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Articles: What’s On The Box – 59
In the first part of our extensive TV issue coverage, Phil Hanson gives us a broad view of what’s happening with television in our green and pleasant land
A few weeks ago, Panasonic was busy finalising its new range of flat screen televisions and, in its own way, marking an important milestone. For the first time there is no standard definition-only model − Panasonics’s entire range is high definition (HD) capable. At the same time, its cathode ray tube (CRT) line is in its last year, signalling for this company the end of an era that in New Zealand began when low-power experimental transmissions flickered into homes on bug-eyed black and white tubes nearly 50 years ago.
In other offices, other companies have made, are making or will soon make similar adjustments. We’re at a crossroads; television is heading in new directions and the way we use and view it is being forever changed.
For starters, a television is no longer just for watching television. It’s just as much for gaming, for watching DVDs and their HD kin, for showing home movies made on those wonderful small handycams that offer close to broadcast quality, for hooking your new Apple TV to, and as a computer monitor. Yeah, okay, TVs have been used for some of these things since Johnny got his Commodore 64, but now they make a damned good job of it, especially those with ‘touch-me-I’m-real’ 1080p resolution capability.
And let’s not forget the internet. “Moving from broadcast TV to broadband TV changes the whole industry,” says Bill Gates’s Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) head, Moshe Lichtman. Conventional broadcasting worldwide is restricted by limited channel capacity; the web, on the other hand, has room for everything and lets you stack shows on the screen. Someday you’ll be able to watch several games at once, or choose to view a game from several different angles.
Because the internet is open to any digital content, the TV will merge with other technologies: you’ll be able to check your bank balance during commercial breaks to see if you have enough to pay for next month’s subscription fees.
“The convergence of AV/IT will continue to gain momentum as IPTV applications become available through the internet as visual media,” says Hastings-based importer Mark Anderson. “But presently the bitrate speed is not sufficient to provide HD steaming. Inevitably, though, IPTV will become a major category.”
Bill Gates says, “the Internet is the future of TV,” and has signed a US$400 million deal with the large American telecom SBC to make it happen.
But back to now …
Shop till we drop
What are we buying? The 42-inch panel seems to be the replacement of choice for the 29-inch or larger CRT set. Those who had 25-inch CRTs tend to be looking at the 32-inch panel and there’s growing demand for smaller panels, around 26 inches, for the bedroom, kitchen and, yes, even the bathroom (with the proper precautions).
However, the current big growth area is in the 50-inchers, which have come out of the confines of the home theatre and into the living rooms of those who want a bigger bang for their buck. It’s also a popular size for those replacing their bulky rear projection set. On the other hand, it can be argued that the best value category is now the 32-inch LCD set with HDMI/HDCP (see the glossary).
And beyond the technical merits of a panel, cosmetics feature heavily in the Kiwi’s buying choice. Terrible picture darling, but I just love the bezel.
TV in noughts and ones
Free-to-air digital television is being rolled out right now (see the article on Freeview). Key benefits of digital signal processing are better picture and sound quality, but it will also allow the introduction of new services such as transmitting multiple streams of video on a single channel − known as multicasting − and datacasting. For those who like to know this kind of stuff, there are various flavours of digital to get your tongue around. New Zealand, Australia, Europe, parts of South America and much of Asia use Coded Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (COFDM).
The United States uses Eight Level Vestigial Sideband (8VSB); Japan has its own variation of COFDM. North American digital cable television uses Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM). Direct broadcast satellite services use Quadrature Phase-Shift Keying (QPSK). So much for global standardisation.
Meanwhile, there’s been local experimental broadcasting of live TV to mobile phones using DVB-H technology − that’s Digital Video Broadcasting for Handheld. This offers excellent quality and is independent of the cellular networks; the experimental broadcasts were from Auckland’s Waiatarua transmitter. Telecommunications company Kordia, which arranged the broadcasts, is working with Nokia to possibly introduce the pay service, thus unleashing viewing-size options ranging from a few inches to more than 100 inches − and proving that bigger and smaller can both be better. Sky has also been broadcasting to Vodafone cellphones.
In our new TV world you’ll be able to watch on anything from a traditional box in the shed to a computer to a screen on the phone. But for oomph and high quality, the big panel in the living room or home theatre will remain king of the castle and it’s little wonder that the trend towards larger screens continues unabated.
The number of sets per household is also increasing, with smaller displays hanging conveniently on the walls of many rooms, perhaps replacing framed pictures.
Computers, meanwhile, are increasingly being used to watch digital streaming video. At the same time, TV panels will increasingly be used to display video stored on computers. Talk about blurring the line between computer and TV… To modify the punchline from the drink-driving TV commercials: “anything you want to see, any time, on any device.”
Universal remotes will continue to gain momentum in the battle against the clutter of multiple devices. Yeah!
I can see clearly now
This time next year we’ll be offered free high definition television; at least we will if the terrestrial signal’s clear enough where you live. Around the same time, Sky will be rolling out its pay-HD.
With the arrival of high def, expect to see added interest in those larger panels − you’re not going to get the full blast of the new format on a tiddly 32. No sir, you’re going to want at least a 42, probably a 50 or 60 and, if you’ve just struck Lotto gold, the 103 that will soon be unleashed here (around $90,000 should see you into one).
What is high-definition TV? Well, in essence any video screened at higher than standard definition, but more specifically 720i, 720p, 1080i and 1080p. The number refers to how many pixel scan lines appear on a screen. The ‘i’ means interlaced, in which odd-numbered horizontal scan lines are displayed first and the even ones on a second pass, creating an ultra-high speed flicker.
The ‘p’ stands for progressive scan, in which all horizontal scan lines are ‘painted’ in a single pass, providing a more stable and cleaner image that works especially well with fast-motion content. It’s the good guy, the Everest of formats, although HD images in any of the other formats are nothing to be sneezed at and deliver a significantly better picture than our PAL standard-def, with its 576 horizontal line screen resolution. (Which in its own way is high-def compared to the American 480-line NTSC system!)
However, 1080p may not be the Nirvana forever. Already Japan’s broadcasting corporation, NHK, has demonstrated 4320p with 22.2 channel audio.
Boxing on
One day shoppers will be able to buy a TV with the electronics to receive HD built-in, doing away with the need for a separate box. But don’t expect it right away; Australia got its first HD services in 2001, but integrated sets only became available last year. The TV manufacturing giants aren’t going to engineer products for our tiny market, but when some European countries adopt HD specifications similar to ours, we’ll be able to ride along.
Last Ray Of Home
The CRT television may have been relegated to runner-up, but retailers and some distributors expect it to be around for a while yet, meeting the demand from those for whom price is everything.
Although even that’s not true in all cases, as some smaller LCD panels can be bought for less than a 25-inch or 29-inch CRT. Let’s not forget that the good old tube still offers a superb picture; its ‘faults’ are its bulk and, by today’s standards, small screen sizes. And, as one retailer put it: “HD’s the buzzword today, and CRT can’t do that.”
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