The Transition to Digital Television

By Dave Kaplowitz

This column is all about the effects of technology on media: how media is created, delivered, and consumed. Ever since the first caveman figured out that crushed berries could be used to make cave paintings and the second caveman invented eight track tapes, media has been affected by advances in technology. But now that we are in the transition to an all-digital world, you need an engineering degree to understand it, or at least a high school student to explain it to you. In this column, High Tech Media President, Producer, and Über-geek Dave Kaplowitz will explain one aspect of the impact of technology on media. This month Dave explains next year’s transition to Digital TV here in the good old US of A.

Back in ancient times, otherwise known as the 1930’s and 40’s, there was black and white TV. A few years later, some clever engineers figured out that you could, with only a few changes, have color TV. The really cool thing about the scheme they chose (called NTSC) is that the broadcasters could send a color signal that could be displayed by both color and black and white TVs. There were a bunch of not-so-cool trade-offs that were made, but that is a topic for a future column. Regretfully, the transition to digital TV is not so cozy. The venerable NTSC TV signal that has been with us since it first was broadcast in the 50’s is now about to become a ghost of analog days past. Unless you have been living under a rock, you probably have heard that TV will be going digital next year, on February 17, 2009 to be exact. But what does that mean exactly and how will it affect us?

Briefly, digital TV means that the signal is sent as a stream of 1’s and 0’s, very similar to the way a DVD stores a movie. And just like you can’t play a DVD on your old VCR, you can’t receive digital TV on your old NTSC television. But have no fear; you don’t have to throw out that trusty 10” set with the rabbit ears. But you may want to. Read on.

For most of us this will be a non-event. Remember, this is all about broadcast TV, meaning TV that travels over the airwaves. Around 86% of US households have either cable (about 60%), satellite (about 23%), or a small number that have TV from a phone company (telco) such as AT&T or Verizon (less than 2% combined). So this coming change affects the remaining 14% of the households that get TV over the airwaves exclusively. But a recent study reports that 20% of the homes that have cable, satellite, or telco TV also have at least one TV in a bedroom or den that gets a signal exclusively from the airwaves. So all told, this means that 34% or roughly a third of US households will be affected by the digital TV transition next year. The study goes on to say that more than 10% of US households, or 30% of those affected, are completely unprepared right now. So go out and buy that converter box if you need one! Unlike the situation when broadcasters switched to color and your black and white TV would still receive Uncle Miltie in stunning black and white, your NTSC TV will no longer work this time around. Fortunately, your Uncle Sam has been kind enough to help you out on the cost, and these boxes are available for $60 with the rebate. You can go here for more information on converter boxes and rebates.

Your old antenna may in fact work with the converter box, but digital TV broadcasts in the US (called ATSC) are notoriously difficult to receive. Exactly why this is has been endlessly debated, but briefly it has to do with the scheme that was chosen to broadcast the signal (called 8VSB) and the fact that broadcasting over the air is just hard. Ever have really bad reception in certain areas on your cell phone even when you are not moving? This is a similar problem. Digital broadcast television in Europe (DVB-T) uses a scheme called COFDM that is widely believed to be better than the 8VSB chosen for ATSC. Why we picked an inferior technology is hopelessly mired in regional politics and the economics of NIH (not invented here). And there is talk about enhancing the ATSC standard to overcome some of its current weaknesses. Hopefully, and perhaps I am being hopelessly naïve here, this will all be done behind the scenes and won’t require another round of costly updates by consumers.

The advantage of digital anything is that when it works, it works well. But when it doesn’t work, it often doesn’t work at all. One common symptom of poor reception of digital TV is that the sound works, but you don’t get the picture. Instead you get an expensive radio! And sometimes one or more of the channels may not work at all. The good news is that you can get all this sorted out now before analog TV disappears next year since there are plenty of digital broadcasts available today in anticipation of the changeover. It may require upgrading your antenna to improve the situation. You might be able to solve the problem with a new set of rabbit ears. But you may have to go with something mounted on your roof or in your attic, if only to get the advantage of being higher off the ground.

But there is another benefit to digital TV in the US. In addition to the pristine picture, ATSC also brings High Definition (High Def or HD). Exactly what HD means is a subject for a future newsletter, but roughly speaking HDTV has about 6 times the picture area (pixels) as DVD, so it has the potential to look great on your wide screen HDTV. People with old school analog televisions will not see the additional pixels, similar to the fact that you won’t see the advantages of HD cable without an HDTV. Analog televisions are only capable of limited resolution - the extra pixels available through HD broadcasts will essentially be thrown away when displayed on an analog TV.

And speaking of throwing things away, you can junk Old Bessie and replace her with a brand new TV instead of going with a converter box. Always on the lookout for Your Best Interests, the federal government now requires that all televisions sold are capable of receiving and displaying digital broadcasts. Be aware that just because a new set can receive digital broadcasts, it doesn’t mean that it can take advantage of the extra resolution of HD, a topic of a future column. If you do decide to euthanize your ancient set, please be green and recycle.

Now that we know what to do with Old Bessie, what does it mean for those TV sets that get reception from cable, satellite, or one of the telcos?

For those of you that have satellite TV or digital TV through AT&T (U-verse) this doesn’t affect you at all, nor will it ever. These systems are already all digital. End of story. For cable and Verizon’s digital television (known as FIOS) the situation is more complicated. These systems are hybrid analog/digital solutions. In the case of cable, the channels from 1-99 are analog. For those of you that have one of the basic tiers and who don’t need to rent a set-top box or a cable card from your cable company, you are watching analog TV. A similar situation exists with Verizon FIOS.

For a whole bunch of reasons, most of which boil down to money (I know, you are shocked!), the FCC is not requiring the cable companies to transition to all-digital along with the broadcasters. The cable companies and telcos that maintain analog broadcasts use similar technology to what is in a consumer converter box in order to broadcast analog television. But at some point the cable companies will be required to transition to all-digital, and some are choosing to do so sooner. What this means is that those of you who subscribe to one of the basic tiers or even have some of your household TVs connected to your cable without a set-top box, will be required to upgrade to a digital set-top box for each of your cable-ready TVs that are connected directly to your cable today. Don’t fool yourself. While you won’t have to buy a new TV or a converter box, this can mean quite a bit added to your already sky-high monthly cable bill. The good news is that Time-Warner has no plans to do this any time soon. But Comcast has already been switching to digital in some areas such as Chicago and is forcing their customers on the basic tiers to spend the $6 per box to support it. They are jumping the gun because they want to convert the analog channels to HD – with today’s technology they can squeeze 2 or 3 HD channels into the space of one analog channel. If you have a cable-ready TV connected to your cable without a set-top box, sooner or later a note from your cable company about their upcoming transition to all-digital may be in your future, along with a corresponding increase in your monthly bill to pay for the additional set-top box along with a hefty one-time fee to pay for the truck roll. Don’t you just love cable?

The next big transition will probably occur three years from the February ‘09 broadcast transition when the cable industry will be affected. But this is still up in the air and depends on what the FCC decides to do in a couple of years. So stay tuned and don’t touch that dial!

All this brouhaha concerns broadcast television in the US. The transition to digital in Europe (and many other countries that use DVB-T or one of its variants) has been rolling out for a few years now. DVB-T does not give you HD but rather standard definition, or what you get on a DVD. All those countries are still grappling with their transition to HD. Only a few other countries have adopted ATSC, most notably Canada (transitions in 2011), South Korea (2012), and Mexico (still TBD). And the broadcast transition to digital has indirect ramifications for television via your cell phone. While HD is not a concern since cell phones don’t need all those pixels, there are similar competing standards for the handset market: DVB-H in Europe, mobile variants of ATSC in North America, and a proprietary standard from Qualcomm called MediaFLO. Driving down the road at 75 MPH and receiving television broadcasts is even more challenging technically than it is when sitting in your living room, not to mention the difficulty of juggling your coffee, cell phone, and keeping at least one eye on the road.
But the reality is that all of this talk about “television” may become totally irrelevant in a few years. If the trends that we see in the under 30 set continue, gen Y will beget gen Z and everyone will be watching “television” on their PCs, iPhones, and jPhones. Today’s gleaming 55” LCD display will become tomorrow’s Old Bessie. We will talk about cable TV like we talk about vinyl today; although it is dubious anyone will ever wax nostalgically about the cable companies. The big broadcast networks will be even more irrelevant than they are today. YouTube will probably still be low resolution. And hopefully this intrepid correspondent will be there to tell you all about it.

Next month: How to Get the Best Content for your HDTV.