NextGen ATSC 3.0 4K OTA TV is Now Closer to Reality After Successful ARK Multicasting Testing

bluegras

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Apr 18, 2008
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NextGen 4K OTA TV is almost here and soon you will have the ability to watch free 4K TV with your antenna. Though there has been a major hold back as the FCC required broadcasters to maintain the current-gen OTA TV for 5 years after they launch NextGen 4K OTA TV. Though now ARK Multicasting has found a possible solution to that issue by broadcasting both current-gen OTA TV and NextGen 4K OTA TV from the same equipment

NextGen ATSC 3.0 4K OTA TV is Now Closer to Reality After Successful ARK Multicasting Testing - Cord Cutters News
 
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That's fine but making ATSC 3.0 compatible with the non-OTA carriers is the real bottleneck. Until they figure out a way to make ATSC 3.0 work thru cable, streaming, and via satellite providers, broadcasters aren't going to jump wholesale on board and none of that has been worked out yet. With up to 70% of homes receiving TV from sources other than an antenna ATSC 3.0 is going to remain in the experimental stages for the foreseeable future.
 
Until they figure out a way to make ATSC 3.0 work thru cable, streaming, and via satellite providers, broadcasters aren't going to jump wholesale on board and none of that has been worked out yet.
While they can't do the interactive stuff without some effort, it seems to me that they could easily re-broadcast the content as they do now with DTV. The only difference would be that they would need to have Next Gen capable tuners feeding their multiplexers. They should be able to convert the AC4 sound to AC3 and the HEVC video to MPEG2 (or AVC if that's what they're using).

Until I see some documentation from engineers rather than bleats from managers, I'm not accepting the Charter/Cox reasoning as anything more than a stall.
 
All is not candy & sweets within the industry. Cable is pushing back at the adoption of ATSC 3 emphasizing that there is no standard or consensus on exactly how broadcasters intend to implement ATSC 3. Since the FCC is only requiring one sub-standard within ATSC 3 and allowing individual broadcasters to pick and chose from among the many other sub-standards they may or may not implement. Makes you wonder how cable companies are supposed to be able to retransmitt ATSC 3 if every broadcaster is using a different sub-set of standards.

ATSC 3 sub-standard implementation

Further, the R&O would apply A/322 only to a broadcaster’s primary video stream. The agency would sunset the requirement after five years from the effective rules date unless the agency chooses to extend it. The sunset provision is the way the agency chose to balance the competing interests of broadcasters, who sought to be free to innovate, and CE companies, which wanted to nail down A/322 to make it certain that consumers buying next-gen TVs will be able to receive ATSC 3.0 signals.

The FCC does not propose to incorporate any other individual standard making up the ATSC 3.0 suite of standards into its rule. At their own choosing, individual broadcasters are free to choose, but not required, to use other standards in the 3.0 suite.

The R&O also would exempt LPTV and translator stations from the simulcasting requirement and allow case-by-case waivers if a station has no viable simulcast partner, according to an FCC fact sheet on the agenda item. Additionally, no next-gen TV tuner mandate will be imposed on new TV receivers.

Cable pushback

SCTE bluntly told ATSC that it will “defer initiation of the work” concerning carriage of ATSC 3.0 over cable” until the broadcast industry completes its standardization efforts.
 
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