[B&C/MCN] HD Newsletter - November 1, 2007 B&CMCN
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November 1, 2007
IN THIS ISSUE
  1. TOP STORY: Best Buy Waves Goodbye to Analog
  2. NEWS:

    --Kids Are HD Viewers, Too

    --Miranda All Business for CNBC+HD

  3. Q&A: Matthew Goldman, Tandberg Television
  4. Briefing Room: News from B&C, Multichannel News and TWICE
  5. Around the Web

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Top Story
Best Buy Waves Goodbye to Analog

The digital conversion is more than one year away, but Best Buy is already making its own conversion, dumping all analog-TV products from its store shelves.
 
The company also announced that it will participate in the National Telecommunications & Information Administration digital-TV converter-box-coupon program to help people purchase digital converter boxes for their analog televisions. Coupon-eligible converter boxes will be available in Best Buy stores beginning in early 2008.
 
Best Buy spokesman Brian Lucas said analog tuners represented a small percentage of Best Buy’s assortment at the time the decision was made to pull them from shelves.
 
“We think it's the right thing to do for the customer,” Lucas added. “Now every television we sell will be part of the solution preparing for the DTV transition and will not be adding to the problem.”
 
Best Buy is the first consumer-electronics retailer to publicly announce an exit from the analog-television business. Stores were instructed to stop selling these products Oct. 1.
 
Mike Vitelli, senior vice president of electronics for Best Buy, said the move was designed to help customers be sure that any television they purchase at Best Buy will be fully compliant with the DTV transition.
 
Best Buy will begin to stock and sell coupon-eligible DTV converter boxes and will be accepting NTIA coupons beginning in early 2008. An exact date for the rollout of the boxes in stores is still being determined. Beginning Jan. 1, U.S. households can request up to two electronic coupons, at a value of $40 each, that can be used at Best Buy and other participating retailers toward the purchase of eligible digital-to-analog converter boxes.
 
“This is long overdue,” consumer-electronics analyst Jonathan Blum said. “The digital transition to date has really been more of how a market should not behave during a transition. Remember that the photo industry went through a far tougher transition. They got rid of film. But they did it in about one-half of the time with far better results.”
 
“We want this move to help jump-start awareness around the DTV transition,” Lucas said. “This is a confusing issue and, if we can take a step like this to help eliminate one of the variables, it should definitely make things at least a little more clear.”

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News
Kids Are HD Viewers, Too
 
Sports has gone HD, primetime programs have gone HD, the news is HD, but what about the children? Meeting the HD needs of the younger set is one reason why Voom HD Networks' Animania HD, a channel solely dedicated to HD animation, recently acquired three new kids’ series.
 
Headlining the lineup of acquired programming is the world premiere of Animalia, based on Graeme Base's best-selling picture book of the same name, Friday, Nov. 2 at 8:30 p.m.
 
Keith O'Connell, vice president of programming for Animania HD, said true HD content for kids is a real untapped market. “Animania HD is the only kids’ channel broadcasting in true HD, and it is also available 24/7 and commercial-free,” he added. “And there is a significant difference between shows produced in true HD versus those that are upconverted.”
 
O’Connell said animation lends itself very well to HD with its bright color palettes and many textures. “The programs can take kids to all sorts of new and colorful animated worlds, which are visually stunning in true HD,” he added.
 
The network will premiere 10 episodes of Animalia in November and five more in December. The Gloops will have 24 episodes broadcast in November and another 28 in December. Cosmic Quantum Ray will premiere with four episodes in November and four in December.
 
“Some animation definitely lends itself better to HD than others, including CGI and 3-D, as well as stop motion and some flash,” O’Connell said. “The key is for the animation to pop off the screen and give kids a real cinematic experience in their own homes. Anything with multiple dimensions and layers, as well as a strong color palette, works well in HD.”

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News
Miranda All Business for CNBC+HD
 
CNBC HD+, the new HD financial-news channel from CNBC, is using a Miranda Technologies Imagestore 750 master-control and channel-branding processor to present more investor information to its viewers than the current standard-definition channel.
 
The move to use the extra screen space for delivering more information rather than wider shots of anchors and reporters is seen by CNBC as core to its mission of keeping viewers on top of the latest stocks, commodities and financial markets.
 
“We've taken a whole new approach for our HD+ channel,” said Steve Fastook, vice president of technical and commercial operations at CNBC. “We wanted to give our viewers, the most affluent in cable, more tools to make financial decisions.”
 
CNBC will display a lot more than simply automatic data on a loop. ”For example, if we're running a story on a particular company, we can use the HD+ channel's graphics side panel to display in-depth statistics about the company, its competitors, the industry subset, and even insert headlines with real-time input from our producers, to add real value for our investor viewers,” Fastook said. “As our viewers become more accustomed to our investors' tool kit, their eyes will move naturally to the data on the right.”
 
The new CNBC HD+ channel incorporates an upconverted clean feed of the SD channel, which is used in 4:3 format on the left of the HD screen area, with HD graphics and tickers in the foreground. The space on the right of the screen area is used for supporting graphics, allowing much more financial data to be presented than the existing SD channel.
 
“We have a tremendous amount of business expertise which, in the 4:3 world, hasn't been readily available to our audience,” Fastook said. “With our HD channel, we can now give the viewer more data, more insight and more tools to work with.'”
 
CNBC's SD channel shows only three major indices with variance and price at the top of the screen, such as the Dow, NASDAQ and FTSE. In contrast, the new CNBC HD+ channel allows five indices to be shown so investors do not have to wait for relevant information to appear. The real-time financial data are fed from the stock exchange, and the Imagestore 750's DVE enables the data to be displayed in different positions for prime time and weekends.
 
The Imagestore 750 processor also allows a second video stream to be made available to CNBC HD+ viewers, using a small window in the bottom of the HD screen. Viewers can use their remote to switch the audio from the main video feed to the second video stream.

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Q&A
Needs Determine Flavor of MPEG

Matthew Goldman
Vice President of Technology, Compression Systems
Tandberg Television

The HD-compression world continues to evolve with companies like Tandberg Television (now part of Ericsson) working hard on developing new and improving current MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 technologies. Matthew Goldman, vice president of technology of Tandberg Television, is leading the company’s charge in development of new products and technologies. He discussed the MPEG landscape at the recent HD World conference in New York.

Q: The big story in the past two months has been DirecTV’s first steps toward offering a 100-channel HD universe. What is the ripple effect on cable systems?
 
A: The cable companies are trying to clear up bandwidth by removing as many analog channels as they can and going digital. One analog channel takes the same amount of bandwidth as two or three HD channels using MPEG2. So if the cable companies can clear out 40 analog channels, they can carry 100 national channels. The problem is helping those subscribers who are analog only to transition.
 
Q: What others steps are the cable companies taking to open up bandwidth?
 
A: A lot of them are adopting switched-digital video, where they push the fiber as far out as they can and then use as little coaxial as they can for distribution. One advantage of that approach is that it helps with VOD [video-on-demand] services and can make the cable service more personal.
 
Q: Are you working with DirecTV on its HD services?
 
A: DirecTV selected our encoders for local-into-local HD channels and, including that deal, we’ve shipped more than 1,500 MPEG-4 AVC encoders to the marketplace, giving us the lion’s share by far.
 
Q: How is MPEG-4 transforming the industry?
 
A: For new and growth areas, like IPTV [Internet-protocol TV], they’re using MPEG-4 AVC. HD MPEG-2 is simply not viable for telco networks using xDSL [digital subscriber line] access technology. Terrestrial broadcasting, for the foreseeable future, will be in MPEG-2 here in the United States, due to regulatory and DTV-receiver legacy reasons. In addition, since the direct-broadcast satellite providers like DirecTV have launched a large number of HD MPEG-4 channels, it places pressure on the competition to match or exceed that service offering. Due to bandwidth constraints, the only way to do that in many cases is to launch new services with MPEG-4, as well.
 
Q: So how do MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 stack up?
 
A: There is no question which is more bit-rate-efficient. MPEG-4 delivers great picture quality at a far lower bit rate than MPEG-2. The question is when a network has up to 100 megabits per second of bandwidth to handle signals for, say, backhaul contribution, there is plenty of bandwidth for MPEG-2. But for applications that are bandwidth-constrained and green-field, there is no doubt that MPEG-4 is the way to go.
 
Q: So when does a network know whether or not MPEG-4 is for them?
 
A: It depends on the application. If there are no regulatory restrictions or legacy set-top-box/DTV-receiver issues, then MPEG-4 is clearly the choice for distribution to consumers. However, for backhaul/fronthaul applications, if you have access to 100 mbps, why change from MPEG-2? But if you want to run at 45 mbps and fit into a DS3 line, then there might be an application for MPEG-4. Another reason might be to have consistency of formats.
 
 

--Interviewed by Ken Kerschbaumer

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Briefing Room

Akamai Pushes HD Online
(From an Oct. 29 article at BroadcastingCable.com)

Content-delivery network Akamai Technologies created a Web portal dedicated to HD video, "TheHDWeb," which was also designed to show off Akamai’s solution for reliably delivering HD video to consumers. The new Web site features content from Apple, BBC Motion Gallery, BudTV, CBS, Gannett, MTV Networks, the National Basketball Association and Sidetrack Films spanning the genres of music, movies, professional sports, games and news. The video on the service is being delivered by Akamai's distributed-edge-delivery platform, which is configured for optimal delivery of HD files online by deploying servers directly in the networks of broadband Internet-service providers to ensure that content is served closest to the end-user.
For more…

DirecTV Sues Cox Communications Over HD Ads
(From an Oct. 23 article at Broadcastingcable.com)

Ads claiming cable’s superiority in HD-picture quality are the subject of another lawsuit initiated by satellite-television operator DirecTV. DirecTV filed a suit last week against Cox Communications for “false and misleading” statements made by the cable operator on its Web site. Using a March 2007 Frank A. Magid Associates research study commissioned by Comcast, Cox made several claims on its site, including, “HD looks better with cable” and “Satellite customers agreed that cable has a better HD picture.” DirecTV contended that those claims referencing Comcast cannot also be used for Cox because cable companies throughout the country use different technology and equipment and there are “substantial differences in the quality of high-definition service provided by various cable providers.”
For more…

NDS Gets Into HD DVR Game
(From an Oct. 24 article at Multichannel.com)

NDS Group introduced an HD digital-video recorder for Internet-protocol-TV providers, running its Metro middleware on an Amino Communications AmiNET530 set-top box. NDS already lined up a reseller: SES Americom will integrate the HD DVR set-top into its IP-PRIME IPTV solution for telcos. “Offering a DVR that delivers the same HD quality in recorded programs as the viewer experiences when watching the live program is an obvious next step in IP-PRIME’s solution,” SES Americom product manager Walt Davis said in a prepared statement
For more…

EchoStar Launches IPTV Platform
(From an Oct. 23 article at Multichannel.com)

EchoStar Communications and its subsidiary, EchoStar FSS, launched ViP-TV, which can transport more than 300 channels via satellite to telcos, private and rural cable operators, municipalities and master-planned community video providers. ViP-TV’s suite of channels includes ViP-Premier, which offers more than 100 channels of the most popular TV programming; ViP-HD, which boasts 40 channels of industry-leading HD programming; ViP-Movies, a menu of 40 of the most popular movie services; ViP-Latino, offering 30 of the top-rated Spanish-language programming services; and the ViP-International programming package, providing more than 30 programming channels in 10 different languages.
For more…

Comcast Adds Seven HD Channels in Houston
(From an Oct. 22 article at Multichannel.com)

Continuing a rollout of new services into its acquired Houston cable market, Comcast added seven HD-programming networks and nine Spanish-language channels. Comcast added to its HD-network count National Geographic HD (channel 283); USA HD (284); A&E HD (285); History Channel HD (286); HGTV HD (Channel 287); Food Network HD (288) and CNN HD (Channel 299).
For more…

In Demand Serves Up HD Pair
(From an Oct. 19 article at Multichannel.com)

In Demand is offering two new HD sports-package channels aimed at providing cable operators with more bandwidth options in their battle against satellite providers over enhanced signal products. The company bowed GameHD, which will air NHL Center Ice out-of-market action, and will soon tip off TeamHD, which will focus on HD games through the NBA League Pass pay-per-view package. The new channels are positioned within the traditional sports package area of the cable systems’ lineups, according to In Demand vice president of business development Jason Patton.
For more…

Panasonic Seeks Family HD Time
(From an Oct. 24 article at Twice.com)

Panasonic continued to push the family theme of its “Living in High Definition” promotional campaign by launching a national “call-to-action” in its “Bring Back Family Time” advertising program. Panasonic’s message asks families to pledge more quality time together and offers how-to suggestions, many of which include the use of HD video products. Panasonic said its call to action resulted from an Opinion Research study that revealed that “parents and teen-agers actually want to spend more quality time together.”
For more…

Transformers Sets HD Records
(From an Oct. 23 article at Twice.com)

As many industry watchers expected, Paramount Home Entertainment revealed that the HD-DVD release of Transformers set a new HD disc record for most sales on the first day and the first week of release. The studio said more than 100,000 discs sold on the first day and more than 190,000 sold in its first week. It is “quickly becoming the best-selling HD DVD ever,” Paramount said.
For more…

Analysts See Black Friday Flat-Panel-TV Repeat
(From an Oct. 22 article at Twice.com)

Key analysts tracking the consumer-television industry said the notorious holiday promotional period known as Black Friday will again draw aggressive pricing activity this year, although some of that will be directed at different screen sizes, display technologies and a broader selection of brands than in 2006. Hot segments to watch, they said, will be both LCD and plasma flat-panel models, in both 720p and 1080p resolution levels.
For more…

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Around the Web
Hitachi Slims Down HD
TV Technology reports that Hitachi will launch its new line of 1.5-inch Ultra Thin HDTVs in December. The new Ultra Thin series will be available first in Japan at the end of the year and in the U.S. market in early 2008. The company is initially offering the flat-panel display in three sizes: 32 inch (1366x768), 37 inch (1920x1080) and 42 inch (1920x1080). The company said thin displays are designed to provide consumers with options for placement throughout the home because consumers want them for a kitchen, bathroom, office or bedroom.
For more…
 
Wal-Mart Does HD-DVD on the Cheap
TG Daily reports that Wal-Mart answered rumors of an HD DVD player for under $200, making it the cheapest next-generation DVD player to date. Wal-Mart officially stocked and begun selling Toshiba's low-cost HD-A2 HD DVD player for $198. The player was already the least expensive stand-alone HD disc player, but the Wal-Mart price point takes that record even lower.
For more…
 
HD Video-on-Demand Service to Go Live
Tech.co.uk reports that it may be two months late, but the domestic HD video-on-demand service promised to Japanese consumers by Panasonic, Sharp, Sony, So-net, Toshiba and Hitachi is almost ready to roll. The acTVila scheme was due to start in September, but it will now go live Nov. 1. It will offer HD pay-per-view films that can be downloaded direct to suitably equipped TV sets for a fee of between ¥210 (90 pence) and ¥420 (£1.80), depending on the movie.
For more…
 
Samsung Benches Third-Gen Blu-ray Player
Video Business reports that Samsung indefinitely benched its high-end third-generation player, the BD-P2400, in order to better focus on its other new 2007 models, according to a company representative. At the same time, Samsung confirmed a mid- to late-December launch of its dual-format player, the BD-UP5000, which will be compliant with new Blu-ray Disc hardware requirements by the time titles featuring advanced Blu-ray technology, such as picture-in-picture interactivity, launch next year.
For more…
 
Fox Business Crazy for HD
Broadcast Engineering reports that the launch of Fox Business Network last week was noteworthy not simply because it was in HD, but because of the way the new financial network is using its wider 16:9 aspect ratio to present data to HD viewers. Rather than the traditional wings to either side of center-cut video, the new network is combining them into what it’s calling the Fox HD Wing to give more screen real estate to financial charts, indices and other news graphics.
For more…
 
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