New Technologies In Television Essay Research Paper

New Technologies In Television Essay, Research Paper

The future of home television is at a crossroads with new technologies available in every direction. Will recordable DVD replace the home VCR. Will HDTV succeed with consumers. What is affecting the mass rollout of these new technologies. The DVD story is a classic computer technology tale. All the key elements are there: vaporware, standards wars, compatibility problems, extremely high initial prices, and confusion at every turn. Even the technology’s name stirs minor debate. Some claim it stands for Digital Versatile Disc, others say it means Digital Video Disc, and still others claim it’s not an acronym at all. In essence, DVD is simply the next evolutionary step from CD-ROM. DVD-ROMs look like CDs, but they hold far more information, anywhere from 4.7GB to 17GB, compared with a CD’s 650MB. But DVD is more than just higher capacity, which is partly why things get so complicated. DVD is a critical element of PC/TV convergence, since it’s a way to distribute movies with extended features such as user-selectable camera angles and multiple language support. Also, like CD’s, there are writeable and rewriteable variations coming. DVD is just starting to make a significant impact on the market. Estimates vary from about 600,000 to 1,000,000 console players (”living room” boxes used strictly to play movies) sold in the United States through the end of 1998. So far, the number of DVD drives in PCs is far smaller. DVD technology can handle one or two layers of data per disc side. That makes for four sub varieties of DVD-ROM, the read-only version of this technology: DVD5 (single side, single layer) with a 4.7GB capacity; DVD9 (single side, dual layer), 8.5GB; DVD10 (dual side, single layer), 9.4GB; and DVD18 (dual side, dual layer), 17GB. With all these competing standards, a group has been formed to come to an agreement on the final standard. That is, a common standard that will ultimately be presented to consumers. This group calls itself the DVD Forum. The DVD Forum is a group of powerful electronics companies and content owners who have agreed to work together to define specifications for DVD (without governmental intervention). Unfortunately each company has vested interests in DVD advancing and developing along lines that serve their interests best, and all want to dictate the standards for the next generation of compact disc. The technical specifications of the format are primarily chosen based upon what patents are owned by whom, not on technical superiority, and the decisions made by the DVD Forum are as rife with mutual back-scratching and calling in of favors as those of a Senate subcommittee. As a result, the technical specifications for DVD formats are not arrived at by an objective evaluation of what will work best, what will sell, what will provide a smooth migration path, or even what the DVD Technical Working Groups recommend. They are decided on self-interest, which means financial gain for one party and resulting financial loss for another. Factions within the Forum are determined to promote the interests of one member over another, or a group of members over another group of members. So far, the majority of the Forum members have been motivated by a single purpose in this regard, to avoid paying for patents owned by Philips and Sony, who have profited immensely from existing compact disc technology. Not coincidentally, many of those patents are also the ones that could enable compatibility with existing technology. Sony and Philips, as licensers of patents used in DVD technology, need close ties with the Forum. But if Sony and Philips wish to exploit their patents by developing an alternative format voted down by the other eight Forum companies, they are branded as pariahs. The most prominent names in the CD-Recordable and CD-Rewritable hardware market are Sony, Yamaha, Philips, Ricoh, and Hewlett-Packard. Other DVD Forum members are minor CD-R/RW players, if players at all. Given this knowledge, it’s not surprising that Philips, Sony, Hewlett-Packard, Ricoh, and Yamaha, along with media manufacturer Mitsubishi, would prefer a rewritable DVD format that builds on existing technology and smoothes the transition to a new one. It is also no mystery that the architects of the DVD Forum’s DVD-RAM format find this threatening. They are not contenders in the CD-R and CD-RW arena, so there is no reward for them in promoting compatibility with existing popular formats, but enormous incentive to abandon them in favor of their own technology patents. The contention over whose patents to use is one of the many things delaying delivery of DVD; and with every delay in DVD, the period in which existing technologies can thrive is extended as the installed base increases, making compatibility more important, and opening the window of opportunity for new formats not subject to DVD Forum approval to reach the market. Still, DVD video will blow away standard VHS-quality playback. Unlike VHS tapes, DVD discs don’t degrade over time, so the 100th viewing looks as good as the first. Furthermore, unlike VHS tapes, DVD discs provide the nonlinear, near-instant viewing and previewing access that people enjoy with laser discs and compact discs. For strictly computer-based video playback, such as business presentations and games, DVD’s MPEG-2 video is a dramatic improvement. If the video solution for DVD doesn’t deliver a knockout punch to existin