Digital TV
16 years of “Grand Alliance”, not royalty-free yet?
MPEG envisages royalty-free MPEG video coding standard
MPEG has issued a press release describing its intent to move forward on developing a royalty-free MPEG standard. The press release is here, relevant part is below. The meeting resolution approving the press release is here. ************ UPDATE: This press release was picked up in multiple articles, and most interestingly discussed in the Guardian blog [...]
DTG Group Challenges Semi-Open Stance of Project Canvas
Last August I questioned if the BBC-led hybrid DTV Project Canvas was “seduced by the cynical allure of a semi-open ‘standards-based open environment‘” . Many kudos to the DTG — the lead UK DTV standards group — who today released its tough-love “parallel process” criticism in the BBC Trust oversight consultation. To wit: “it is [...]
A Royalty-Free MPEG: It’s Time for ISO and ITU to Deliver
In late 2001, to much industry enthusiasm, H.264 and MPEG-4 AVC were launched as the world’s unifying codec family in a joint project between ITU and ISO/MPEG with the undertaking that the “JVT [Joint Video Team] will define a “baseline” profile. That profile should be royalty-free for all implementations.” The failure to deliver on this [...]
Don’t Quit – Evolve! ATSC Forum to Close Doors
Last week, Business News Americas broke the story that the ATSC Forum — the industry group that lobbies for the international adoption of the US ATSC digital TV standard of the Advanced Television Systems Committee — plans to close its doors at the end of September. Although the ATSC Forum’s closure has gotten little attention [...]
Patent Dumping For Democracy: Reconsidering America’s DTV Diplomacy
“More Democratic” … “It is a matter of social justice” So US ambassadors have lobbied South American governments since 2007 that “[t]he issue is whether the government will choose the [ATSC] digital television standard that is already providing the highest quality, lowest cost, and most democratic opportunities …” In recent months Peru, Argentina, and now [...]
The BRIC That Could: How Brazil Is Changing Your TV
Europe sneers at their technology. US’s DTV transition passed them by. BBC’s intelligentsia never noticed them. No consumer electronics industry to match Asia; neighbors don’t speak their language. So how did Brazil become a world leader in digital TV? And why the tip of the hat to Brazil DTV middleware leader TQTVD, to whom I [...]
DTV Patent Pools: What’s Wrong & How to Fix It
At the 2009 Brazil SET Broadcasting & Cable Conference I presented on 3 panel topics: “DTV Patent Pools: What’s Wrong & How to Fix It” (pdf) “Conformance & Certification: Key to Digital Switch Over“ “Hybrid TV, The Way Forward?“ Slides on DTV patents below; the overall theme that Brazil has become a world DTV leader [...]
Hybrid TV: The Way Forward?
At the 2009 Brazil SET Broadcasting & Cable Conference I presented on 3 panel topics: “DTV Patent Pools: What’s Wrong & How to Fix It“ “Conformance & Certification: Key to Digital Switch Over“ “Hybrid TV, The Way Forward?“(pdf) The overall theme that Brazil has become a world DTV leader was picked up in the Brazil [...]
What Have We Learned From the Digital Switch Over?
At the 2009 Brazil SET Broadcasting & Cable Conference I presented on 3 panel topics: “DTV Patent Pools: What’s Wrong & How to Fix It” “Conformance & Certification: Key to Digital Switch Over” (pdf) “Hybrid TV, The Way Forward?“ The overall theme that Brazil has become a world DTV leader was picked up in the [...]
With Argentina Embracing ISDB, ATSC Forum Should Look at Its Education Function
September 1, 2009 VIA ECFS AND ELECTRONIC MAIL [pdf here] Marlene H. Dortch, Secretary Federal Communications Commission Office of the Secretary 445 12th Street, SW Washington, DC 20554 Re: Notice of Written Ex Parte Presentation In the Matter of Petition for Rulemaking and Request for Declaratory Ruling Filed by the Coalition United to Terminate the [...]