Category: TV related

H.264 Codec Adopted for Next-Gen HD DVDs

The DVD Forum has ratified the new H.264 Advanced Video Codec (AVC) for inclusion in the forthcoming High Definition DVD platform.

The H.264 codec, formerly known H.26L, was was developed by the Motion Picture Experts Group (responsible of course, for the various MPEG formats) and the International Telecommunication Union, and has now been ratified into the MPEG-4 codec. The codec enables a variety of video content to be compressed for transmission and decompressed for playback in a highly efficient way.

Apple has already made an announcement to the effect that H.264 will be included in a release of its QuickTime platform next year.

“Apple is firmly behind H.264 because it delivers superb quality digital video and is based on open standards that no single company controls,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing in a statement.

H.264 is intended to be used on a number of platforms, and as such covers a wide spectrum of bandwidth requirements – from HD television to mobile phones. The codec is highly efficient, and has been demonstrated playing back 1920×1080, 24fps HD movies at up to half the data rate of MPEG-2. Less data means room for more channels – or better audio and video.

Don’t expect HD playback performance on your new mobile phone – Apple’s test detailed above required a dual processor G5 to do the playback. The new codec will be more suited to digital television broadcasts to phones and mobile movies with a much lower resolution.

How H.254 works – and it’s not too technical, either

MPEG resources on the internet

Five May Buy Flextech

Jane Lightning, speaking at a Royal Television Society event last night, dropped an unsubtle hint that Five are considering buying Flextech, the content arm of Telewest.

While the rest of the industry is still speculating about the proposed merger with Channel 4, Lightning, Five’s chief executive said “Flextech could be one of the options we are looking at.”

Well, it either is one of the options they’re looking at or it isn’t. I’ll fetch my deerstalker, pipe and magnifying glass for a second and say that they most definitely are looking at it, otherwise she wouldn’t have mentioned it in the first place. Oh, and it’s rumoured that Five execs paid a visit to Bill Huff, the fund manager who holds 20% of Telewest, in March.

Flextech would bring Bravo, Challenge, Living, Trouble and the half of UKTV that isn’t owned by BBC Worldwide.

With C4, Sony US and Disney also sniffing after Flextech, they’d better get a move on.

Telewest are keen to sell the company to get out of debt and concentrate on its upcoming marriage to NTL, and are looking for about UK£750 million (€1.1 billion) for it.

Flextech

ITV to Invest More in Digital Brands

Good news if you’re over 35 and/or like I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here – the UK independent broadcaster, ITV is to invest UK£36 million in its two digital channels, ITV2 and ITV3, by scrapping its plans for a children’s channel and choosing instead to focus on News and its digital offerings.

This means that ITV2 has its programme making budget doubled to UK£24 million, and ITV3 gets UK£13 million for its launch later this year.

ITV2 is going to use that extra cash to buy in American imports to compete with Channel 4 and Sky – so rather than attract an audience with original programming it’s going to buy in the content that the others channels show in the hope that it will somehow wrestle views away from them.

By making the investment, ITV hope to triple their total revenues to UK£150 million (€225 million) by 2007. Net advertising revenues are up 4.9% over this period last year, but viewer share continues to fall.

ITV

Dating on Demand

Video on demand: reasonable state of health, no proven business model, WLTM  established internet commerce concept for  broadband fun, and maybe a bit of transactional  processing, apply at www.hurrydate.com

I seem to be writing another of those “It had to happen” stories this week.

Dating On Demand is launching this summer – in Philadelphia, of all places. A series of events will allow singles (or at least people claiming to be single) to record five minute video profiles which will then be available on demand on Comcast Digital Cable.

Recording the profiles is free and even includes the services of professional television production crews. The profiles will be available to view free on cable and interested potential partners will be able to register anonymously through the HurryDate website.

Interviews and features will attempt to draw out interesting glimpses into singles’ personalities and will even include video “bloopers” and tales of dating disasters. HurryDate operate a speed dating service and are hoping that this will expand their market somewhat.

“This service is as close as you can get to meeting someone over a cup of coffee,” said Adele Testani, co-founder of HurryDate. Except with out the coffee, two way communication, body language and bare-faced lies, presumably.

“Dating ON DEMAND adds a personal touch to meeting potential dates by presenting ‘real singles’ – how they move, how they speak, their true appearance. Best yet, it all happens in the comfort of your home with the touch of a remote control and the click of a mouse.” HurryDate are keen to point out in their press release that no extra equipment is needed.

Is it me or does the name HurryDate add an extra air of desperation to the whole thing, like “Budget Bride”?

HurryDate

Budget Bride – Money Saving Wedding Solutions … I didn’t realise weddings were a problem

Samsung’s Digital Multimedia Chip for Mobiles

Samsung have developed a low-power chip for processing terrestrial digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB) on mobile phones. The new chip will allow content providers to customise content such as high quality digital terrestrial television for on-demand viewing on mobiles.

The chip consumes 40% less power than their previous design attempts, making it suitable for inclusion in 3G phones.

To showcase the technology, Samsung are teaming up with SK Telecom to offer satellite-based DMB by the end of the year.

Samsung’s Press Centre

Napster and NTL’s Broadband Partnership

Napster UK and NTL have completed a deal to bundle the new music store with NTL’s Broadband Plus package. This will bring Napster a potential one million more customers, and will also include a 30 free trial subscription to the store.

NTL’s Broadband Plus package starts at UK£3.99 (€6), or UK£9.95 (€15) including a Napster subscription.

“This is a significant deal for Napster because we are partnering with the biggest provider of broadband services in the UK, and ntl’s own research has shown that over 75% of broadband customers download music each month,” said Brad Duea, president of Napster.

Napster’s catalogue now stands at over 750,000 tracks, making it the largest music store in the market at the moment.

Napster UK

Cartoon Filter for Digital Television

British inventors Matthew Roach and Mark Pawlewski have applied for a US patent for a software application that can control the amount of cartoon programming displayed on a digital TV.

You just need to watch any Saturday morning cartoon to learn that the plotless, seizure-inducing fare, no doubt designed to help that cereal sugar rush kick in nicely, consists mainly of a lot of frantic movement, solid colours and fast cuts.

Roach and Pawlewski’s software can detect animation in digital television’s MPEG2 stream, and react accordingly – even switching itself off after a predetermined time, for those parents who can’t be bothered monitoring their own children’s TV dosage.

The software will be featured in next week’s New Scientist magazine.

Detecting Cartoons – A Case Study (Postscript file)

BSkyB Announce Free-to-Air and HD TV Services

BSkyB want some of Freeview’s market, and to do so they’re going to introduce a free to air (FTA) service later in the year. The proposed service isn’t just a handful of channels either – it’s currently looking more like 200 television, radio and interactive channels. Whilst many of those will be virtual horse racing or celebrity shopping, the core of the proposition is sure to tempt many households to let a Sky box live under their television. The service will carry all of the BBC FTA channels and stations, including regional variants, plus offerings from Channel4, five and ITV.

Households will be able to buy the package, consisting of Sky box, minidish and viewing card for a one-time fee of UK£150 (€226). Whilst there is no obligation for purchasers to subscribe to premium services, BSkyB is hoping that many will be tempted to pay for additional content – of course they will.

Separately, BSkyB announced that they are developing a premium High Definition TV (HDTV) package, for introduction in 2006. BSkyB have yet to confirm details of the upcoming content, but it’s expected to include coverage of events specially produced in HD format, HD broadcasts of films, plus drama and news.

BSkyB on the announcement

Japanese Consumers Protest at Broadcast Flag

Japanese television viewers have begun complaining to broadcasters over the sudden removal of editing and copying freedoms they’re experiencing now that the country’s version of the broadcast flag has been rolled out on digital terrestrial and cable channels.

NHK and and the National Association of Commercial Broadcasters launched the broadcast flag on 5 April, limiting viewers to a single copy of programmes carrying the signal. As programmes can only be copied once, no editing can be performed either. Within a week NHK and other broadcasters had received 15,000 complaints and enquiries.

This move also means that Japanese consumers will not be able to remove adverts from programmes they have recorded for archiving, or make a backup in case an offline recording is destroyed.

Furthermore, viewers have to insert a user identification card, B-CAS (from the company who manufactures them, BS Conditional Access Systems), into their digital televisions in order to watch broadcasts.

It’ll be interesting to see the scale of protest when America’s broadcast flag system rolls out in just over a year and a month – whilst not requiring an ID card to access broadcasts, the flag will tell all new television sets what can and can’t be done to a signal – right down to preventing any copying whatsoever.

Japan Times coverage

Slashdot debates the issue

World’s First Combined Digital TV and Radio Chip

Frontier Silicon, fabless manufacturer of semiconductors for digital TV/radio consumer products have started shipping its Logie integrated circuit. The Logie chip is the world’s first single chip DVB-T/DAB integrated circuit, and will be first used in an as yet unnamed Goodmans set-top box.

Other than the Goodmans product, there aren’t any combined digital TV/radio units out there, and a chip like this will allow manufacturers to produce them easily and cheaply. If power consumption issues can be worked out, portable DVB-H/DAB devices in the near future could be a real possibility.

Anthony Sethill, CEO of Frontier Silicon, commented in a statement, “Our Logie device enables set top box manufacturers to produce low cost boxes with considerable consumer appeal, including the reception of 24 digital TV channels and 50 or more digital radio (DAB) channels that are all free. There is no other combination DVB-T/DAB chip currently available in the market that can do this.”

Frontier recently won the PricewaterhouseCoopers Hottest Technology Company of 2004 Award, and produce chips used in products from, amongst others, Grundig, Philips, Roberts and Sharp.

Frontier Silicon

Goodmans Digital