TV standards Tutorial

Primer on Analog and Digital Broadcast standards

TV Terminology

• Standard Definition– "legacy" old video systems represented by NTSC, PAL and

SECAM

• High Definition– Enhanced video standard with higher resolutions and 16:9

aspect ratio

• SDTV, EDTV and HDTV• Analog vs Digital

– Digital does not mean High Definition– Analog does not always mean Standard Definition (Japanese

MUSE system is analog High Definition

• Terrestrial vs Cable vs Satellite

                                                                                              

                                                                                                                                                  

A primer on TV standards

• Analog TV standards (interlaced video)– NTSC (525 lines, 29.97 frames/second)– PAL and SECAM (625 lines, 25 frames/second)

• Digital TV standards– ATSC, DVB-T, DVB-S, DVB-C, DVB-H, DVB-S2– T-DMB, ISDB-T, ISDB-S

Location Cable Satellite Terrestrial

China DVB-C, DTV-C (QAM)

DVB-S TDS-OFDM

Japan ITU-T/J.83B (QAM) ISDB-S ISDB-T

ITU-T/J.83B (QAM) ATSC (8VSB)

Europe DVB-C (QAM) DVB-T (COFDM)

North Am erica DVB-S (QPSK), DSS (QPSK), and 8PSK/TC

DVB-S (QPSK),DVB-S2 (8PSK/16QAM)

Terrestrial Analog TV standards

Switch off of analog TV for various regions likely in 2010-2014Analog TV standards for Europe is largely PAL except for France

Terrestrial Digital TV standards

ATSC only in US, Canada and KoreaDVB-T in Europe and Asia except Japan, Korea and China

Digital TV broadcasts comparison

  ATSC ISDB-T DVB-T

Video MPEG-2 MPEG-2 MPEG-2

Audio AC-3 AAC AC-3 or AAC

Disadvantages ATSC signal cannot adapt to changes in propagation conditions

Almost all TV broadcasts are encrypted with copy-once protection — tuners and TVs are relatively expensive

Requires lots of power to transmit a signal into rural areas

Cannot broadcast to either handheld or mobile devices, unless of course, you fancy carrying around your 42-inch plasma

Can not transmit to handheld devices due to severe battery drain

Advantages Requires as little as half the transmission power for same reception quality of DVB-T

Good for simultaneously broadcasting both a robust HDTV signal and one for handset/mobile reception

Open global standard which offers better reception in urban areas

Can transmit to mobile devices such as bus TVs

DVB-H Adoption map

Purple indicates countries with DVB-H trialsGreen indicates alternative standard adoption

DVB-H pilots around the world

DVB-H: A Truly Mobile Standard

• Digital Video Broadcast for Handheld terminals

• Largely in trials and early stages of launch– Crown Castle Inc and Modeo are developing cell phones with DVB-H in

US• Possible to add DVB-H capability to notebooks

– Avermedia will be shipping SDIO addin card– Eopstech also has a product

Market Trends in PC-TV

• Approximately 22-25 million units of PC-TV will be shipped this year. Growth rate is 20%.

• Attach rate of PC-TV in Japan is close to 100%, everywhere is around 5%-10%

• PCI is still the main bus interface used.• Several suppliers have been pushing PCI Express

with little success• USB analog/hybrid sticks increasingly popular,

especially in Europe (DVB-T)• Retail upgrade market still in Europe, with Germany,

France and UK leading the adoption rate. • Majority of board suppliers based in Taiwan and

China• OEM are adding more SKU with TV functions

Market Trends in PC-TV

• Notebook PCs are slowly becoming desktop replacements. Retail add in boards will shift to USB and slowly to Expresscards over time

• TV Tuners are not mandatory for Windows Media Center Edition. Big Opportunities for retail upgrade of TV tuner boards for MCE.

• PVR is an important feature of the whole entertainment experience. Engaging with TV board suppliers to evangelize TV tuners is strategically important

• Transition for analog to digital broadcasts is well under way in Europe.

• Take the lead to push premium content support on PC platform.

• DVB-H trials are taking place in US and Europe. Lots of opportunities to push entertainment on mobile platforms.

Media Center PC shipments

Source: Instat 8/2005

* Microsoft reports 1 mil units of MCE sold every month

Product Mix in the channel

Source: Instat 8/2005