🚀 go-pugleaf

I'm encouraged to see Marvin Sirbu's note and what might be the beginning of a 
discussion here.  I'll follow this posting with my HDTV/ATV Glossary.  

> ... Within the next year, ...

It's been pushed back.  Testing won't begin until September 1990.  Faroudja's 
SuperNTSC is up first.  The complete suite of tests will take about a year, 'til
about Sept. 1991, then the process of deciding commences. 

> ... half a dozen proposed systems will undergo extensive comparative testing

The ATSC has a dual role.  

The ATSC advises the FCC on standards for _domestic_ Advanced Television 
transmission, *ATV*.  Consumer entertainment.  

The ATSC advises the US CCIR National Comittee on standards for *HDTV* studio 
production and _international_ program exchange.  It's HDTV production equipment
that's applicable to the computer industry.  This has little or nothing to do 
with entertainment.  

The CCIR delegation is addressing only HDTV production and exchange.  The 
testing of domestic terrestrial transmission systems is irrelevant to 
international exchange.  

> ... the ATSC position has been dominated by the television networks ...

The ATSC has been dominated by broadcasters.  Remarkably the interests of the 
computer industry are beginning to be acknowledged by them.  Also, there is an 
increasing awareness among broadcasters that they can make use of computer 
technology, so much so that the ATSC agreed six months ago to officially endorse 
square pixels!  However the representative from the Media Lab encouraged the 
State Department to nix that position at the last CCIR meeting:  despite ATSC's 
endorsement, the U.S. offered no position on that issue.  

Now the ATSC is in a position to promote a two megapixel HDTV production 
standard internationally.  Frame rate and interlace are not on the agenda:  the 
sole issue is picture format.  The three choices on the table are:  

(a)    1920x1080 [2 Mpx], 
(b)    2048x1152 [2 1/4 Mpx] or 
(c)    do nothing for four more years.  

> ... They don't care very much how a standard affects the US computer ...

HDTV equipment will not be embraced by the computer community until it is 
standardized.  The BROADCASTERS on the ATSC reached agreement on 1920x1080 -- 
two megapixels -- and square ones at that!  What's ironic is that the US CCIR 
delegation perceives that the COMPUTER INDUSTRY is against this proposal!  Wild.


> ... It makes perfect sense for the US to delay ...

Although the interests of some U.S. organizations are best served by delaying 
the adoption of the technology, the computer industry needs to exploit it.  We 
can contribute to acceptance of a standard that will give U.S. computer 
manufacturers access to the display technology of the [near] future, or we can 
sit around for four more years and watch certain other nations continue to work 
feverishly to build computers with great big high-quality displays.  These 
nations progressed from building the majority of our television sets to 
providing virtually ALL computer displays.  They progressed from providing the 
vast majority of DRAMs to supplying a huge fraction of our PC-class computers.  

Now they want to computers.  BIG computers.  Workstations.  Mainframes.   

The meaning of HDTV in the United States is not the "rejeuvenation of the 
domestic consumer electronics manufacturing industry."  It's the continued 
health of the COMPUTER industry.  Let's not botch this one.  

Sayonara [sp?],

C.