Technology - Digital Broadcasting 3 - Television - ATSC, ISDB and Middleware

Synopsis

We discuss the Japanese ISDB and North American ATSC digital television broadcasting standards, which differs from the DVB used in most other countries. We consider technologies that affect broadcast television quality and usage, including real-time versus offline compression and personal video recorders. We also discuss DVB IP Datacasting and the MHEG and MHP middleware and transmission standards for digital television receivers.

Table of Contents

• 1. Synopsis
  
• 2. ISDB
  
  • 2.1 ISDB – OFDM in Japan
    
  • 2.2 ISDB-T in Brazil
    
  • 2.3 B-CAS for conditional access
    
  • 2.4 Band Segmented Transmission (BST)
    
  • 2.5 Partial reception and loss of frequency diversity
    
  • 2.6 Hierarchical transmission
    
  • 2.7 IDSB-Tsb (Sound Broadcasting)
    
    • 2.7.1 Modulation for mobile reception
      
  • 2.8 1seg
    
• 3. Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) – USA
  
  • 3.1 8-VSB Vestigial Sideband
    
    • 3.1.1 Multipath reflections
      
  • 3.2 8-VSB challenged by Sinclair Broadcast Group
    
  • 3.3 Single frequency networks not possible
    
  • 3.4 Enhanced E8-VSB
    
  • 3.5 Failure of regulation to protect the interests of the public
    
• 4. DVD, HDTV and IPTV
  
  • 4.1 High Definition TV (HDTV)
    
  • 4.2 Internet Protocol TV (IPTV)
    
  • 4.3 Personal Video Recorders (PVRs)
    
  • 4.4 Commercial and strategic factors in standardisation
    
    • 4.4.1 50Hz versus 60Hz – PAL/SECAM and NTSC
      
    • 4.4.2 Interests of incumbent broadcasters and manufacturers
      
  • 4.5 Lossy compression techniques
    
  • 4.6 Data rates for sound and video
    
  • 4.7 Video compression
    
    • 4.7.1 Real-time compression
      
    • 4.7.2 Offline compression
      
• 5. Digital TV Middleware
  
  • 5.1 DVB Multimedia Home Platform (MHP)
    
    • 5.1.1 MHEG – MHP Co-existence
      
    • 5.1.2 TV-Anytime CRID
      
  • 5.2 IP Datacasting - DVB-IPDC
    
• 6. Related reports