HDTV Past, Present and Future

The History of HDTV and Changing Needs

It has been nearly 80 years since the first public demonstration of television took place in a crowded laboratory in London . Since that time television has advanced from blurry black and white pictures to stunning high-definition images with life-like depth and realism. How were these achievements made? More importantly, what should we expect in the future as we approach television's first centennial?

A Look Back

Today, there are more than 220 million televisions in the United States . These TV sets have their historical roots in technology that was pioneered in the late 1920's and 1930's. While many television milestones took place during these years, it was not until 1949 that sales of new sets really started taking off. In 1953, the NTSC ( National Television System Committee) standard was adopted for the transmission of color television and in 1954, RCA launched the first commercially available color TV. The 1950s also saw the beginning of a shift in television architecture, moving away from vacuum tube chassis to more solid state components.

During the 1960s, the transition from black and white TVs to color was largely completed. Other advancements during this decade included "HiFi" TV sets and widespread popularity of remote control units. In the mid 1970s, the advent of the VCR transformed the television experience with the ability to record and play back videotapes. The 1970s and 1980s were a time when many Americans took down their unsightly TV antennas and replaced them with cable TV boxes, offering a score of channels to flip through. The so called "MTV generation" was born into this era when television was no longer just a family entertainment center, but the center point of personal and generational expression. While it would be unfair to say that the ensuing years have been technologically dormant for television, few would argue that the next major milestone in TV history was the advent of high definition television (HDTV).

The Early Years of HDTV

Modern-day HDTV has its roots in research that was started in Japan by the NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) in 1970. In 1977, the SMPTE (The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers) Study Group on High Definition Television was formed. The group published its initial recommendations in 1980, which included, among other things, the definition of wide screen format and 1100-line scanning structure. The first demonstration of HDTV in the United States took place in 1981 and generated a great deal of interest. In 1987, the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) sought advice from the private sector and formed the Advisory Committee on Advanced Television Service. Initially, there were as many as 23 different ATV (Advanced Television) systems proposed to this committee, but by 1990, there were only 9 proposals remaining - all based on analog technology. However, by mid-1991, the leading ATV designs were based on a new all-digital approach. A joint proposal from several companies detailing an all-digital ATV system was given to the FCC in 1995. Following certain changes and compromises, this proposal was approved by the FCC in December, 1996 and became the mandated ATSC (Advanced Television Systems Committee) standard for terrestrial DTV/HDTV broadcasting. You can read more about the history of the ATSC at: http://www.atsc.org/history.html .

HDTV Today

After 35 years of development, high definition television has finally started making inroads in the consumer marketplace. Today, you hear a lot of HD buzzwords like: HD Ready, HD Compatible, Integrated HDTV, etc. To help consumers deal with the mounting tide of HDTV-related questions, the FCC created a consumer website http://www.dtv.gov in October 2004. The FCC has also set a timeline for the conversion from analog to digital television (DTV). As it stands now, analog television will cease in the United States on December 31, 2006, but there are many that believe that the FCC will extend this date until the penetration of DTV has reached 85% or greater in most key markets. Those still using old fashioned analog TVs won't be entirely out of luck; the FCC mandate requires that consumers be able to purchase a converter box so that their older analog sets can receive the new digital signals. While these converter boxes should be affordable, they will only output the same low resolution signals that our TVs currently use. If you want to see true HD, you'll need to spring for a fancy new HDTV set, projector or flat panel display.

What is HDTV?

What is HDTV really all about? What's new, and why is it better? The best way to make a comparison between standard definition television (SDTV) and high definition television (HDTV) is to consider today's popular digital cameras. Some years ago, when digital cameras first appeared on the consumer market, a popular digital camera featured a 1.6 Mega Pixel (Mpix) image sensor. At that time, 1.6 Mpix was considered high quality. Today, one can easily find 5 and 6 Mpix cameras with far better image quality for a lot less money.

In a similar way, HDTV delivers significantly more resolution than SDTV. For example, a 1080i HDTV signal offers about six times the resolution of a conventional 480i SDTV signal. HDTV also features a wider (16:9) aspect ratio format that more closely resembles human peripheral vision than the (4:3) aspect ratio used by conventional TVs in the past. Furthermore, HDTV is based on a system of 3 primary image signal components rather than a single composite signal, thus eliminating the need for signal encoding and decoding processes that can degrade image quality. Perhaps the biggest advantage over the old analog SDTV system is that HDTV is an inherently digital system. If installed properly, digital HDTV can provide the ultimate in pristine image quality, but there are many factors that must be considered, as we shall see.

HDTV in the Home

What do you need to see HDTV? As in any visual system there are three basic components to consider:

HDTV Sources:

When examining possible sources, one must be careful to distinguish between true HDTV sources and those that offer Enhanced Definition (EDTV), the latter being normal (SDTV) video that is scaled or "up-converted" to a higher resolution. While EDTV can certainly provide dramatic picture quality improvements over the original SDTV source, it can never offer the same level of image quality as a true HDTV source.

Examples of true HDTV sources are:

1. Off-air ATSC receivers using HDTV
2. Digital cable Set Top Boxes (STB) that offer HDTV service
3. Digital satellite receivers that offer HDTV service (i.e. DirecTV, DISH Network, et al.)
4. Windows Media High Definition Video
5. HD-DVD and Blu-Ray DVD players

Examples of EDTV sources are:

1. DVD players featuring DVI / HDMI outputs (with built-in HDTV scalars)
2. Video image processors (scalers)
3. Digital cable Set Top Boxes (STB) that offer EDTV service
4. Digital satellite receivers that offer EDTV service (i.e. DirecTV, DISH Network, et al.)

Another important consideration is analog versus digital sources. As previously stated, the ATSC has adopted a digital transmission system for HDTV; however, there are some HDTV sources on the market today that only offer analog outputs. Analog HDTV sources will become an increasingly greater rarity in a world of all-digital HDTV displays. This is especially true because all newer digital systems also employ HDCP (High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection) to safeguard digital content against illegal pirating. HDCP cannot be implemented in analog systems.

http://www.audioholics.com/education/display-formats-technology/hdtv-past-present-and-future-part-i-history