News and Reviews....

    The "H" in HDTV    July 2002

    The May 1 deadline for all commercial U.S. Broadcast Stations to begin at least some HDTV transmission was far from met. Over 800 stations asked the Federal Communications Commission for at least a 6 month extension to prepare their DTV debuts.

    After confusing most consumers with Digital TV jargon about HDTV, the Consumer Electronics Association is shifting its focus to the H (High) in HDTV. And so its not about Digital TV but High Definition TV. It seems the two things slowing down the process are Cable and Copyright issues. Not having Plug and Play cable receivers as well as the Hollywood factor of copyright protection is slowing down the delivery to cable households nationwide.

    Most cable companies are proposing to have more programming by January 2003. As we all know the Drop Dead Date for our current analog TV signals, and complete conversion to digital is the year 2006.(update: April 9, 2009)

Not so far in the future as it might seem.