2000 (124)
Oak Technology's Peter Claydon analyzes the technical feasibility of adopting DVB-T COFDM for US broadcasting, arguing that existing ATSC tuner hardware could …
Enterprise Broadcasting Corporation is building a nationwide network of 50-seat high-definition digital cinemas called Network Event Centers, to be installed i…
Latvia's state Radio and Television Centre (LVRTC) established a subsidiary to rapidly deploy DVB-T digital terrestrial broadcasting, targeting 45% audience co…
FCC Chairman William Kennard warned of an impending spectrum drought as mobile phones, wireless computers, and fax machines consumed radio spectrum faster than…
Sinclair Broadcast Group president David D. Smith urges broadcasters to attend the newly formed ATSC 8-VSB Task Force organizational meeting on March 31, 2000 …
Four major Japanese electronics companies — Matsushita, Sony, Toshiba, and Hitachi — agreed to form a joint venture to deliver data and two-way interactive ser…
Panavision announced a nearly $18 million purchase of 100 Sony HDW-F900 24P CineAlta high-definition camcorders for digital cinematography production. The comp…
The Consumer Electronics Association released 1999 DTV sales figures showing 143,218 total units sold and urged broadcasters to accelerate digital programming …
HDTV Newsletter Online: CBS DTV Field Test KYW-DT Philadelphia, Brazil COFDM Report, CEA DTV Figures
The April 2000 HDTV Newsletter reports on a CBS DTV/HDTV field test at KYW-DT in Philadelphia and Brazil's rationale for choosing COFDM over VSB. CEA's Gary Sh…
FCC Chairman William Kennard addressed the NAB 2000 convention in Las Vegas, declaring the analog television era over and urging broadcasters to embrace the DT…
Dale Cripps argues that cable operators remain largely indifferent to HDTV rollout, with satellite serving as the more reliable national delivery path. He call…
The Consumer Electronics Association welcomed FCC involvement in DTV product labeling and copy protection licensing issues following an April 2000 Notice of Pr…
Laser Pacific, a Hollywood post-production facility, deployed a TANDBERG Television E5820 ATSC encoder to create the first low-cost HD dailies system for telev…
The Consumer Electronics Association and the National Cable Television Association announced voluntary technical agreements enabling future digital television …
The Consumer Electronics Association and the National Cable Television Association announced voluntary technical agreements enabling future digital television …
High Definition Production Quo Vadis: Address to the Canadian Satellite Users Association Conference
CBS Senior Vice President J.A. Flaherty argues that 1080/1920 HDTV represents the inevitable pinnacle of broadcast quality, tracing television's resolution his…
Advanced Television Publishing frames HDTV as a cultural and technological milestone, promising viewers a return to grace and elegance in the new century. The …
A controversy over whether the U.S. should replace 8-VSB with COFDM modulation has created near-paralysis among consumer electronics manufacturers and broadcas…
The Consumer Electronics Association charged broadcasters with offering excuses to delay the DTV transition as the FCC opened a formal periodic review of digit…
The CEA revised its DTV figures with Gary Shapiro urging broadcasters to transmit more original HDTV content, while Hyundai Electronics announced a second-gene…
Brazilian broadcast engineer Fernando Bittencourt argues that COFDM is the superior modulation standard for Brazil's DTV transition, citing extensive field tes…
Brazil's ABERT/SET Study Group recommended COFDM over 8-VSB for the country's digital television standard, dealing a significant blow to the ATSC following the…
Japan's ARIB standards body selected COFDM modulation over 8-VSB for terrestrial DTV broadcasting, citing the country's mountainous terrain as a key factor. Pa…
Sinclair Broadcast Group Vice-President Nat Ostroff argues that the DTV transition has slowed to a crawl because mandating HDTV as the face of digital televisi…
Zenith Electronics presented live VSB versus COFDM comparisons at Argentina's CAPER conference, demonstrating ATSC/VSB's superior impulse noise rejection and c…
UCLA Extension announced a series of consumer electronics short courses for winter and spring 2000, covering topics from turbo codes and digital TV compression…
Brazil's ABERT/SET Digital Television Study Group recommended COFDM modulation for the country's future digital terrestrial broadcasting standard, citing super…
The Consumer Electronics Association reported that early DTV factory-to-dealer sales outpaced introductory sales of color TV, VCRs, and DBS in both unit volume…
The Consumer Electronics Association announced that the U.S. Department of Defense confirmed it has no desire to reopen the 8VSB DTV transmission standard deba…
The Consumer Electronics Association accused broadcasters of offering excuses to delay the DTV transition while the consumer electronics industry invested over…
The FCC formally rejected Sinclair Broadcast Group's petition to allow COFDM modulation as an alternative to the 8-VSB standard for digital television transmis…
The Consumer Electronics Association praised the FCC's unanimous decision to dismiss Sinclair Broadcasting's petition to modify the existing DTV broadcast stan…
The European DVB standards body intervened in the U.S. 8-VSB versus COFDM debate by submitting a report to the FCC, coinciding with disappointing field test re…
The European DVB standard is gaining global momentum over the U.S.-backed ATSC standard, with Australia, Brazil, and Argentina all reconsidering or abandoning …
FCC Chairman William E. Kennard addressed the Consumer Electronics Show on January 7, 2000, calling for industry cooperation to bring IPTV — Interactive Person…
Sunrise Entertainment Inc. debuted at NATPE 2000 with 'Living Legends of Rock & Roll: Live from Itchycoo Park,' a $30 million HDTV production billed as the lar…
Martin Jacklin argues that digital convergence of televisions, computers, and telephones is an unstoppable supertrend driven by consumer personalization and co…
Dale E. Cripps argues that cost, not technical shortcomings or industry politics, is the fundamental barrier to HDTV market adoption. While blame circulates am…
The core weakness of 8-VSB multipath reception lies in the poorly designed data field synchronizing signal, which fails as an effective training signal for ada…
NBC's VP of Engineering Peter Smith confirmed that NBC tested both COFDM and 8-VSB in Philadelphia, finding that no 8-VSB receiver — including advanced equaliz…
Sinclair Broadcast Group responded to the Pentagon's clarification of jurisdictional responsibilities between the DOD and FCC over the commercial DTV modulatio…
Sinclair Broadcast Group's Mark Hyman argues that CEA's lobbying effort to remove the Pentagon from DTV standard debates backfired, as DOD officials reaffirmed…
Sinclair Broadcast Group welcomed the FCC's commitment to conduct a comprehensive review of the DTV standard after the Commission dismissed Sinclair's petition…
Sweden's digital terrestrial television service, launched in April 1999, attracted only 500 subscribers after seven months, prompting regulators at RTTV to thr…
Zenith Electronics submitted formal testimony to House Commerce Committee Chairman Billy Tauzin defending the ATSC 8-VSB transmission standard against Sinclair…
Bob Utne, an ATSC member, resigned from the organization after concluding that vested industry interests blocked meaningful examination of 8-VSB deficiencies a…
The FCC voted in February 2000 to reject Sinclair Broadcasting's petition to allow COFDM as a second DTV transmission standard alongside 8-VSB, concluding that…
The U.S. Department of Defense issued an official statement clarifying that it has no desire to revisit the 8VSB RF transmission standard adopted by the FCC. T…
Rainmaker Entertainment Group reported a return to profitability in Q1 2000, posting $66,000 in earnings from continuing operations after a 1999 restructuring.…
HDTV set-top boxes from Panasonic and Mitsubishi shipped to dealers in December 2000 are for showroom display only, not public sale. Matsushita/Panasonic suppl…
The FCC launched its first periodic review of the U.S. analog-to-digital television conversion on March 8, 2000, issuing a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seekin…
Real-world DTV channel tests using a Nokia DVB-T COFDM receiver in the UK demonstrate that virtually all DTV channels are time-varying with dynamic multipath, …
A leaked ATSC RF Group report reveals that the 8-VSB transmission standard cannot meet broadcasters' minimum requirements and is incapable of supporting mobile…
CBS Senior Vice President Joe Flaherty urges the ATSC VSB Performance Ad Hoc Group to delay finalizing its draft report until current MSTV/NAB and CRC comparat…
ATSC Chairman Robert Graves defends the organization's open standards process against COFDM advocates who leaked internal committee documents and circulated in…
Editor Dale Cripps calls for an end to the COFDM vs. 8-VSB modulation debate, arguing that prolonged indecision harms the DTV transition and fails the American…
Pace Micro Technology, the world's largest dedicated set-top box manufacturer, wrote to FCC Chairman Kennard in January 2000 urging a switch from 8-VSB to COFD…
Dale Cripps draws parallels between HDTV's difficult launch and the early struggles of the printing press, telephone, radio, and television, arguing that compl…
Sinclair Broadcast Group staged a live COFDM demonstration at the NAB convention in Las Vegas, transmitting HDTV and SDTV signals from a mountaintop DTV statio…
CBS conducted comprehensive 8-VSB DTV field tests at KYW-DT (Channel 26) in Philadelphia, measuring outdoor reception across 60-mile radials and indoor recepti…
This technical analysis by Greg Rogers examines how projector resolution specifications relate to HDTV format capabilities, explaining why practical resolution…
Confidential ATSC meeting notes reveal deep skepticism among attendees about new 8-VSB chip implementations, with Zenith refusing to confirm significant improv…
A draft report from Canada's Communication Research Centre found reliable indoor DTV reception at only 50 percent of test sites using simple set-top antennas, …
CBS Senior Vice President Joseph Flaherty received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the International Electronic Cinema Festival in Portland, Oregon, on May 1…
AP Sports Writer Alan Robinson reviewed ABC's inaugural HDTV Super Bowl broadcast, comparing it side-by-side with the standard NTSC telecast on comparable scre…
The DTV transition faces a near-collapse due to slow decoder sales, Sinclair's modulation dispute, and short-term industry thinking, but a landmark Panasonic-C…
Dale Cripps argues that HDTV's technical brilliance alone cannot guarantee its adoption, drawing parallels to David Sarnoff's pivotal role in launching broadca…
Editor Dale Cripps calls for an end to the prolonged COFDM versus 8-VSB modulation debate, arguing that continued indecision harms the DTV rollout and fails th…
After the FCC denied Sinclair's petition to include COFDM as a second transmission standard, Dale Cripps examines whether Sinclair will accept the ruling or es…
The FCC voted to reject Sinclair Broadcasting's petition for COFDM as a second DTV standard, even as NBC's own Philadelphia tests confirmed 8-VSB indoor recept…
2netFX and Zapex Technologies announced a partnership to deliver Linux-based intranet broadcast solutions combining 2netFX streaming software with Zapex's ZL-3…
American Production Services (APS) announced the availability of three HD camcorders for rent, including two Sony HDW-F900 CineAlta 24p units and one Sony HDW-…
The ATSC RF Ad Hoc Group on Broadcaster Requirements issued a draft report outlining priority requirements for the DTV RF system, including robust indoor/outdo…
A&E Network announced its first weekly dramatic series, '100 Centre Street,' created and directed by Sidney Lumet, to be produced using high-definition video t…
The Consumer Electronics Association applauds FCC Chairman Kennard's push to hold broadcasters accountable for DTV transition promises while opposing a propose…
A joint consumer study by HDTV Magazine and the Consumer Electronics Association surveyed 318 DTV owners in September 2000, revealing that 82% purchased HDTV b…
The International Recording Media Association forecast DVD-Video players would reach 175 million households worldwide by end of 2004, with U.S. household penet…
WXXA-TV, a Clear Channel-owned Fox affiliate in Albany, NY, has deployed Sundance Digital's FastBreak NT automation system to manage spot insertion across both…
The Ackerley Group signed a letter of intent to purchase Panasonic's 53-foot 720p HDTV mobile production truck for $5 million, with the deal expected to close …
Brazil's ABERT/SET Study Group submitted its final technical evaluation of three digital terrestrial television systems — ATSC, DVB-T, and ISDB-T — to regulato…
Time Warner Chairman Gerald Levin testified before the FCC in support of the proposed AOL-Time Warner merger, arguing it would expand consumer choice, accelera…
AOL and Time Warner executives testified before the FCC in July 2000, arguing their proposed merger would benefit consumers by spurring broadband innovation, e…
American Production Services completed post production on 'Nicolas,' the first full-length American motion picture produced and edited entirely in 24p HD using…
Argentina's Secretary of Communications Henoch Aguiar announced the invalidation of the previous government's 1998 resolution adopting the ATSC standard for di…
The Advanced Television Systems Committee and the Association of Imaging Technology and Sound announced a joint seminar on ATSC Standards covering PSIP, Data B…
The ATSC Executive Committee unanimously voted to develop enhancements to the FCC-approved VSB transmission standard, targeting emerging DTV applications inclu…
The Advanced Television Systems Committee and the Society of Broadcast Engineers announced a joint initiative to develop educational materials, regional worksh…
The Digital TV Group has confirmed sponsorship of Broadband 2000, a major annual showcase for DTV, satellite, cable, ADSL, and broadband technologies organized…
Broadcom Corporation announced the BCM3510, the industry's first end-to-end chipset combining a VSB/QAM receiver with a 2D/3D video-graphics subsystem for rece…
The FCC approved Viacom's acquisition of CBS, covering 38 TV stations, 162 radio stations, and cable/satellite assets. The combined company received 12-month g…
The Consumer Electronics Association filed comments with the FCC arguing that cable industry foot-dragging on technical standards has blocked a competitive ret…
The Consumer Electronics Association and National Cable Television Association announced a labeling agreement to help consumers identify digital TV sets by the…
CEA President Gary Shapiro testified before the House Commerce Committee that broadcaster delays in delivering HDTV programming and potential misuse of DTV spe…
The Consumer Electronics Association reported factory sales of DTV displays reached 368,947 units in the first nine months of 2000, nearly seven times the same…
The Consumer Electronics Association filed comments with the FCC on June 8, 2000, urging swift resolution of outstanding DTV policy and technology issues to pr…
The Consumer Electronics Association announced that the Silver Pavilion at the 2001 International CES in Las Vegas would feature Upside's Digital Living Room P…
The Consumer Electronics Association filed comments with the FCC on June 19, 2000, arguing that free over-the-air broadcasting must remain the primary goal of …
The Consumer Electronics Association announced that the 2001 International CES, scheduled for January 6–9 in Las Vegas, would feature the latest DTV products f…
Constellation 3D and Sonic Solutions announced a partnership to master high-definition video content onto C3D's Fluorescent Multilayer Disc (FMD), an optical d…
The Consumer Federation of America's Director of Research Mark Cooper wrote to FCC Chairman William Kennard on November 27, 2000, urging the Commission not to …
DTV Plus partnered with WRAL-DT to deliver the first local datacast of companion content alongside gavel-to-gavel HDTV coverage of the 2000 Republican and Demo…
EchoStar's DISH Network added approximately 445,000 net subscribers in Q2 2000, ending the quarter with over 4.3 million customers — a 34 percent improvement o…
EchoStar Communications announced the availability of an optional 8VSB tuner cartridge for the DISH Network Model 6000 satellite receiver, enabling off-air ana…
EchoStar Communications announced the DISH HD Model 6000, an integrated satellite receiver supporting 1080i and 720p HDTV formats, available at retail for $499…
The Consumer Electronics Association announced expanded DTV product definitions on August 31, 2000, adding a new Enhanced Definition TV (EDTV) category between…
Henninger Productions announced completion of 'Gold!', a four-hour HDTV miniseries for The History Channel shot on a Sony HDW-700 wide-screen HD camcorder at l…
ONdigital announced the September 18, 2000 launch of ONnet, a service bringing full internet access to UK television viewers for £5 per month with no upfront c…
FCC Chairman William Kennard urged broadcasters to fulfill public interest obligations by carrying presidential debates and providing free candidate airtime. H…
DIRECTV announced three exclusive FREEVIEW concerts featuring Paul McCartney, Barry Manilow, and Peter Frampton, scheduled to air in May through June 2000. The…
NAB President Edward Fritts rebukes FCC Chairman Kennard for failing to exercise congressional authority on DTV receiver mandates, cable interoperability rules…
NHK — Japan Broadcasting Corporation — will serve as the HD pool provider for both the 2000 Republican and Democratic National Conventions, offering gavel-to-g…
NxtWave Communications introduced the NXT2002, a second-generation multimode VSB/QAM receiver chip supporting both ATSC terrestrial broadcast and 64/256-QAM ca…
Princeton Graphic Systems launched the PSC-1500 PureProgressive scan converter, a 480p progressive-scan device priced at $749 that replaces the PSC-1000 and ad…
CEA President Gary Shapiro addresses the International Electronic Cinema Festival, reporting that DTV sales are outpacing color TV, VCR, and DBS in their intro…
Genesis Microchip confirmed that Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic are using its gmVLX1A-X digital line doubler chip in new progressive-scan DVD players, as reporte…
Thomson multimedia announced four new HDTV models in pilot production, including a 38-inch direct-view widescreen set under the RCA and PROSCAN brands, with pr…
WRAL-TV in Raleigh, North Carolina announced a multi-million dollar purchase of 89 pieces of Panasonic DVCPRO HD equipment to become the first television stati…
Zenith Electronics staged a live laboratory demonstration at CES 2000 in Las Vegas, comparing VSB and COFDM receivers to counter Sinclair Broadcasting's FCC pe…
The FCC denied Sinclair Broadcast Group's petition to add COFDM as an option alongside 8-VSB in the ATSC digital television standard, with the decision subject…
Dr. Robert Hopkins, former ATSC Executive Director and Sony High Definition facility expert, explains how 24fps HD digital cameras solve longstanding NTSC-to-P…
The editorial examines the intensifying debate between 8-VSB and COFDM transmission standards for U.S. digital television, weighing technical trade-offs includ…
The FCC denied further action on Sinclair's petition to reconsider the 8-VSB DTV transmission standard, instead deferring the modulation question to its upcomi…
The 8-VSB versus COFDM modulation debate escalated into open conflict between Sinclair Broadcasting and the CEA, with Sinclair's Baltimore tests exposing multi…
Sinclair Broadcasting's long campaign against the 8-VSB digital transmission standard culminated in the ATSC unanimously voting to establish a new Modulation T…