There is a growing concern that too much compression is becoming the greatest threat to the HDTV revolution. Displays are getting better but the signal to drive them is getting worse. Bit rates from satellite suppliers have recently been calculated by our members. The results are more than disappointing. In many cases the bandwidth devoted to what you think is an HDTV program is no more than that from a DVD. While much of the bit starving is identified by ugly motion artifacts there is no doubt now that picture detail is being reduced by the encoders in order to "optimize" file sizes. This trend is not only in satellite distribution but in cable as well. On the source side it has been well documented by Joe Kane and others that telecine transfers suffer from low bit rates and even the lack of operator knowledge in how to achieve the right image. The use of small monitors by these operators is another plague on their house.

Over-the-air broadcasting has the legal authority to chop up the digital channel (reduce image) but since most are not sharing channels with other programs they have not been known for cutting into image quality (though take note the ATSC newsletter below). There are those in broadcasting who feel that quality is the only thing left to save them. But that view is dependant upon their location and audience. In some highly mixed ethnic areas digital channels are being chopped up so as to have several different culturally diverse programs on each of the sub-channels. To address the more serious corrosions going on at satelite and cable there is talk of a grass roots movement being formed to champion quality. But what can we actually do? There is no hope for legislation that sets some standard bit rate for programs. This is entirely a market situation.

There is a school of thought which says that the bulk of the consumers will opt or allow themselves to be opted in to some compromise (and not even be aware of it as was the case when DirecTV whittled down bit rates for standard programs) and then there will be another group who won't compromise and are aficionados of image quality. This later group will even look to enhance the best of the present best. This suggests that there is room for another service or two that is devoted to those who are devoted to image quality--some kind of a super-premium service that only money can buy.

_Dale Cripps