Having outgrown standard definition television (SDTV), Europe is now awaiting the next generation of transmission service - high definition TV (HDTV). Its high display resolution and optimal pictures for big screens promises to be extremely popular among a growing base of pay-TV consumers.
According to Frost & Sullivan, for consumers, however, to extensively adopt this HDTV service, not only should the picture be clear with no shadows or snow effects and consistent irrespective of the location, but the price and content should also be attractive. To appreciate this quality improvement, consumers have to be equipped with screens that can reconstitute images and sound systems of the same quality as the programming, as well as possess a decoder adapted to the chosen system. For broadcasters, it is important that the public is aware of home display capabilities related to HDTV. At the same time, they need to know about the conditions upon which their content is likely to be distributed.
Television broadcasters have to work together to set a uniform standard of presentation for making their HDTV services more attractive. Europe's national broadcasters, the members of the European broadcasting union, support the 'HD ready' label. "The aim of the 'HD ready' label is to give consumers the assurance that displays from different manufacturers are fully compliant with accepted technical standards of HD broadcasts," says Benoit Denis, research analyst with Frost & Sullivan. "The 'HD Ready' label also serves as a marketing tool to educate end users about HDTV."
The label will help greatly address the need to set and use common industry standards, adds Denis. Currently, the two most popular HDTV digital formats are 1080i and 720p. Higher resolutions such as 1080p may be introduced in the future, but are not feasible at present because of high production costs and shortage of very large screens.
Television networks have not agreed upon a standard for transmission. For instance, HD-1 in Europe or CBS and Discovery HE Theatre in the United States, transmit using 1080i, while ABC and ESPN-HD use 720p. Since broadcasters will relay different levels of resolution programmes throughout the viewing day in the early HDTV introduction stage, interoperability between standards and formats is vital for greater uptake of the service.
So far, the main hindrance to the deployment of HDTV over cable and IP networks has been bandwidth requirements for broadcast. However, the introduction of enhanced and more efficient video codec is encouraging satellite operators and broadcasters to shift from standard definition to high-definition services.
"These codec require significantly less bandwidth than that needed by the moving picture experts group (MPEG)-2 currently in use, thus doing away with this bandwidth limitation," says Denis. "Another secondary change due to this move toward HDTV is the shift from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4. Most of Europe is likely to rely on MPEG-4 for the transition to HDTV."
To ease the transfer to HDTV channels, Denis says that television service providers over asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) have to upgrade their networks. Cable operators also need to enlarge the capacity of their network to deliver 6 to 8 Mbps to each home for broadcasting in MPEG-4. Satellites, on the other hand, can transfer HDTV channels without upgrading along the network.
"Broadcasters will have to create new promotional incentives and packages for encouraging subscribers to buy new equipment and switch to HDTV," notes Denis. "On the other hand, if borne by the service providers, the cost of the set-top box will greatly reduce average revenue per user for the first years of the new service."
For a research overview on HDTV, contact Janina Hillgrub, [email protected]
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