Hdtv Programming

There are so few watching high definition TV in Baton Rouge that Clyde Pierce has e-mailed most of them. But the WBRZ-TV engineer probably won't be able to keep up with HD viewer e-mails much longer, for a confluence of forces this year probably will expand the use of a technology that makes viewers' knees wobble.

One of the keys to lighting a fire under HDTV in Baton Rouge is Cox Communications' projected transmission of the sharper signals over its cable system. That will happen this summer, says Dennis Carter, Cox head-end engineer.

"When we launch, there will be a lot of sales of HD TVs."

HDTV has been around for more than two decades in Japan and dreamed of in the U.S. for most of that time. But economic reality has shorted the promise of vast number of Americans watching programs in HD, which displays a picture so clear that a face can be spotted in a stadium crowd.

Because the sets and technology to deliver the signals have been expensive, most people are still watching analog televisions, which in HD terms is akin to a flickering black-and-white image in a world of Oz color.

Also tripping HD's broad acceptance has been a lack of programming, again, in part, caused by the cost of digital equipment to tape and transmit the signals. WBRZ spent $1.5 million just on transmission equipment.

Conflicting technology standards are also to blame, as is this Catch 22: Not enough people are watching, so why should programmers and broadcasters deliver, and why should people buy when there is so little programming?

The government, because it wants to reclaim and resell spectrum used for analog television, has, in recent years, prodded broadcasters to move quicker for HDTV delivery. All of them are supposed to be transmitting in digital in 2006, when many viewers also are expected to watch as the confusion dissipates over the technology.

How it works

So what is HDTV? To understand it, you must first consider what now is likely sitting in your living room: an old analog television. In the U.S., analog television is broadcast in 525 lines projected across a screen that has a 4-to-3 ratio of width to height.

Compare that to most computer monitors, which display images in much greater detail. You can tell the difference by downloading a movie clip and playing it on your computer monitor. It's far sharper than your analog television.

High-definition sets work in digital, using the ones and zeroes of computers to project crystal-clear images. They do so by projecting in either 720 or 1,080 horizontal lines, and most do that on a screen that has a 16-to-9 ratio, the kind of wide perspective you get at the movies.

It gets a bit tricky here: The 1,080 horizontal line HD displays only project about ha]f the lines at one time, compared to the 720 line sets, which usually project all of them at once. In simpler words, the 1080 HD sets are not necessarily better than the 720 HD sets.

But both easily beat the prevailing technology, the NTSC standard used in the U.S. by analog sets.

How much better is an HD set? Some claim the picture is three, four and up to 10 times sharper. Couple that with digital surround sound and you have concocted a joy cocktail for TV fans.

If you want to watch an HD program, visit Kadair's and other high-end stores, where the digital sets with HD-quality programming are sometimes a gathering place for gawking viewers.

Because sports and movies move fast, Cox engineer Carter says they look particularly striking in HD. For a long time, the National Hockey League has been praying for HDTV's success because viewers can see the quick-moving puck, a blur on analog sets.

Selling the sets

The Consumer Electronics Association estimates that 2.5 million HD sets were bought last year. They represented just 10 percent of all sold sets. But the total number of sets being sold, says the association, is speeding up.

The industry group reported last week that total sales of digital televisions, which are capable of displaying HD signals with a converter, surpassed the 5 million mark, including 241,279 sold in February.

Most of the digital sets have been sold in large cities, where broadcasters, under government pressure, have been offering signals for a longer time. In Baton Rouge, Pierce says less than 1,000 people have HD sets, and a salesman at Kadair's estimates that 35 to 45 were purchased in the first quarter.

Come summer, though, many now waiting on the sidelines could buy digital television, and for good reasons. For one, there's Cox's transmission of the signals over the cable system, which will expand what is available to customers. (Satellite broadcasters already offer HD on their systems.)

To start the HD broadcasts, Carter said Cox will spend a couple of hundred thousand on equipment. The upgrade will be easy because the system already has been through an expensive digital upgrade that included the installation of fiber optic lines.

Cox is still working out the details of prices, but it's likely that users will have to buy a converter box for $400 to $600 and pay a monthly charge, maybe $10 or so, for a package of HD channels. The channels in high definition will be WAFB, set to start broadcasting in HD over the air in mid-April, WBRZ, the first local commercial station offering HD, which is broadcast over-the-air on DT13, Louisiana Public Broadcasting, the first network in the state to offer high definitions, as well as the HD channels started by Showtime, HBO, Discovery and ESPN.

ESPN HD is a boost for HD, as is sports programming on the local affiliates of local networks, because sports fans are the early adopters willing to pay extra to feed their addiction for games.

The summer launch date by Cox comes at the perfect time, for it's ahead of fall football, which is carried in HD by the networks.

Other than sports, some networks are broadcasting much of their primetime programming in high definition and showing blockbuster programming--the Oscars and the Superbowl-- in the format. Carter expects shopping networks to offer HD. The sharper pictures will move more products.

Even with all the new programming on cable, HD might be a hurdle for many people this year and the next. The price of HD sets, starting at $1,500 for digital sets plus $500 for converters, are Out of many people's reach. The sets, according to reports, could drop below $1,000 by Christmas, easing some of the pain, but the $500 converters are still high-priced for most households.

Another big barrier is that differing standards make the sets hard to use. Carter has a neighbor who is so frustrated with the difficulty of his HD set that he wants to return it.

The difficulty lies in competing standards and the transition from analog to digital. How sets pick up analog and digital signals requires viewers to turn their remotes into a three-ring circus.

To alleviate, some of the complexity between TVs and cable, manufacturers and cable companies have agreed on .a common HD standard, which they are asking the Federal Communication Commission to adopt.

Once that happens, maybe. next year, HDTVs could be in even more living rooms.

"The agreement will allow the 70 million cable households in the U.S. to partake of this phenomenal HDTV transition," Consumer Electronics Association President Gary Shapiro said.

RELATED ARTICLE: A HIGH-DEFINITION DEFINITION

Analog sets: 525 scan lines displayed on a television screen. That equals a resolution of 210,000 pixels, or tiny dots on the screen. The size of the sets, like the one you probably own, are a ratio of 4-to-3 width to height.

HDTV: 720 scan lines or 1080 scan lines. HD sets display tip to 2 million pixels, which is 10 times greater than analog sets. The picture truly is remarkable. The sets can be standard 4-to-3 ratio, but most people opt for the 16-to-9 ratio, which approximates a movie screen. The sound is also digital, so it's much clearer, like at the movies.

MUKUL VERMA covers technology and commercial real estate. Reach him at mverma@businessreport.com.

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