FCC Working on New ATSC 3.0 Orders

[osu1991]

https://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/pai-fcc-working-on-new-atsc-3-0-orders

FCC chair Ajit Pai signaled Friday that the FCC is preparing to start accepting next-gen TV (ATSC 3.0) license applications and that the Media Bureau is even now working on an order to wrap up some open issues, including the local simulcasting requirement for stations without a viable partner, and a second order to resolve various petitions for reconsideration (filed by cable operators).

 

[navychop]

I thought Raleigh NC PBS was also testing ATSC 3. No?


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[harshness]

I thought Raleigh NC PBS was also testing ATSC 3.

The way it sounded to me was that they were working on a Next Gen TV system primarily oriented towards emergency services rather than a conventional TV station.

 

[ncted]

I thought Raleigh NC PBS was also testing ATSC 3. No?


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Not sure about WUNC, but WRAL definitely is, although I have no idea who is receiving it.

 

[Tower Guy]

The flexibility of ATSC 3.0 means that you can do both OTA TV and emergency data simultanously with awesome performance on both services.

 

[Voyager6]

The flexibility of ATSC 3.0 means that you can do both OTA TV and emergency data simultanously with awesome performance on both services.

But only if we totally rebuild our ENTIRE TV infrastructure including receivers. Not an inexpensive endeavor especially coming on top of the last one to ATSC 1.0.

 

[harshness]

The flexibility of ATSC 3.0 means that you can do both OTA TV and emergency data simultanously with awesome performance on both services.

I submit that the "with awesome performance" part is subject to real-world implementation and testing.

As far as that goes, the old EBS model seemed to work pretty well.

 

[harshness]

But only if we totally rebuild our ENTIRE TV infrastructure including receivers. Not an inexpensive endeavor especially coming on top of the last one to ATSC 1.0.

That depends largely on uptake. If the only reason to upgrade is to have access to a new emergency system, I doubt many consumers will be holding their breath in anticipation.

With volume, prices will fall and we shouldn't have to pay $500 for a receiver.

 

[primestar31]

Sinclair is too invested in ATSC 3.0 already. IF there's a huge pricing issue that they believe will hold back adoption, I fully expect they will give away, or put out very low priced tuners.

 

[Tampa8]

When I look online people in the industry are saying this won't be like the analog to digital conversion, meaning those boxes would not allow you to set up OTA recordings because you had to change the channel on the box not on the DVR.

In this situation it is digital to digital and conversion. If true and you don't have to buy a new TV or lose DVR features.

"On the other hand, it’s worth pointing out that the pain isn’t expected to be as dramatic as it was in 2009. "); background-size: 1px 1px; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px);">In his 2016 article discussing the technical elements of a switchover, Sinclair’s Fred Baumgartner makes the case that a forced upgrade, if it ever happens, likely won’t be as dramatic because we already did the hard part by upgrading to digital in the first place.

“In this case, the digital transition is history, we have flat screens and devices … and all that is missing is a means to connect broadcast TV to them,” he writes, adding that dongles that hook up to HDMI ports will likely be the way many people upgrade their sets.

That said, dongles and set-top boxes won’t be the only upgrade path. At last year’s National Association of Broadcasters convention, "); background-size: 1px 1px; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px);">the TV-maker LG showed off a unique kind of antenna that redistributes broadcast signals through a wireless router, which could help maximize the signal through devices that don’t already have an existing way to parse an ATSC signal. The approach would make it so that smartphones, tablets, and television sets would be able to use the antenna without dedicated internals, removing a major pain point of past antenna technology."

 

[harshness]

When I look online people in the industry are saying this won't be like the analog to digital conversion, meaning those boxes would not allow you to set up OTA recordings because you had to change the channel on the box not on the DVR.

Next Gen TV is incompatible with DTV. The fact that both formats are digital is inconsequential.

Pretty much any of today's standlone DVRs aren't going to work with Next Gen TV and further, since none of them will accept an input anymore (not since the NTSC TiVos and the earlier DVD recorders), that method is mostly off the table. DVRs that can take HDMI inputs are typically computer-based and far from user friendly. HDCP has rendered them not particularly useful for other than OTA.

The proponents talk about lighthousing but that sounds to me like jamming a bunch of DTV stations into a few frequencies rather than the other way around. Perhaps I misunderstand but if that is the case, more than a few of the recordings using DTV channels are going to become SD and that may drive viewers to other sources.

 

[TNGuy84]

Too bad a digital RF modulator isn’t feasible because they could (potentially) make a digital rf out from a next gen box and have it mapped to an unused channel in ATSC 1 to be read by a current gen DVR. That would be too costly and those investing in the tech will want consumers to buy their next gen DVRs than have something that keeps an old DVR relevant.

 

[harshness]

Too bad a digital RF modulator isn’t feasible because they could (potentially) make a digital rf out from a next gen box and have it mapped to an unused channel in ATSC 1 to be read by a current gen DVR.

This assumes that the DVR isn't being used for QAM tuning already or that there is even an available DTV channel to be had (it isn't clear if the non-commercial modulators can live with just one channel or if they require a channel to either side).

As I've said since the DTV conversion, the sooner people give up on RF modulators, the better off we'll all be.

 

[Jim5506]

But...But...But... my RF modulator gives me the nostalgic old fuzzy picture I can't get with DTV.