poynton@vector.Sun.COM (Charles A. Poynton) (03/07/90)
U.S. HDTV STANDARDS DELEGATION SCUTTLES 1920x1080 COMMON IMAGE FORMAT February 23, 1990 Washington, DC--High definition television standards development in the United States suffered a setback when the U.S. delegation to the international CCIR Interim Working Party decided that the United States should take no position regarding the adoption of a 1920x1080 Common Image Format (CIF) as the first step towards the goal of a single worldwide HDTV production standard. The U.S. CCIR National Study Group 11 decided not to accept the recommendation of the U.S. Advanced Television Systems Committee for a 1920x1080 two megapixel format. Of about thirty participants, four individuals voiced the opinion that the two megapixel format would be unattractive to the computer industry. One favours a 2 1/4 megapixel format. The group operates by "consensus" and the contributions of the four were taken by the group as evidence of lack of consensus. Of the four persons that argued against 1920x1080, only Richard Solomon of the MIT Media Lab is a regular member of the group. None of the other three had previously attended a US SG11 meeting. Solomon has previously argued against the adoption of square pixels for the HDTV production standard and convinced the U.S. delegation at the last CCIR IWP meeting to withdraw comment on that issue. "I don't care whether the pixels are square, round, circular or hexagonal," Solomon is quoted as saying, "and there's no need to standardize the number of lines." Solomon and other MIT researchers emphasize that they speak only for themselves and not for MIT or the Media Lab. The widespread availability of commercial HDTV products applicable to the computer industry and well integrated with television equipment would be expected to seriously jeopardize the ability of the Media Lab to obtain funding for its research into the integration of computing and television. The Canadian delegation will now present what was to have been a joint U.S.- Canada document, putting forward the case for 1920x1080 as leading to economical framebuffer implementations (due to its total of two megapixels) and offering an excellent compromise among the choices proposed for picture line count (966, 1035, 1080 and 1152). If agreement on CIF could be achieved then work would start on the second step toward a single worldwide HDTV standard, the choice of a common frame rate. Some computer industry experts advocate 24 Hz origination and 72 Hz display of the 1920x1080 CIF as being a potential single standard applicable to both film production and computer applications. Experts agree that a single international standard cannot be achieved at any one of 25, 29.97 or 30 Hz. A very large fraction of broadcast programming is currently originated at 24 Hz so that rate is amenable to broadcast. If a frame rate other than 24 Hz is adopted for HDTV, then movies will continue to be produced on film to assure continued access to the international markets that 24 Hz film currently enjoys in cinema, television, videotape and videodisc distribution. However, the CCIR adopted the two-step approach because of the difficulty of achieving simultaneous agreement on image format and frame rate and frame rate is therefore not yet under discussion at the CCIR. Many Japanese manufacturers have been waiting patiently for international standards development to progress. The absence of agreement on basic parameters at the CCIR IWP meetings in Atlanta, March 22-28, is likely to lead to de facto standards (such as 1125/60/2:1 with its non-square pixels and interlaced display) that are not be amenable to computer applications. This is seen as a serious disadvantage to U.S. computer manufacturers and users who stand to benefit much more from a single standard suited to the interconnection of systems in a wide variety of applications than a multiplicity of different standards each serving one particular industry. It is possible that a groundswell of support prior to March 22 could convince the committee that consensus in the U.S. computer industry favors U.S. support of the 1920x1080 CIF proposal. Comments should be directed to: Richard Schrum Chairman, U.S. CCIR National Committee Office of International Radio Communications U.S. Department of State, Room 6317 Washington, DC 20520 John Reiser Chairman, U.S. Delegation, CCIR Study Group 11 Federal Communications Commission P.O. Box 19424 Washington, DC 20554 Richard J. Solomon <rjs@media-lab.media.mit.edu> MIT Media Laboratory 20 Ames Street Cambridge, MA 02139 ----- In an unrelated story, Tektronix of Portland, Oregon announced its intention to sell its Grass Valley Group subsidiary to Sony. GVG is world-famous for manufacturing high-quality television studio production equipment. The sale of GVG would leave Ampex Corporation of Redwood City, Calif. as the sole remaining major U.S.-controlled manufacturer of broadcast television equipment. Ampex introduced the world's first videotape recorder in 1956. ----- Charles A. Poynton Sun Microsystems Inc. vox 415-336-7846 2550 Garcia Avenue, MS 21-10 fax 415-969-9131 Mountain View, CA 94043 <poynton@sun.com> U.S.A. Charles A. Poynton is solely responsible for the content of this document. "I went to Harvard Business School for four years, and all it taught me is that economists have got nary a clue." -- Scott McNealy, Feb. 15, 1990. -----
gbrown@tybalt.caltech.edu (Glenn C. Brown) (03/07/90)
poynton@vector.Sun.COM (Charles A. Poynton) writes: >U.S. HDTV STANDARDS DELEGATION SCUTTLES 1920x1080 COMMON IMAGE FORMAT >February 23, 1990 >Washington, DC--High definition television standards development in the United >States suffered a setback when the U.S. delegation to the international CCIR >Interim Working Party decided that the United States should take no position >regarding the adoption of a 1920x1080 Common Image Format (CIF) as the first >step towards the goal of a single worldwide HDTV production standard. Doesn't sound like too much of a setback. I mean: "decided that the [US] should take no position regarding the addoption of ... [CIF]" sounds GOOD to me. In another group, someone posted that the FCC is doing extensive research into many standards. The US HDTV Standards Delegation would be STUPID to take a position before all of the facts were in. Especially since the FCC must approve of their decision to put the force of law behind the standard. --Glenn
gerry@zds-ux.UUCP (Gerry Gleason) (03/09/90)
In article <1990Mar7.102855.22820@spectre.ccsf.caltech.edu> gbrown@tybalt.caltech.edu (Glenn C. Brown) writes: >poynton@vector.Sun.COM (Charles A. Poynton) writes: >>U.S. HDTV STANDARDS DELEGATION SCUTTLES 1920x1080 COMMON IMAGE FORMAT >>February 23, 1990 [ ... ] >Doesn't sound like too much of a setback. I mean: "decided that the [US] should >take no position regarding the addoption of ... [CIF]" sounds GOOD to me. >In another group, someone posted that the FCC is doing extensive research >into many standards. The US HDTV Standards Delegation would be STUPID to >take a position before all of the facts were in. Especially since the FCC >must approve of their decision to put the force of law behind the standard. I agree, there is no pressing need to rush into standards at this time. HDTV will not be cheap enough to become widespread for at least three if not five or eight years (cheap enough is probably less than $1000). Furthermore, I don't think you want a standard with a frozen image format (again something that needs to be looked at more closely). On the other hand, it might be a very good idea to adopt this Common Image Format for near term R&D, testing, demonstration, etc. Gerry Gleason