Audio Video News

Thomson Multimedia announced July 12 that it has joined the Motion Picture Engineering Group Licensing Authority's (MPEG LA) LLC MPEG-2 patent pool as of July 1. The MPEG LA LLC licensing program was launched in 1997 to assure the growth and interoperability of digital video by "providing fair, reasonable, non-discriminatory access to worldwide patent rights that are essential for the MPEG-2 Video and System standards," the announcement stated.

"Thomson is joining MPEG LA to further contribute to the propagation of the MPEG-2 standard in as many applications and across as many industry segments as possible. The Group is strongly committed to making protection and valuation of its intellectual property a key priority," said Thomson Multimedia's senior vice president for patents and licensing, John Neville.

Samsung Electronics has introduced an all-in-one set-top box (STB) "for consumers seeking the very best in HDTV programming and reception." Based on the company's SIR-T150 ATSC receiver, the new SIR-TS160 model is said to be capable of "unprecedented reception of over-the-air digital broadcasts (ATSC), analog broadcasts (NTSC), and digital satellite programming from DirecTV." The SIR-TS160 is also said to be the first consumer set-top box to employ the industry standard DVI (digital video interface) with HDCP, or High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection. The STB offers "performance and ease of use never before seen in this category," said Samsung executive Tony Gonçalves, calling the SIR-TS160 "an unparalleled HDTV experience." Suggested price is $699.

Small-market TV stations are dropping local news, according to a recent report by Aaron J. Moore in Media Life. Presently, there are "neither the viewers nor the advertisers to support all the choices," Moore writes. "The result is that a number of TV stations in mid-size and smaller markets are closing down their news operations for good." He believes that the growing cost of news production is a major factor in their elimination, but points out that "the risk of dropping news is a loss of identity in a market, since viewers tend to identify a station by its newscasters."

A two-part marketing research report issued July 11 by TFCinfo and Quixel Research says that "seven out of ten" television owners want larger TVs. "While 71.7% of consumers surveyed would like to have a screen size larger than 40", only 18.7% of those surveyed currently have a TV over 42"," the report states. Fully 50% of "prosumers" (high-end consumers) stated they would buy plasma displays if the price were $4999 or lower. The price would have to drop to $2999 before the other 50% surveyed would consider buying.

Of those surveyed, 44.2% said they would consider buying a projector over $2000, another 26.9% would consider one at that price point. Rear-projection sets are still attractive for many; the study says that 78% of consumers and 64% of prosumers would buy RP sets if the price were below $1000. The consumer study, Consumer Electronic Retail 2002, was conducted at Best Buy; the Prosumer Retail 2002 report was conducted at high-end home entertainment stores Harvey's and Magnolia HiFi.

The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and the Association for Maximum Service Television (MSTV) have attacked the Federal Communication Commission's philosophy that auctions are the best way to determine the use of public airwaves. "The idea that these broad choices about how to allocate spectrum could be left mostly or entirely to market mechanisms is wishful thinking," read a joint statement from the two organizations. "There is no deus ex machina that can take the place of the commission in making these major spectrum allocation decisions in a manner that genuinely serves the public interest." Both groups favor the inclusion of digital receivers in new television sets as a way to further the market acceptance of digital television.

FCC Chairman Michael Powell has been more aggressive than his predecessors in pushing digital television. A June 11 statement from Powell entitled "DTV Plan Update—Progress for Consumers" says, "Many of the key elements of the digital television transition are beginning to fall into place," including widespread deployment by cable providers of "integrated set-top boxes capable of displaying high definition programming" and those providers' "offer to carry, at no cost, up to five broadcast or other digital programming services." Direct broadcast satellite providers have also committed to carry up to five digital channels with HD or "other 'value-added' digital programming" by January 1, 2003. Most networks and program developers have committed to more digital productions in the coming year.

"I am encouraged that the great majority of top-four network affiliates in the 100 largest markets will be on the air by next January with the ability to pass through the networks' digital signal without degradation," Powell said in a prepared statement, noting that the "missing piece of the DTV puzzle is the consumer electronics industry." Powell mentioned that the FCC has "not yet received a final response from the manufacturers on the phased-in inclusion of DTV tuners in new sets."

On July 12, the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) responded to Chairman Powell's statement with one of its own, stating that "each of its members who sell digital television products in the US will include an over-the-air DTV tuner in digital cable compatible televisions within 18 months following the implementation of an open, national and fully-featured 'plug-and-play' cable standard. In addition, most of these manufacturers voluntarily plan to market and promote strongly at least one set-top box that can receive and decode digital television signals by December 31, 2003." Some manufacturers are "moving aggressively to integrate digital tuners into their television lines," the CEA reported.