The DTV converter boxes envisioned in the NAB-MSTV program to develop prototype set-tops “is far from low- cost and includes many additional features that most consumers do not need or want,” CEA said in reply comments at the FCC on the Commission’s inquiry on the status of video programming delivery. LG and Thomson were tapped last week to develop prototype set-top converters under the NAB/MSTV program (CED Oct 6 p8). Features cited by CEA as adding cost to the box include a detachable antenna, a “loop through” function, an EPG, a smart antenna and a universal remote. Notwithstanding CEA’s contention such functionality would add cost to the box, supporters of the NAB/MSTV program maintain the set-tops could be had for $50 or less at retail by the time of a 2009 analog cutoff. CEA said it remains puzzled by the NAB’s and MSTV’s motives in designing a box that can’t meet Congress’s low-cost goal, CEA said. CEA said it estimates that 32.7 million TV sets are used currently to view over-the-air programming, but that most are not relied on exclusively for an over-the-air signal. By 2009, only 6.8% of households would be disenfranchised by a hard analog cutoff, CEA said. Other groups have pegged much higher estimates.
MAKUHARI, Japan -- Panasonic’s newly unveiled HD-PLC chipset technology -- aimed at enabling broadband access via electric sockets at faster-than-Ethernet speeds (CED Sept 30 p2) -- must cross regulatory hurdles before it can be commercialized in Japan, Panasonic Exec. Officer Kasuhiro Tsuga told reporters at last week’s CEATEC Show here. The firm must convince the Japanese govt. HD-PLC (power line communications) won’t be prone to radiational interference in residences, a flaw that plagued earlier technologies, Tsuga said.
CEA is “out of touch with the realities of the technical challenges of DTV reception as well as 2 of its largest members,” said NAB Pres. Eddie Fritts in response to CEA’s criticisms of NAB/MSTV’s program for a prototype of DTV convertor boxes (CED Oct 13 p5). NAB hired CEA members LG Electronics and Thomson to develop the prototype, but CEA said NAB/MSTV’s plan would be costly and contain features most consumers don’t need or want. Fritts said NAB was “proud” to stand with CEA members in their effort to ensure consumers receive affordable and reliable access to local TV stations both during and after the DTV transition. Meanwhile, Thomson, which with LG bid successfully in the NAB/MSTV converter-box program, bristled at CEA’s criticism. Its video compression technology “is a key ingredient in the ATSC standard and we have been working since the beginning of the digital TV transition to develop and offer products to suit a wide variety of customer requirements,” the firm said. Vp David Arland said his company was “honored to be selected by MSTV and NAB to work on their project and believe that the market for digital-to-analog set-top boxes will require a selection of options for consumers.” Some consumers will opt for a “simple” DTV converter, as broadcasters envision, and others “will need more feature- rich devices that both decode and output high-definition TV,” Arland said. “We will be ready for the needs of our customers, whether they are network operators, retailers, consumers, or Congress itself.”
OSAKA, Japan -- Panasonic’s Blu-ray promotion team no longer regards HD DVD as the company’s true competition in the next-generation optical media race, key leaders of that team told us last week in interviews here. Panasonic’s real rivals are other companies in the Blu-ray Disc Assn., said the executives -- Masayuki Kozuka, dir. of Panasonic’s Storage Device Business, and Yuki Kusumi, gen. mgr. of product engineering in the company’s Video Equipment Business Unit.
MAKUHARI, Japan -- HD DVD within a year will be the “de facto” standard for high-definition ROM playback, but Blu-ray could do likewise for high-capacity HD recording, Ryoichi (Rick) Hayatsu, chief mgr. of NEC’s Storage Div. and the company’s key HD DVD point man, told us on the floor of the CEATEC show that opened here Tues.
Best Buy rode an 11.4% same-store sales rise in its core CE business to 48% growth in 2nd quarter profits, the chain reported Tues.
Despite years of govt. and industry outreach, “consumers are still confused and don’t understand the DTV transition,” the Govt. Accountability Office (GAO) said Tues. (CED Sept 7 p2).
BERLIN -- As Europe sets its eyes toward next year’s World Cup football to at long last get the ball rolling on HDTV, industry executives at last week’s Internationale Funkausstellung (IFA) trade fair here looked wistfully at the U.S. as having experienced the “reality” of HDTV the past 7 years.
BERLIN -- After repeatedly promoting and retreating from a 2-brand Philips-Magnavox strategy in the U.S., Philips is finally satisfied that “we now have Magnavox positioned in the right way,” Rudy Provoost, Philips Consumer Electronics CEO Rudy Provoost told us at the Internationale Funkausstellung (IFA) fair here last week.
BERLIN -- Individual Blu-ray firms have tried to weave a compromise with HD DVD on a unified standard, Frank Simonis, mktg. dir. at Philips Optical Storage, told a news conference here Thurs. on the eve of the Internationale Funkausstellung (IFA) fair. Simonis’s comments came amid reports from Japan indicating HD DVD’s planned fall launch in the U.S. might be pushed into next year (see report, this issue).