Panel on High Definition TV Issues

Panel on High Definition TV Issues - Part Nine

Moderated by Larry Goldberg
Reported by Cheryl Heppner

Editor: At the TDI National Conference in August of 2007 Larry Goldberg moderated a great panel on issues involving High Definition Television (HDTV). Here with her comprehensive report on that panel is NVRC's Cheryl Heppner. You are welcome to share this information, but please be sure to credit NVRC. See the acknowledgement at the end of this article.

This is part nine of nine parts

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Audience Questions and Comments (continued)

Audience: I have two HDTVs, and I enjoy them very much. I use over the air signal. The captioning is fantastic. There are some ongoing issues that have not been resolved. One is that there is a delay for the captioning to appear. I can't watch the show when the captioning shows up four seconds later. That that's been an ongoing issue. Why is that happening? What is the plan for fixing that?

Larry Goldberg: We have heard in a number of cases that there has been this delay. I think what you'd have to do is specify which station you're watching and where, and whether it's over the air or cable and address that particularly with a local station. You're talking about a broadcast station, right, or are you talking about all channels?

Audience: Yes, I'm talking about a broadcast station. Some shows are fine with the captioning and some have the delay. I'll be watching the same channel with the HD program, there tends to be no captioning issue. But then if you look at other programs within digital, sometimes there is a delay and it depends on what show appears. There is no continuity. I can't really figure out why that's happening, and it's a long-term issue. I'm surprised that it hasn't been addressed.

Billy Mauldin: You know, I'm having the same issue. In my article it is briefly mentioned, and we can talk about it later. In the 608, the transmission or the signal, there is a converter box called the flexicoder. The 608 comes in one side and then it's converted to a digital 708 coming out the other side. Now, each TV station, depending on the television station, will have a flexicoder and may not be up to speed on the firmware. So you need to contact the television station and have them take a look at their software upgrades, in terms of firmware, so that it can be addressed. If you address the station, that's how that can be dealt with now.

When commercials appear or when I'm recording on DVR, for example, at the beginning there is no captioning and later the captioning appears. The reason is that it's a timed program. So there is a lot of software that makes those things operate. You need to get back to the station, the hardware and software both could be involved in these type issues.

Larry Goldberg: This shows the complexity of tracing down the solutions to the questions and why often you need both the broadcaster and the cable, if you're getting it by cable, or even the network, to grapple with the problems.

Jan Withers: I am the director of the North Caroliina Division of Services for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. I want to just say that those deaf and hard of hearing people on the panel here are brilliant, well educated experts at this very complicated technical information and have the ability to get through these issues. But I must say that there are many people that I serve, such as a factory worker, or the senior citizen who recently lost her hearing. They barely have entry level computer experience. Whenever you ask deaf and hard of hearing people to be your beta testers, or sample for research gathering, remember that most of the people in the US will be like these consumers.

Also, I ask you to please remember that there is some research cited, a general population sample, and it said that it's better not to buy electronic equipment, like microwaves, televisions, washing machines, because people might not understand the instructions. I just want to ask you to please remember those types of consumers as you go forward.

In terms of the digital TV conversion and educating people about the conversion that is going to take place into the digital medium, I would ask you to contact the National Association of the Deaf, HLAA and ask them to contact the state chapters and also have them contact then the state division, commissions for the deaf and hard of hearing in this country. We do have the ability to help you get this word out. And it's critical to get this word out and we can support that effort to make sure that the televisions are converted in the proper manner.

Audience: I wanted to tell people that half of the COAT plenary session is devoted to captioning. I've been told that this digital TV conversion is going to be Katrina II. People that have gotten used to captions are going to lose them; it's not going to be pretty if things are not in order at the time that the conversion takes place.

Also, I've been in communication with the FCC about the new network exemption. They are taking it under advisement. The concern is that where television networks are converting to DTV, as long as they are showing substantially the same content of programming and just converting it, they shouldn't be called a new network. And that's really the issue here. And I think that the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau is very concerned about this and is looking at this carefully. They also have before them a formal request from their own consumer advisory committee from last session, to resolve this issue. So it's not a done deal that all of these networks are going to be new. I just wanted to clarify that.