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DTV around the World Part 2 Argentinas DTV System

By Rodolfo La Maestra

May 20, 2010

This series of articles is about how terrestrial broadcast digital TV is being implemented around the world. On part 1 I offered an overall view. This part 2 covers an interview with a colleague TV engineer that is currently testing the new DTV system in Argentina (ISDB-T), which whom I collaborated over the past few years. Part 3 will cover the technical aspects of that system, a better choice for Argentina and several other countries than the US system, although the selection was not technically guided.

Mr. Victor M. Acua, please indicate your role on the implementation of digital TV in Argentina. I am an electronics engineer. I am working in the Committee of Electronics & Telecommunications Technologies in the Argentine Centre of Engineers (CAI) as specialist in Digital Terrestrial Television. I am also a professor in the Institute of Superior Education in Broadcasting (ISER) and in the Universidad Abierta Interamericana (UAI). The challenge to go to digital TV with a very new system, gives me the chance to work with the state of the art technology.

When Argentina started the idea of implementing digital TV? In the 90s, when the digital television came to be a reality, the government took the decision to implement it in our country, selecting the ATSC standard back then.

When is Argentina planning to do the switch from analog PAL-N to digital? As common practice, it will be in ten years, and then, in 2019, we will have the analog black-off.

To what extent HDTV and Mobile DTV are part of the digital TV implementation? The implementation includes these formats because the selected standard ISDB-Tb, allows the three types of signals broadcasted simultaneously, a typical model for a 6 MHz TV channel is to have an HD signal, a SD sub-channel, and a mobile-portable signal. Is not

defined what type of contents will have each yet, this target is in study. Our idiosyncrasy wills dictaminate the best programs to transmit in these formats. Please briefly describe how Argentina selected the digital TV standard. Was the standard selected solely on its technical merits as the best format for the country in 2010, rather than adopting the ATSC standard implemented in 1998 in the US? The decision in 1998 was more political than technical, but while we selected the ATSC standard nothing else was done after the signatures where in paper. Many voices appealed the decision, and then it was left frozen. As you may know in 2002 our country suffered a great political and social collapse. Meanwhile both ATSC and DVB standards, conducted transmission tests. At the end of 2008, under agreements with Brazil, the balance tipped toward the ISDB-Tb standard (The short for ISDB-T, the Brazilian version), which is based on the Japanese ISDB-T (Integrated System for Digital Broadcast, Terrestrial) standard, and is also known as SBTVD (Sistema Brasileiro de Televiso Digital - Brazilian System for Digital Television). In August of 2009, was finally announced the selection of the new digital TV standard. The technical improvements performed by the Brazilians over the original Japanese ISDB-T bring it as the most novel DTV system. Our SATVD (Argentinean System of Digital TV) is based in the SBTVD.

How the analog-to-digital transition will be executed and what steps the Government has taken to facilitate the transition, such as allocating parallel bandwidth for the digital versions of analog TV channels, and making available analog-to-digital converter set-top-boxes to the public to continue using their existing analog TVs, like the US did. In Argentina the UHF channels are not free. They were used to transmit pay channels (wireless cable), but since broadcasting is their primary purpose, they are being released for the digital television transmissions. This year the government is working to fill 47 digital public stations around the country in two steps (first step with 21 transmitters and a second step with 26 transmitters). Four UHF channels were reserved (22, 23, 24 and 25) and a transponder in the AMC6 satellite will be used to transmit from Buenos Aires the generated signals to the provincially distributed retransmission stations. In Argentina there are 13 million of TV sets, approximately 3 million of those do not have cable TV or satellite TV, and those will be benefitted because they can only view over-theair channels. Here in Buenos Aires Canal 7, the public state channel in digital channel 23 (527MHz), is the first that is transmitting with a 10KW NEC transmitter and a 150-meters tower; it covers the whole city up to about 30 Kilometers.

I am testing the transmission Transport Stream (TS) and it has now (now, because the test signals change all the time) 4 signals on air having the following video payload: one HD using 8.8Mbps for video, two SD using 3Mbps each for video, and the 1-seg using 340Kbps. The total channel data rate is 18.3Mbps as whole TS. Only one private station Canal 9, in digital channel 43 (647MHz), is doing similar transmission tests since January, with a 500W Harris transmitter and a 50-meters tower, the coverage is very small with a radial of 3 km. It has 3 signals in the air, one HD subchannel with 12Mbps for video, one SD sub-channel with 3.6Mbps for video, and the 1-seg portable/mobile with 320Kbps for video, with a total data rate of 18.2Mbps. The total data rate is obtained from the complete Transport Stream emitted; it includes the audio data, ancillary data, null packets, PAT identification, etc. For example, for Canal 9 the TS is as follows:

PID 0 16 17 20 36 4096 4097 4098 4099 4100 4101 4112 4113 4115 4116 4117 4123 4124 4129 4131 8139 8191

Hex PID 0x0000 0x0010 0x0011 0x0014 0x0024 0x1000 0x1001 0x1002 0x1003 0x1004 0x1005 0x1010 0x1011 0x1013 0x1014 0x1015 0x101B 0x101C 0x1021 0x1023 0x1FCB 0x1FFF

Stream Type PAT NIT SDT TOT ? PMT H.264 Video PCR AAC Audio AAC Audio MPEG Audio PMT H.264 Video AAC Audio AAC Audio MPEG Audio Private PES Private PES H.264 Video AAC Audio PMT Null Packets Total:

Kbps 15.83 1.58 0.79 0.32 1.58 15.83 12556.97 41.67 218.99 211.51 114.9 15.83 3686.49 216 215.97 114.9 37.6 2.15 316.64 70.71 15.81 411.86 18283.93

Percent 0.09 0.01 0 0 0.01 0.09 68.68 0.23 1.2 1.16 0.63 0.09 20.16 1.18 1.18 0.63 0.21 0.01 1.73 0.39 0.09 2.25 100.02

Service Name N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A Canal 9 Canal 9 N/A Canal 9 Canal 9 Canal 9 Canal 9 Canal 9 Canal 9 Canal 9 Canal 9 Canal 9 Canal 9 Canal 9 Canal Mobile9 Canal Mobile9 N/A Mobile

- HD - HD HD HD HD SD SD SD SD SD SD SD

In both channels mentioned, the SD and the 1-seg transmission replicate the content of the analog channel, but for HD the content is a documental video clip in an endless loop. Canal 7 will transmit the FIFA World Cup in HD, but after this happens, I dont know what will be broadcasted in HD.

The transition for the main private stations is not started yet; they are out of the game because by not having UHF digital channels assigned, they cannot start to transmit their signals. However, this situation will change by this year.

Is the public expected to pay for those converter boxes? Yes, some Japanese, Chinese, Taiwanese, Brazilian and national assembled STBs and Dongles will be available for sale and I expect them to cost about $100us for a basic model, and about $300us for a top unit. But prices are expected to drop following its market introduction in the next months. Additionally, the implementation of this standard in many South American countries is expected to also help lower the prices.

Would it be any government subsidy for that purpose? The government will implement a plan to distribute free STBs for low-income people, so they can view digital TV content using their current analog TV during the digital transition. The government expects that more than a million of subsidized STBs will be made available for that purpose. These STBs will come from determined national assemblers and some will be imported. Victor, on the above two paragraphs, are you talking about the same STBs? No exactly, the STB that will be distributed by the government are ones with specific parameters, and are very complete. These models will cost to the government about $120us, and directly to the public $180us. But, to the public others STB will be available. Would the basic converter box also be capable to output HD to an HD monitor? Or would only output downconverted analog quality from a tuned HD signal, and only be useful for legacy analog TVs (like it happened in the US)? The politicians, with a social view, want more SD channels, the TV owners and content producers want HD, this is a dilemma for the public TV. But when the private stations come to air, HD sure will be the starlet. According to the specifications published by government the STBs for free distribution will have both outputs, 1) analog video in a RCA jack with PAL-N or NTSC for SD (or a downconverted HD version) for legacy TV sets, and 2) a component-analog and digital video output with 3 RCA connectors, as well as an HDMI connector, both for SD or HD output for LCD HDTVs. These have an USB input to connect a flash drive to see photos and videos directly to the TV, and an Ethernet connector to access to a LAN. In the future this would be the return channel for interactivity. For what they have a Ginga NCL middleware. In the market, the options will be a SD STB, a SD+HD STB, a SD+HD+Ginga STB, and a 1seg STB for mobile reception.

In general there are two types of digital STB receivers the full-seg STB that can receive all the signals, and the one-seg to receive only the mobile-portable signal.

How Argentinas digital conversion parallels the efforts of other South America countries, such as Brazil, regarding the standard selection process, choice, and implementation plan? There was no same parallel effort regarding the technical field. Others countries made public comparative tests and reports including the consultation to professionals councils. In Argentina the tests were done only by the government, and the technical papers utilized to select the standard were not published. By Decree # 1148 of August 31, 2009 the Argentine System of Terrestrial Digital Television (SATVD-T) was created, based in the ISDB-Tb standard, and formed the Assessor Council of the SATVD-T for its implementation. Late by Decree #364/2010 it gives a public interest to the National Platform of Terrestrial Digital Television, determining the resources needed to implement the system nationwide. I think that Brazil did the best political and strategic move for the south hemisphere. Our national platform and implementation plan is like the Brazilian one. The determination to implement the system in that way was helped by foreign support without consultation with local experts. All the installations implemented in Canal 7 were donated and help to put in operation by the Japanese government. For the other side, the Canal 9, were we are working, is only doing a transmission test (no commercial broadcast license yet). Recently the Association of Tele-broadcasting of Argentine (ATA) reiterated the request for digital TV channels licenses to private broadcasters agglutinated in the entity. Regarding the digital panels that have been selling for several years already in Argentina (mainly LCD), are there any compatibility issues of their digital tuning capabilities with the selected digital broadcast standard? Do those panels have also the required tuners to support the selected format or would they require external digital tuners for the selected format? All the analog TV sets sold in Argentina can work in both standards PAL-N and NTSC (they are binorm, as we call). Last years analog TV sets are trinorm, PAL-N, PAL-M, and NTSC. The analog standard we have (PAL-N) is 50 Hz with 625 interlaced lines of vertical resolution. The SDTV digital signal (the basic digital format) is in 576i/50, which is taken from the station actual analog signal, but the TVs (CRT and LCD) can work in 60 Hz too. If a digital broadcaster transmits in SD in 50 Hz the STB outputs a PAL-N signal, likewise, but if a broadcaster transmits digital signals in 60 Hz the receiver system can works with it.

In this case, the STB outputs an NTSC (or PAL-M, selecting by a menu) signal for the analog TVs. The digital screens sold over recent years (mainly LCD, some Plasma) don't have an ISDB-T digital TV tuner, which means those TVs, will need a separate STB to tune to the digital broadcasts. Some manufacturers are announcing near future models with ISDB-T tuners. One important thing is that some old LCDs don't support HDTV scanned in 50 Hz and they unfortunately will not work with a 1080i/50 HD broadcast signal as is been transmitted now. Just a few TVs with digital tuners are being announced in the last days, many with Led. The business of high-definition television will mobilize an estimated 300 million dollars in Argentina. This corresponds to the total investment required to set the standard operational, including TV operators, technology providers and manufacturers of television sets Is the Government planning to mandate new digital TVs to have integrated tuning capabilities for the new format? Is it working in retrofitting previously manufactured digital TVs to include such tuners? This subject is left to the industry, of course the new TVs will come with the ISDB-T tuner, but meanwhile, as I said, the current digital TVs will need a STB to tune to the new digital standard. As far as I know, no government mandate is issued on this subject yet.

How the cable and satellite industry plans to implement their digital and HDTV services to compete with the new digital terrestrial broadcast standard? Do they plan to keep untouched the original compression and quality of over-the-air HDTV? The cable companies are doing a savage publicity about the Digital Television and HD contents. Although the terrestrial digital television is not officially in the streets yet, they are carry out a series of discounts and offers to capitalizing the big sales of LCD TVs in the last months thanks to a great deal payments (up to 50 months) they having now. As I know the cable companies plan to repeat the broadcast digital signals as they are in the future, but it is uncertain if the quality of the must-carry image would be similar. The digital cable standard is not defined. But the Cable operators use the QAM USA system and DOCSIS for Internet cable modems. Today, cable operators have the guide of all analog channels in PAL-N, replicated in digital, and they have many HD premium channels in their digital guide as MGM, HBO, ESPN, etc. All the digital signals are encrypted as the premium channels, which means that if you have a DTV set with QAM on-the-clear tuner you cant tune to anything with it due to the encryption. Satellite services, such as DirecTV, already have HDTV within their subscription of approximately 170 channels. It is unknown how their HD image quality would compare with the quality of over-the-air HD broadcast when implemented.

If you want to view analog free-to-air TV you need a VHF antenna connected to the TV set. If you want digital cable TV you need to connect a cable STB using the component-analog or HDMI input. And now if you want to see digital terrestrial TV you need a second HDMI or component-analog input connected to the ISDB-T's STB and the UHF antenna. ----------------------------Thank you Victor for collaborating with this series of articles about DTV around the world. The next article (part 3) will cover the technical aspects of the system, stay tuned.

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