1999 (130)
Hughes-JVC Technology Corporation presents its ILA projector system as a viable replacement for 35mm film in theatrical exhibition, delivering up to 17,000 lum…
Nat Ostroff, Vice President of Sinclair Broadcast Group, argues that 8VSB's poor multipath performance in urban and indoor environments poses an existential th…
CEMA President Gary Shapiro outlined a proposal for cable-ready DTV receivers that would tune, demodulate, and decode both cable and terrestrial signals while …
MIT electrical engineering professor William Schreiber argues that because the average home has nearly three TV sets but only one cable box, well over half of …
The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology released a report recommending retention of the ATSC 8-VSB standard over COFDM for U.S. digital television transmi…
A Chicago broadcast engineer visited a Michigan Avenue electronics store on July 15, 1999, to witness the city's first over-the-air HDTV broadcast by the local…
The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology conducted an independent assessment of COFDM and 8-VSB digital television transmission systems, concluding that th…
The FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology conducted an independent assessment comparing COFDM and 8-VSB digital television transmission systems following …
The Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association filed a Motion for Immediate Dismissal with the FCC opposing Sinclair Broadcasting's petition to reopen the …
Paxson Communications, the largest broadcast television station operator with 72 licensees, signed Sinclair Broadcast Group's FCC petition to allow COFDM as an…
APTS issued a correction disputing a New York Times report by Joel Brinkley that claimed America's 350 public television stations supported Sinclair Broadcasti…
Sinclair Broadcast Group, backed by several hundred stations, formally petitioned the FCC in October 1999 to allow broadcasters to use COFDM modulation alongsi…
A June 1999 survey of New York-area electronics retailers reveals widespread misinformation among sales staff about HDTV availability, with clerks citing wildl…
A field visit to the newly opened Best Buy in Gainesville, Florida revealed a Panasonic 55-inch HDTV display, a $1,699 DTV-ready 32-inch CRT, and a 12-cube vid…
Negotiations between major film studios and developers of the 5C Digital Transmission Content Protection standard remained unresolved in October 1999, threaten…
Sinclair Broadcast Group president David Smith challenged the industry to fix 8-VSB or replace it after Baltimore demonstrations revealed serious indoor recept…
Fujitsu General America introduced two 42-inch Plasmavision plasma displays, the PDS-4221 and PDS-4222, as the company's first true high-definition plasma pane…
Cahners In-Stat Group predicted in September 1999 that ATSC 8-VSB would become the dominant technology for digital broadband multimedia services, with tuner sh…
PBS engineer Ed Williams visited Sinclair's Baltimore COFDM/8-VSB comparison tests on July 14, 1999, observing that COFDM proved easier to receive than 8-VSB u…
Engineers and consultants including Mark Schubin and MIT Professor William Schreiber respond to a July 1999 HDTV Newslist mailing, arguing that 8-VSB faces ser…
Zenith Electronics released laboratory measurements showing significant multipath and ghost-cancellation improvements across first-, second-, and third-generat…
A 1999 economic analysis by TBS Telecommunications argues that switching US DTV from ATSC/8VSB to COFDM would save approximately $20 billion when accounting fo…
APTS issued a correction to a New York Times article that falsely claimed America's 350 public television stations supported Sinclair Broadcasting's FCC petiti…
Hughes-JVC Technology Corporation launched commercial digital cinema screenings at four theaters in Los Angeles and New York in June 1999, using its ILA-12K pr…
In August 1999, the Seattle Seahawks and KING-TV Channel 5 produced the first live local sporting event televised in HDTV, simulcasting a 1080i HDTV signal alo…
Sinclair Broadcast Group VP Nat Ostroff argues that CEMA's July 1999 FCC filing proposing a Mobile Multimedia Broadcast Service on UHF channels 60–69 reveals a…
In a September 1999 interview, HD-VISION president Randall Paris Dark argues that falling equipment costs, increased manufacturer competition, and end-to-end d…
Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association president Gary Shapiro issued a statement in July 1999 defending the ATSC's 8VSB modulation standard against Sin…
UK commentator Dermot Nolan argues that CEMA is acting as an enabler for competitors to North American DTV broadcasters by promoting COFDM over 8VSB, drawing p…
Harris Corp. released a study arguing that switching from VSB to COFDM modulation for DTV would cost stations many times the previously estimated $50,000, incl…
Jan Pazral, chief engineer at WXXI Public Broadcasting, traveled to Baltimore in August 1999 to observe DTV field tests comparing 8-VSB and COFDM reception. Hi…
KOMO-TV in Seattle began simulcasting all newscasts in high-definition in May 1999, deploying Sony HDCam equipment and upconverting standard-definition footage…
HBO reversed its policy of broadcasting 2.35:1 films in their original aspect ratio, opting instead to pan-and-scan all widescreen content to 1.85:1 following …
Lutron Electronics launched a 2,700-square-foot home theater exhibit at Epcot's Innoventions in June 1999, featuring over 20 technology partners including Sony…
American Production Services expanded from Seattle to North Hollywood in October 1999, opening a facility aimed at episodic and long-form television production…
Craig Birkmaier argues that the FCC should rescind its mandate requiring broadcasters to implement the ATSC 8-VSB standard and instead allow market-driven sele…
HDTV Productions Inc. announces multiple high-definition cinematography projects in late 1999, including a documentary on Brazil's 500th anniversary, a CTV for…
Canadian cable consultant I. Switzer argues that terrestrial digital TV broadcasting is wasteful and that broadcasters should instead pursue regional spot beam…
Cablevision and Sony announced a $1 billion partnership to deploy a digital cable system delivering HDTV, video-on-demand, and interactive services over a hybr…
Digital television factory sales exceeded 20,000 units for the first time in October 1999, reaching 21,432 units — a 42 percent increase over September's recor…
The Consumer Electronics Association and 13 digital television manufacturers sent a letter to the FCC reaffirming support for the 8-VSB transmission standard. …
The Consumer Electronics Association announced that its daily CES Today program at the January 2000 International CES in Las Vegas would be produced in HDTV, m…
The World Broadcasting Unions Technical Committee applauded the ITU's decision to standardize the HD Common Image Format at 1125 total lines for both 50Hz and …
Engineer Jules Cohen defends 8VSB over COFDM, citing Charlotte indoor antenna tests where 8VSB outperformed NTSC reception in difficult locations. He warns tha…
St. Louis Fox affiliate KTVI activated its digital signal on Channel 43 in late October 1999, joining a regional scramble to meet the FCC's November 1 deadline…
The Department of Defense's Video Working Group formally requested the FCC open a public debate on 8-VSB versus COFDM modulation standards, citing concerns abo…
The U.S. Department of Defense temporarily suspended 8-VSB from its digital TV technical specifications pending review of the ongoing industry debate over the …
Mark Schubin attended a digital screening of Miramax's 'An Ideal Husband' at New York's Clearview Chelsea Cinemas, comparing Hughes/JVC ILA projection favorabl…
American Enterprise Institute scholar Thomas Hazlett argues that the FCC's 13-year investment in HDTV spectrum allocation was a failed industrial policy, with …
A reader corrects an August 1999 article about Sinclair's DTV challenge, clarifying that the FCC cannot alter substantive DTV standards rules through an erratu…
A Detroit Free Press report from November 1999 found that high prices and limited programming kept HDTV sales well below industry targets, with only 88,023 dig…
Vice President Al Gore wrote to FCC Chairman Bill Kennard in October 1999, urging a public proceeding to establish broadcaster obligations in exchange for free…
The Consumer Electronics Association announced in December 1999 that its Video Division Board unanimously adopted new resolutions to expand voluntary DTV produ…
Japan's Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications announced it will include the 720p format among its five official video standards for digital television broad…
Sinclair VP Mark Hyman reports that 49 broadcast groups representing over 761 stations have expressed concern with the 8-VSB DTV modulation standard, with more…
The National Association of Broadcasters and National Cable Television Association jointly endorsed IEEE 1394 FireWire with 5C copy protection in a letter to F…
The Association of Local Television Stations called on the FCC to open public comment on Sinclair Broadcasting's petition to allow COFDM as an alternative to t…
American Production Services in Seattle completed HD post production for 'Over Canada,' a 60-minute aerial documentary shot in 1080i/30 using Sony HDCAM camera…
HDTV News conducted an exclusive interview with Mark Aitkin of Sinclair Broadcast Group in October 1999, covering developments in the DTV transition. The full …
KOMO-TV Engineering invited video professionals to a two-day course on compression for digital television, held November 10–11, 1999 in Seattle. Taught by Gras…
Sinclair Broadcast Group staged live over-the-air DTV reception demonstrations on Capitol Hill in February 2000, showing members of Congress that inexpensive a…
Sinclair Broadcasting's Mark Hyman issued a point-by-point rebuttal to CEA President Gary Shapiro's November 1999 letter opposing Sinclair's FCC petition to al…
NxtWave Communications introduced the NXT2000, a multimode VSB/QAM receiver chip delivering error-free indoor and mobile reception of broadcast digital signals…
Motorola, in collaboration with Sarnoff Corporation, introduced the MCT2100 demodulator and FEC chip in August 1999 to address multipath interference plaguing …
Zenith Electronics SVP Richard Lewis breaks his silence on the 8-VSB versus COFDM controversy, challenging Sinclair's Baltimore test results and requesting acc…
Sinclair Broadcast Group's Nat Ostroff reports completion of urban and fringe-area reception tests comparing COFDM and 8-VSB modulation in Baltimore, predictin…
Sinclair Broadcast Group president David Smith challenged the industry to fix or replace 8-VSB after Baltimore demonstrations revealed poor indoor reception pe…
US factory sales of digital televisions exceeded 20,000 units for the first time in October 1999, a 42% increase over September's record, bringing year-to-date…
This 1991 issue of HD World Review surveys competing digital HDTV proposals — including Zenith/AT&T's Digital Spectrum Compatible HDTV, the Advanced Television…
The Consumer Electronics Association released a specification enabling DTV receivers to receive in-the-clear, premium, and pay-per-view digital cable programmi…
On June 18, 1999, George Lucas's Star Wars: The Phantom Menace became the first major digital cinema release, screening at four U.S. theaters using Hughes/JVC …
A 1999 analysis by TBS's Dermot Nolan calculates that the total 8VSB DTV antenna bill for non-cabled U.S. television sets would reach approximately $14 billion…
The DVB Project submitted a comprehensive technical and economic response to Mexico's digital terrestrial television standard evaluation questionnaire in Octob…
Dermot Nolan's Point-by-Point Rebuttal of ATSC's Mexico DTV Questionnaire Response on 8VSB vs. COFDM
Broadcast engineer Dermot Nolan systematically challenges ATSC's October 1999 executive summary submitted to Mexico's DTV standards evaluation, disputing claim…
In an October 1999 interview, Sinclair Broadcast Group's Mark Aitken explains the rationale behind Sinclair's FCC petition to include COFDM in the U.S. DTV sta…
PBS engineer Bruce Jacobs argues that if 8-VSB proponents cannot demonstrate sufficient improvements within three months, the FCC should add COFDM as an option…
Sinclair Broadcast Group Vice President Nat Ostroff accuses Harris Corporation of prioritizing equipment sales over broadcasters' long-term interests in the CO…
A fierce dispute between the broadcast and computer industries over the ATSC DTV standard centers on whether interlace scanning formats should be included alon…
A Banc of America Securities analyst identified Best Buy, Circuit City, and Ultimate Electronics as top consumer electronics retail picks, noting that Ultimate…
Toshiba America's Mikhail Tsinberg, drawing on his experience at Philips Labs during Grand Alliance development, argues that 8-VSB has no fundamental theoretic…
LSI Logic announced its L64781 next-generation single-chip DVB-T demodulator, developed in collaboration with BBC Research and Development, integrating FEC, 10…
Sinclair Broadcast Group VP Mark Hyman fires back at the Consumer Electronics Association, arguing that 8-VSB receivers fundamentally fail at indoor antenna re…
User posts from uk.tech.digital-tv reveal widespread reception problems with OnDigital's COFDM-based service in the UK, including signal breakups caused by pas…
Richard M. Wolfe of WBNS-TV draws a direct historical parallel between the FCC's politically pressured shift of the FM band in the 1940s — which set FM radio b…
Dr. Kerns Powers of Sarnoff explains how the 16:9 aspect ratio was selected for HDTV through a geometric analysis of common aspect ratios normalized to equal a…
NBC and Sony Pictures Entertainment will air Men in Black on November 28, 1999 in 1080i HDTV, marking NBC's first primetime broadcast of a theatrical film in h…
Sinclair Broadcast Group VP Nat Ostroff rebukes Jules Cohen's defense of 8VSB, arguing that DTV must exceed NTSC performance rather than merely match it. Ostro…
Dale Cripps argues that cable and satellite providers are too focused on protecting existing revenue streams to successfully pioneer HDTV, and proposes a new f…
Director Robert Fleet and producer Alina Szpak used a Sony HDCAM camcorder and HD editorial services at American Production Services in Los Angeles to produce …
A Bear Stearns equity research report analyzes a Sinclair Broadcast Group demonstration in Baltimore showing COFDM consistently outperforming the U.S. 8VSB sta…
CBS and Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America announced the most extensive HDTV primetime programming package in broadcast or cable history, featuring 12 hour…
Editor Dale Cripps argues that HDTV's launch requires coordinated commitment from both manufacturers and broadcasters, warning that half-hearted adoption risks…
HDTV Newsletter publisher Dale Cripps argues that HDTV must define itself as a premium, high-end viewing experience rather than getting lost in computer-televi…
HDTV Newsletter editor Dale Cripps argues that HDTV will bring the full cinematic potential of film into the home, surpassing average theater quality through s…
Dale Cripps argues that an underserved upper-income audience will pay $100 per month for a super-premium HDTV programming service delivering first-run films an…
One year after the launch of digital HDTV broadcasts in the U.S., fewer than 50,000 sets have been sold, cable carriage remains unresolved, and Sinclair Broadc…
Thomson multimedia staged a live demonstration in midtown Manhattan showing the RCA DTC100 set-top HDTV receiver successfully decoding over-the-air digital bro…
Australian broadcast engineer Colin Wright outlines Australia's DVB-T HDTV rollout, including a national receiver standard covering set-top boxes and integrate…
India and Singapore both selected DVB-T for digital television, influenced by historical ties to British broadcasting technology and the BBC. Political dynamic…
Broadcast engineer Ken Davies argues that the fundamental flaw in the ATSC DTV rollout is an outdated transmission model inherited from the NTSC era, not the t…
Sinclair Broadcast Group VP Nat Ostroff argues that CEA and ATSC opposition to the broadcasters' FCC petition stems from protecting DVD and satellite sales rat…
Sinclair Broadcast Group filed an FCC petition in October 1999 urging regulators to permit broadcasters to use COFDM digital modulation as an alternative to th…
A consumer survey respondent and industry observer argue that broadcasters themselves are HDTV's greatest obstacle, prioritizing profit margins over quality de…
Motorola and Nxtwave Communications separately announced new chips in August capable of handling dynamic multipath reception for 8-VSB DTV receivers, potential…
Sinclair Broadcast Group's Baltimore comparative tests found that 8-VSB in consumer set-top boxes failed reception at most sites using simple antennas, while C…
Veteran television engineer Mark Schubin describes how HDTV production transformed from the restrictive era of tube cameras, open-reel tape machines, and limit…
HDTV pioneer and Advanced Television Publishing founder Dale E. Cripps traces HDTV's evolution from a worldwide electronic production standard to a consumer te…
HD VISION president Randall P. Dark led a crew to Waco, Texas over the Fourth of July weekend to shoot a 30-minute HDTV documentary on drag boat racing using t…
The DVB Group heads to Buenos Aires after IBC to present alongside the ATSC Committee and Japan's ISDB, with DVB executive director Peter MacAvock eyeing Brazi…
MPAA president Jack Valenti testified before the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications on the first anniversary of the DMCA, warning that broadband and digi…
Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America announced nine HD-ready sets starting at $3,500 alongside seven large-screen analog models, with marketing director Bob …
Sinclair Broadcast Group tested the latest Sony and RCA DTV receivers in Baltimore and Washington, D.C., finding only marginal improvement over earlier models …
Dale Cripps introduces Stonehenge International, a proposed premium HDTV channel concept built around a ten-day post-theatrical release window for major studio…
The newly formed ATSC Task Force marks the first acknowledgment by 8-VSB proponents of concerns raised by Sinclair's Baltimore tests, which showed 8-VSB receiv…
Dale Cripps draws on firsthand observations from Japan's analog MUSE HDTV launch to argue that the U.S. must avoid repeating Japan's mistakes by recognizing HD…
Dale Cripps argues that HDTV represents more than a technical upgrade, drawing on his own partial vision loss as a metaphor for the limitations NTSC imposes on…
FCC Chairman William Kennard argues that data, not high-definition pictures, is the true 'killer app' of digital television. Speaking at the Variety/Schroders …
Sinclair VP Mark Hyman reports that over 750 broadcast stations have expressed concern about the 8-VSB DTV modulation standard, with 49 groups formally support…
An anonymous European HDTV industry veteran argues that COFDM is a superior modulation scheme to 8VSB and that the FCC and ATSC process took too long, leaving …
Dale Cripps argues that HDTV, despite its technical brilliance, risks failing to reach American homes without bold, far-sighted leadership capable of uniting g…
Dale Cripps advocates for 'Stonehenge,' a proposed international for-profit cross-industry cooperative premium HDTV network requiring unprecedented collaborati…
Dale Cripps argues that HDTV's success hinges not on technical upgrades but on bold, world-class programming that captures a global audience. Without that crea…
Dale Cripps interviews Dr. John Abel of DataCast about the three camps of TV stations approaching the DTV transition, ranging from committed early adopters to …
Dr. John Abel, President of DataCast, argues that data broadcasting over terrestrial, satellite, and cable signals will allow consumers to receive targeted con…
Dale Cripps interviews Dr. John Abel, former NAB vice-president and president of DataCast Corporation, about the emerging business case for datacasting over DT…
Mark Schubin's March 18, 1999 column compiles an extensive calendar of DTV, HDTV, and digital video industry events scheduled from mid-March through late May 1…
Sinclair Broadcast Group President David D. Smith calls for a side-by-side comparison test of 8VSB and COFDM transmission standards after Philadelphia tests re…
Panasonic's David Wiswell argues that 35mm film remains superior to electronic acquisition for digital cinema, while D5HD compression has been accepted by majo…
Special effects legend Douglas Trumbull argues that HDTV adoption has been frustratingly stalled for 20 years, while praising the shift toward 24-frame electro…
The ATSC issued a formal rebuttal to Sinclair Broadcasting's campaign urging U.S. broadcasters to abandon the 8-VSB transmission standard in favor of Europe's …