HIGH-DEFINITION TV: THE VIEW OF THINGS TO COME
At a local department store here this week, consumers got their first glimpse of a new technology that may one day give them the same quality pictures on their TV sets they now see at movie theaters.
The demonstrations on three large-screen televisions, which included excerpts from the movie “Top Gun,” frequently were followed by two questions from those who watched: “How much is it?” and “Where can I buy it?”
Welcome to the world of high-definition television, a technological advance whose advocates say it will revolutionize television viewing in the same way that the advent of color affected black-and-white TV sets.
“This would be a completely new experience,” says Thomas B. Keller, senior vice president for science and technology at the National Assn. of Broadcasters.
High-definition television (HDTV) produces a crisp, sharp picture that is comparable to the 35mm film that currently is used for the production of most feature films, commercial television programs and music videos. The images on a HDTV set are sharper because the technology uses 1,125 horizontal scanning lines to create a picture, compared to the current standard of 525 lines.
Consumers would have to buy a new, high-definition TV set to receive the full benefits of the technology, and special equipment is also needed to produce the programs.
Experts say the technology will be best suited for televisions sets with larger screens (at least 23 inches). In addition, the new sets are being designed to be one-third wider than today’s TV sets because, experts say, the wider screen better approximates the normal field of vision. They also are expected to feature high-quality, digital sound.
At a recent seminar here on high-definition TV, Edward O. Fritts, president of the National Assn. of Broadcasters, told an audience of industry and government representatives that “high-definition television’s impact could probably be greater in the United States than anywhere else on Earth.”
The Electronic Industries Assn. estimates that 98% of the 86 million U.S. households have televisions, and that 3% of those households now have large-screen projection televisions. In 1985, manufacturers sold dealers 266,000 large-screen televisions. In 1986, the number jumped to 320,000, and the estimate for 1987 is 365,000 sets.
However, while the state-of-the-art technology for high-definition television is a reality, telecommunications consultant Kalmann Schaefer says that mass producing it for the consumer market “is not imminent.”
The Japanese have invested millions of dollars in developing high-definition television sets and production equipment, but engineering experts say that they are still three to five years away from the U.S. consumer market.
The next step is to develop inexpensive technology to mass produce the TV sets and equipment. And that in turn may hinge on the demand for the technology in Japan and abroad.
“The only way the Japanese can afford to buy the sets (in Japan) is if there is a world market so that the mass market will bring the price down,” says one expert. Preliminary estimates place the cost of the new high-definition televisions at about $3,000.
While American consumers will have to wait to buy HDTV, they may see some first-hand use of the technology much sooner.
The technology already is being used in parts of the world by film makers and producers of some television programs, music videos and commercials. There are such production studios now in New York, Paris and Tokyo, and one is being planned for Los Angeles, according to Ben Crutchfield, who directs the project for the National Assn. of Broadcasters.
According to Crutchfield, HDTV production enables use of some special effects that cannot be done with 35mm film. “You have all the effects available to television current, but in a much better quality,” Crutchfield says.
He also says that those who have used this production equipment, which features one-inch, high-quality video tape, report that they get a quality comparable to 35mm film and also save time and money because they can see immediate results without having to wait for the film to be processed.
Crutchfield also believes that even without a HDTV television set at home, TV viewers will be able to notice some improved quality in productions made with the special new equipment. However, the full benefit will not be available without the special TV set.
And there may be other uses: Hollywood studios and production companies already are looking at HDTV as a possible new means to distribute their movies to theaters around the nation.
Instead of distributing individual copies of the films, the studios could distribute films using HDTV via satellites with scrambled signals to hundreds of theaters around the country. Some observers suggest this satellite delivery system would enable the studios to realize a faster return on their pictures.
“All the theater has to do is to put an antenna on the top of its building to get the signal,” says Schaefer. “This is where I see HDTV being used in the short term.”
With the market potential still untapped, the National Assn. of Broadcasters has launched an intense lobbying campaign to make sure that local broadcasters are included when HDTV becomes a reality for other outlets such as cassettes and discs.O
“We just want to be able to compete at the same quality level,” says Keller.
Because the high-definition television now being demonstrated requires more spectrum, or radio wave space, for its transmissions, the broadcasters want to be sure that the Federal Communications Commission does not assign that potential space to others.
The commission is now considering whether it should give some of those UHF-TV frequencies that broadcasters say are needed to transmit to land mobile users, which include portable and mobile telephones used by groups ranging from police and fire departments to businesses that dispatch delivery vehicles.
Travis Marshall, senior vice president of Motorola Inc., which produces land mobile equipment, argues that these users have as much need for the spectrum as the broadcasters.
“I don’t want to pan high-definition television,” he says, “but the commercial need to improve the efficiency of American business is real and immediate.”
He says there are between 8 million and 9 million mobile radio users in the United States and that the demand for its use has grown consistently by 8% to 12% a year.
No decision from the commission is expected for several months.
But observers say that even if the regulatory agency allocates the spectrum to land mobile use, it may not be the death knell for HDTV because the technology is still in the evolutionary stages and research could might lead to more efficient ways of using available spectrum space.
For the moment, however, much of the lobbying efforts have focused on the commission.
“I think both sides could possibly find more efficient ways of using the spectrum,” says Schaefer. “The trick for the FCC will be how will they put the screws to both of them and let them both survive.”
