Fade to Black
On the eve of the shut-off of analog television broadcasts in the United States, CEA (Consumer Electronics Association) CEO and President Gary Shapiro welcomed press and analysts to Digital Downtown, a New York City event celebrating the latest in consumer electronics technology. The DTV transition may happen in an instant (OK, technically four instants as midnight makes its way across the continent) but it represents the culmination of many years of preparation.
From the seemingly endless debates and discussions in the 80s and 90s that led to a domestic HDTV standard, to the sale of the first digital television in the US in 1998 and the first HDTV broadcasts later that year, and now to the ubiquity of affordable flat panel digital televisions, this moment was inevitable. And now, it is upon us. At midnight on June 12th, with the exception of a few low-powered local broadcasts in some rural areas, the only TV you'll be able to watch is Digital TV. Cable and satellite customers are unaffected as these services are exempt from the analog cut-off mandate, and their set-top boxes work both with new digital TVs and older analog TVs. But owners of older analog sets who receive their TV shows with rabbit ears will see nothing but snow in just a few short hours.
In January, the Obama administration pushed for, and won, an extension of the analog cutoff date from February 17th to June 12th, based on studies that showed that over six million U.S. households were unprepared for the transition as the original cutoff date loomed. According to a new study by Nielsen (as reported by CNET), that number has shrunk to about 2.8 million. This improvement came courtesy of an infusion of additional cash into the government-sponsored converter box coupon program. With this program, the equipment required to convert digital signals to analog can be purchased for as little as a penny (up to about $20) after applying a government issued coupon. For those who have still not made the transition, coupons are still available on the DTV 2009 web site. The FCC has also set up a special hotline for those who have questions about the transition: Call 888-CALL-FCC - operators are standing by...
What's Next?
After Gary's introduction, a tag team of CEA analysts launched into their take on the future of television. With the DTV transition behind us, and the picture quality of flat panel and other digital televisions reaching an all-time high, the CEA analysts project that future development will be primarily in convergence - the melding of TVs, computers and online media. Instead of just being dumb display devices, televisions and the source devices hooked up to them (blu-ray players, set-top boxes, etc.) will evolve into multi-media portals that display not just images and sounds from physical media, but streaming content delivered from the home network and from the internet at large.
We're seeing these trends already in Blu-ray players from LG, Samsung and Panasonic which also offer at least one flavor of internet content streaming as well as dedicated set-top boxes from Roku and Vudu which specialize in the delivery of online content to your living room. Current HDTV models from LG, Samsung, and Panasonic (among others) provide online streaming as well.
The CEA analysts noted another potential area for future development: the experience of high quality 3D entertainment at home. 3D-ready plasma and DLP HDTVs from Samsung and Mitsubishi are already on the market, but these only work with PC-based content, mostly PC games. There are some 3D DVDs and Blu-ray Discs currently available, but these rely on ancient anaglyph technology (those red and blue glasses), which produces only limited results. The next major content development in the TV arena is expected to be the adoption of a 3D standard for Blu-ray Disc. Let's hope they can do this in a way that's backwards-compatible, but if not, we'll tell you all about the impending 3DTV transition... in a decade or two.
Related Articles:
