Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by mikenyc on December 31, 2002 at 06:39:25

In Reply to: The Sounds of Music...... HDTV rules! posted by Victor Khomenko on December 30, 2002 at 08:26:44:

Courtesy of the latimes.com...

December 19, 2002 Cable, TV Companies Reach Deal on HDTV


By Jon Healey, Times Staff Writer

Cable operators and TV manufacturers have struck a long-awaited agreement designed to make it easier for consumers to get high-definition television from cable, ensure their ability to record most digital programs and preserve the value of older HDTV sets.

The deal, which is expected to be announced today, would open the door for cable-ready digital TV sets that could deliver HDTV without a separate set-top box. This kind of plug-and-play simplicity is crucial for digital TV, set manufacturers say, because about two-thirds of U.S. homes rely on cable to deliver their TV signals.

"If we can cross this hurdle, I think we can really open the floodgates for consumer interest" in digital TV, said David H. Arland, director of government and public relations for Thomson Multimedia, which owns the RCA brand.

The deal won't take effect, however, unless the Federal Communications Commission adopts a regulation applying the agreement to all cable and satellite operators. At least some of the provisions are expected to draw opposition from satellite companies, TV programmers and Hollywood studios, which were excluded from the private negotiations between cable operators and set makers.

Representatives of the cable operators' and manufacturers' trade associations declined to discuss the deal, which took more than five months to negotiate.

One likely sticking point involves the scrambling of HDTV signals. The proposed regulation would effectively bar cable and satellite operators from scrambling the signals all the way to the TV set, according to sources close to the negotiations. End-to-end scrambling would help guard programs against piracy -- a key goal for the studios and networks -- but it also would prevent older HDTV sets from displaying them.

Consumer electronics manufacturers and cable operators have battled for years over how to make TVs work with all U.S. cable systems, which use a variety of incompatible techniques to scramble channels and deter piracy. The FCC stepped in four years ago, ordering cable operators to develop standardized security modules that could be plugged into any TV set or converter box with a matching slot.

That order has borne little fruit, mainly because set makers balked at the conditions cable operators wanted to place on using the modules. But FCC efforts to spur the transition to digital TV helped drive the parties back to the negotiating table.

The overall thrust of the agreement is simple: to let manufacturers sell basic digital TV sets that can receive all cable channels -- including ones carrying HDTV programs -- through a simple wall connection. Video on demand and other interactive services would still require a set-top box, although future talks may pave the way for more advanced cable-ready digital TVs.

Sources close to the negotiations said the two sides grappled with complex issues concern- ing how digital shows are recorded, transmitted and protected against piracy.

Cable operators ultimately agreed to numerous limits on the security measures they can impose, sources said, but only if the FCC imposes the same limits on satellite operators. That way, cable operators wouldn't risk losing programs -- and customers -- to their top competitors, Hughes Electronics Corp.'s DirecTV and EchoStar Communications Corp.'s Dish Network.

Sources outlined the following provisions of the deal, which may prove to be the most controversial:

* Analog connectors. The vast majority of the 4 million digital TV sets and monitors already sold to consumers rely on analog sockets to connect to cable and satellite boxes. Unlike digital connectors, analog inputs can't handle a scrambled signal.

The cable industry had wanted to let programmers send some HDTV shows to sets with only digital connections, a feature of the newest digital TVs. But the agreement calls for the FCC to prevent cable and satellite operators from doing that.

* Downgraded HDTV signals. Instead of turning off analog connectors, some programmers had sought to limit the picture quality of signals sent to those inputs in order to deter pirates from copying HDTV shows.

The proposed regulation would bar cable and satellite operators from downgrading any program that also was available over the air for free. It also would make it difficult to downgrade other programs.

* Recording restrictions. The proposed regulation would allow consumers to make at least one copy of most programs, with the main exception being those delivered via pay-per-view and video-on-demand services. Programs that cannot be copied could still be delayed as long as 90 minutes by viewers with personal video recorders such as those made by TiVo Inc., which store programs on a hard drive instead of videotape.

The deal would let programmers petition the FCC to tighten the recording restrictions. In addition, approaches to programming based on new business models could have more restrictive recording rules, but the FCC would have to put any complaints on a fast track and take consumers' reasonable expectations into account.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-cable19dec19001433.story