a bit more than an SD TV but will display GORGEOUS pictures. It’s up to you, but in order to just make the digital leap, the worst and cost is extremely minimal. It’s entirely up to you to go as small or as big as you would like to go.

EA Going Communist…Where’s McCarthy When You Need Him?

The BBC reported today a senior executive from Electronic Arts, Gerhard Florin, said game systems should “make way for a single open platform.” I suppose this is Europe where Socialism is the new black. Even game analysts, according to the article, are not only suggesting but predicting this route. If the game companies were to unite under a single console or set-top box, I bet you could guess who would like to snatch them up. I’ll make you hold your breath a little longer. With a plan like this, the gaming industry would be in a world of hurt.

Let’s talk about basic economics. Competition is good. Competition breeds creativity. Imagine how shitty a world we’d live in with a single computer operating system. Linux users wouldn’t be welcoming the newest release of Ubuntu Gutsy Ribbon. We also wouldn’t be so entertained by Apple and Microsoft trying to outdo each other all the time. We get better products because Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo compete. Remember the days of Sega versus Nintendo?

One console would also create so many barriers to entry for new software companies through a lack of audience and hardware diversification. This would especially become difficult because EA would snatch up the single system as soon as it was released. EA would only need to buy out one company instead of three for exclusive licensing deals on the one console. It would be far too expensive for them to take over three. EA creates great games, but the last thing we need is them snatching up their own competition.

It is suggested the game industry is facing a lot of competition from PC’s and even, yes, Apple. What? Granted both can and do make great gaming platforms but they are not dedicated gaming systems no matter how much you tweak them out. Games will still crash more often than a dedicated console. They also become outdated a lot quicker. Game systems are becoming media centers for living rooms. You want to make the gaming industry better, stop making them game systems into media centers. I don’t need another DVD player in my living room; I have 5 or 6 between my computers, game systems, HD-DVD player and upconverting DVD player.

Give us a break EA. Shut your trap and just keep on making games.

Digital Transition (Part 1)

Today Best Buy announced it will no longer going to sell analog televisions. This could have some interesting implications for users of television, good and bad. The main good thing to come out of this is the, “Wait, analog TV is going away?” reaction. Since this is a Best Buy announcement, that is probably the only good thing to come out of it, but it’s a very important reaction. A majority of people do not know the over the air analog signal will be shut down on February 17th, 2009. This is 8 years after the original mandate but who’s counting, right? At that moment, anyone receiving their television over the air will lose their signal. Let me give you a little history.

When the Clinton administration announced their plan to balance the budget in the 90’s, it included the sell-off of the analog TV spectrum. For some reason, the government (mainly the FCC) thinks it owns the broadcast spectrum renting out licenses to stations instead of allowing them to own them creating another monopoly just like the United States Postal Service. The sell-off will generate billions and I’m talking BILLIONS of dollars of revenue for the US government. So at the base of all this is, you guessed it, to make money.

However, the plan to make this conversion was never fully hashed out leaving it mostly up to the stations to comply by a certain date but no instructions on how to do so. 1999 became 2003 and 2003 became 2009. A number of “stays of execution” have been proposed but this is going to be it. So what happens February 17th?

What happens is pretty much the proverbial flip of a switch. Stations will shut off their analogue transmitter and will turn on their digital transmitter. Fortunately, a lot of TV stations are already running a digital signal to compliment their analog. So don’t feel like you have to sit around and wait until the last minute. Star immersing yourself now.While some people complain this is happening without their consent and they don’t want digital television, there are a LOT of benefits.

Television can be received three ways: cable, satellite, and over the air. Even though it’s not a majority, people still receive free broadcast TV over their air through an antennae of some sort. Most likely receiving the standard NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, and PBS stations if they’re really lucky and only one of each from each nearby station. What digital allows TV stations to do is multi-cast, send out multiple channels all at once including high definition stations which I will touch on at another time. For example, currently the station I work for broadcasts 8 standard definition channels and 2 high definition channels between two transmitters. A year ago we only had one channel between two transmitters. This means a lot more choices for everyone including the over the air viewers. Digital television also has a much clearer picture than analog even though some people won’t notice it until they are seen side by side. Digital signals can also contain a 5.1 surround channel that many home surround sound systems are set up for.

So what do you need to do in order to prepare yourself for the digital switch? Probably a LOT less than you think. Stay tuned for my next piece in the digital transition as I tell you what you need to do.