Digital TV National Consumer Advisory Board Report -
Part 1
Editor: Remember all the buzz about digital television (DTV) awhile
ago? Then the whole thing seemed to just go away. It turns out that it
didn't really go away, it just didn't have the visibility it initially
had. Here's Cheryl Heppner's report on a meeting of the Digital TV
National Consumer Advisory Board Presentation. It provides a great
summary of DTV status and issues.
Read on for more information on this vital issue. And thanks to NVRC
and Cheryl Heppner for this report.
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Presentation by Gerry Fields, National Center for Accessible Media
A Little History
- The change from analog TV to digital TV started in 1998.
- All TV broadcast licenses were assigned a second frequency by the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
- When the transition to all-digital TV is complete, the analog channel
spectrum will be returned to the FCC for auction.
- The "theoretical" end date by which digital TV is to be
phased in is December 2006.
- The federal government will take over the old spectrum in December
2006.
- At this time, any analog TVs in your home will no longer work for
receiving broadcasts.
The Current Status
- As of February 2004, 80% of TV stations on the air with DTV.
- Of these, 55% were at low power, not full power. (Low power should not
affect the captions)
- 50% of analog programs must be broadcast simultaneously on a digital
TV channel.
- After a slow start, there's recently been a more reapid progress to
digital TV.
What's Good About DTV (Digital Television)?
- New digital TV channels have much more efficient use of the spectrum.
- They use the same amount of bandwidth but with digital, they can offer
many more features and make new services available.
- TV shows can even develop their own style sheet for captions and
graphics so that you would be able to identify them instantly when
channel surfing.
- New captioning features will allow us to select the font that is
easiest for us to read, its color and background color (or no
background), and the size of the font.
Confused About DTV?
- Many people are confused about what "digital TV" means
because the word is used broadly.
- Not all digital video is via DTV broadcasting, using modulation
technology.
- Not all DTV broadcasts are high definition.
What Core Issues Must be Addressed?
- We need to make sure there is a "migration path" so that our
digital TVs will have the same captioning that we have on analog TV.
Most of the work has started with explaining this to the local TV
stations, who must use equipment and/or software to translate captions
from analog to digital.
- We need to make sure that all of the different parts of the system
work -- local TV station broadcasts, national TV broadcasts, cable
broadcasts, satellite broadcasts, the delivery to your home, DTVs, and
equipment that you will use with them -- TiVo, DVD player, etc.
What Are Major Roles of NCAM's DTV Access Project?
- Development of closed captioning and video description for digital TV.
- Working with development of standards for captioning and video
description, and their implementation (for those familiar with the
bodies -- ATSC, CEA, SMPTE, SCTE, W3C).
- Supporting PBS member stations' transition to digital captioning and
video description.
- Supporting the industry at large in transition to digital captioning
and video description.
What Are Some Examples of NCAM's Activities?
- Presentations, demonstratios and papers at industry events.
- Digital TV summits.
- Participation in the annual Consumer Electronics Show.
- Consultations, research and development.
- Developing resources such as the DTV Access Toolkit and offering a DTV
Access Lab.
What Are the DTV Regulations and Timelines?
- DTV rules took effect in July 1, 2002.
- DTV receivers are covered under 47CFR 15.122.
- DTV programming is covered under 47CFR 79.1
- The programming section assumes the existing requirements for closed
captioning that were created for analog TV.
- Any program made or formatted after July 1, 2002 must be captioned for
DTV.
- Prior to July 1, 2002, little captioning was available on DTV.
Are the Rules Being Followed?
- An informal DTV captioning survey conducted last summer in the Boston
area found:
9 stations were on the air with DTV
1/3 of them had no captioning
1/3 of them had only analog captioning
1/3 of them had both analog and digital captioning
- A second survey conducted of stations across the US, selected at
random, found:
35% had no captioning
45% had only analog captioning
20% had both analog and digital captioning
What Are Some Issues Identified?
- Broadcasts are being picked up by cable providers, but it is not know
if their cable boxes accepting and carrying through the digital captions
with their advanced features.
- There is some confusion by the industry due to old language in FCC
regulations related to high definition TV.
- Broadcasters have questioned whether they have to provide captions for
digital TV because DTV doesn't currently earn any revenue so they feel
they should qualify for waivers.
- There is a need for better labeling to provide important consumer
information, and for definitions of what terms like "advanced
TV" mean.
- It is not known whether DVD players and other equipment will pass the
DTV captions on to the TV or monitor.
- We need to address the question of what should be done about TV
received through broadband signals.
- Small, portable wireless devices have screens that could receive TV
and many digital radio services now have picture displays but what
regulation can be used to require captioning?
Here's part 2.
