ATSC NOTES...

 

Attendance, Philips,CRC Canada,Dolby,CEMA,CEMA,Sony,NAB,Hitachi,[MSTV was NOT present],Harris.

1/ Chairman had some rather terse set of words related to leaks to the press from meeting attendees.

2/ Mobile reception will be added to the aqgenda

3/ ATSC is still pushing for the ATTC for the cost estimate for the RF capture project.There was some inference that CEMA was dragging their feet.

4/ Chairman commented that he is pushing Rx manufacturers to have their Rx tested either by Zenith,CRC,Dolby,or by CRC.[Comment All of these tests may result may result in further confusion as each of these organizations is/are testing differently].There is still a focus on comparisons to the Zenith blue rack,which is not the best comparison criteria.

/ Zenith report, Many Rx's tested to date [Hard copy of some reports were mailed have RF adjacent channel performance that varied from the blue rack slightly.Two of the bread board RX's with the "new"chips[3 new chips] showed some improved performance.These were not complete Rx's and to that extent there may be parameters that would suffer when incorporated into a final design.There were many words used that tended to indicate that the results were not as good as the press releases may have indicated.

The Rxs used in the Sinclair test were at the bottom of the Zenith tests.NOBODY stated that the new chips would solve the problem.Graves stated that he intended to work with selected Rx manufacturers to quickly incorporate the new chips[There is a inference that these new chips will solve the problem yet Zenith would NOT say this] Zenith,close in ghosts with high amplitude is still a problem,and the system will not work.The newer chips address ghosts that are further out.The bread boarded systems that were tested seemed to be very primitive.

CBS question,are these new chips close to being compared to the COFDM performance?,Zenith,these new chips would NOT perform as well as a COFDM Rx.Chairman,there is a comparison going on in Brazil now,would/should these new implementations be shipped to Brazil for a status report on the improvements that are being planned.[Although there there was not a clear answer there was an undertone that we should not] Dolby,these new implementations don't seem much better than what we have today.Zenith,Nothing that they have seen would produce a 180 degree antenna rotational reception.

Zenith--ATSC Rx in Brazil,the tuner is an all channel tuner,whereas the COFDM Rx is simply UHF.Implied that the COFDM Rx's will perform better than the Zenith Pro Rx.[Note I have used the Zenith Pro Demod for some unscientific test,it was awful].Zenith refused to answer the question,are the new implementations really a significant improvement.Doby,The Brazil tests will with the current implementations simply beat COFDM. Zenith response,the tests in Austalia proved that ATSC was better than COFDM,Dolby,that was with a 30 Foot mast,that is no longer the test conditions that are being pushed by users.

Impression of this conversationis is that problems remain with the new implementations,and that COFDM is still far ahead of ATSC.There is also a feeling that the fringe area advantage of ATSC may NOT be proveable.

CRC,with indoor reception most of the signal is "reflected" any movement in the room will produce close in ghosts,there is also the issue of carrier synchronizaion,and relock time.NOT a good report.

4/Dolby- have no information on the theoretical performance of a good equalizer.Zenith did not agree with Dolby.CBS,reported that in his reception area there is NOT one RX capable of Rx'ing DTV from NY[Rene lives about 40 Miles north of NY city]yet their NTSC reception is good[This question was NEVER answered].Zenith,COFDM in a 6Mhz channel may not be as good as a wider channel system.Zenith input,wider coverage area is possible with 8 VSB,others,prove it.

CRC,coverage area,the calculations are mostly signal strength calculations,they don't take into other considerations.CRC measurements to date don't prove ANY real practical advantage to 8 VSB in the real world.CBS,NIST is doing some work,nobody knows what is going on.CEMA stated these NIST folks are NOT doing real evaluation. Tanner,the bottom line is that we can not challenge COFDM with the new chip set,we have to focus on coverage area.[Oct 8 filing from Sinclair to the FCC].


5/Australian tests showed that coverage area was better for 8 VSB,again nobody wanted to step forward with real practical results.In San Fransico the coverage area argument will fall apart,area is Mountain limited.Chairman will ask MSTV for some more data on coverage area,along with CRC.NAB,what are we trying to do prove 8VSB better,and what do we do in the meantime.

Dolby,In Brazil we need to demonstrate progress,albeit it very small,Next Wave are prepared to go to Brazil to show some progress.


6/NAB/MSTV..There is some report being prepared[Being sent out today],it may or may not be made public,report is confidential,manufacturers who participated will get a copy.FCC is suggesting that Sinclair go to congress with their complaint if they want a change[Chairmans comment]. Cmr,Ness is quoted as saying that there should be a shoot out.

7/Sinclair are planning a press conference on Thursday,just prior to their filing,ATSC may also hold a press conference.It seems that CEMA, Zenith, ATSC and others are meeting privately to try and dull down the impact of the Sinclair PR push.Dolby,Does Joel Brinkley[NY Times]really understand the issues,ATSC should work with him,NAB,what is the ATSC message.

Dare,what to do for the next 18 months to help the consumer??.Response?,the manfacturers should fix the problem,this was a nonsense response.Dolby,there is still no clear evidence that anything we are doing will really solve the problem.Hitachi,the CRC [curve] should be used as a promotional tool,Zenith,please don't do this it is not accurate.NAB,anybody who can Rx NTSC should Rx DTV.Zenith we have to push DTV,and stop any negative comments[HOW?]

Dolby,we have to be careful how we use words other wise we are setting up a conflict between Rx manufacturers and Broadcasters. Chairman,I am saying that we do have problems and we are working on them.Question,when we see these improvements??.More review over the same issues,there is no data to prove some of these points.

BBC paper,how do we try and counter the claims,Zenith what do we do?.The BBC paper is also part of the FCC report.Dolby suggested that Zenith produce some material that counters the BBC claims.Zenith,concern over the ATSC statements that there are problems,they want ATSC to focus on the lousey Rx's NOT the system is flawed.

8/Mobile reception, ATSC suggested that the strategy should be, different modulation schemes for static and mobile reception.NAB,no way,broadcasters want to use their channels for mobile useage as well as static reception.

Question: does the ATSC standard cover 2-VSB NO,only the ITU version.CBS:you had better be careful,this could be a can of worms.You could walk yourself into a COFDM soluion.NAB, broadcasters ARE becoming interested in the mobile reception.Would existing product in the field work,[Comment who cares]Sinclair has opened up a can of worms and perhaps tweaked the interest of the broadcasters.CRC,DVB-T was NOT designed as a mobile format,this information is contained in an European paper may be from the EBU.[CRC will forward the report Via E-Mail]

Zenith--no response to the request to DVB for 6Mhz COFDM equipment.

9/Sinclair will file with the FCC on Friday, the FCC will put the filing out for public comment.[Sinclair will have their press conference on the internet].Dare,we are really NOT addressing the industry issues of what we do in the next 18 Months,Dolby supported our position as did Harris.Harris,at the IEEE conference the only point that Sinclair made was that the 8-VSB Rx's were lousey.There is a feeling that Sinclair

It seems that there could be a serious delay to the FCC launch with all of this confusion.


Summary..There is now a big question related to the improvements being offered by the new chip sets.There is no real plan as to how to go forward over the next 18 months.The group is not well focused on action plans and reaction to the Sinclair activity.Some of the group are hoping that the problem goes away.