100Mbit will be reserved for the nerds - for it to reach the mainstream, DRM has to go!

Now that Starhub has given us the wonder of 100Mbit/s download, how many takers will there be.

MANY, but not enough.

Without wading through the complications of bypassing traffic shaping (read `choking') targeting bittorrent protocol packets, without widespread education on peer-to-peer download technologies, and without massive download technologies like Bittorrent getting to the mainstream consciousness because of the perceived `illegality' of these services, most of this country can't really use the 100Mbit/s speed.

Online music is not uncommon. Only that the Digital Rights Management makes even the nerds falter. No standard DRM exists today, nor will it foreseeably exist tomorrow. Apple's boss Steve Jobs is lambasting DRM (just last week). We all know how sucky DRM can be, and that at least there's some complication for you to transfer your Itunes music from one PC to another.

The underground is fiercely `torrenting' terabytes of content every day and night. And this underground is so small compared to the total number of internet users.

Let me again call for the abolition of DRM, which is no use to most people anyway - complicating the life of legal users and totally bypassed by those who choose to bypass it, and ignored by those who, not knowing how DRM works and not knowing how to bypass it online, get their stuff from their friends' thumbdrives or portable hard disk drives.

Let's have the MDA make a scheme where all subscribers to internet services pay an additional 10 bucks or so a month, for the RIGHT to download and distribute whatever they want online, and this money goes to a fund to pay the content providers according to their popularity indexed in P2P indices worldwide.

This blogpost seems cryptic simply because the background knowledge required is difficult, and I don't have the mood to babyfy it. But those who read it and understand it, please consider it and write about it yourself. Because, I REALLY WANT the content providers to survive. The torrenters will always be there, in some form or another. It's the content providers I'm worried about.

MDA has some HDTV-related events coming up soon

Just received an email from the MDA a few minutes ago. Here it is ad-verbatim.

Dear Sir/Mdm,

UPCOMING HDTV EVENTS

Keen to learn more about High Definition (HD) Technology? Want to experiance HD broadcasting?

We've got several interesting events that you can attend in August to discover more on HDTV and the benefits it offer. You can walk away with exclusive HDTV premiums or even stand a chance to win a 26” HD-Ready LCD TV. Read on for details!

A. Exhibitions:

1. HDTV Mobile Exhibition
Date: 8 Aug to 31 Aug
Venue: Level 1, Tampines Regional Library

Discover the difference between High Definition and Analogue signals at our ongoing exhibition at the regional library outlets. Visitors stand to receive an exclusive HDTV premium when they complete a simple survey form.

2. Evolution of TV: Getting You Ready for HD
Date: 10 Aug to 31 Aug
Venue: Level 7, Lee Kong Chian Reference Library, National Library Board Building
Organized by Sony Singapore and supported by the MDA and NLB

Experience the evolution of television technology from the first black and white sets to today’s state-of-the-art systems. Visitors stand to win a 26” HD-Ready LCD TV from Sony worth $1,599.

B. Talks:

1. Demystifying HD & Setting up a complete HD Cinema
Date: 19 Aug, 20 Aug
Venue: Changi/ Simei Room, Level 3, Tampines Regional Library
Presented by Snazio

Demystifying HD & Setting up a complete HD Cinema
Discover the myths and realities of High-Definition (HD) technology and the various ways you can enjoy HD-quality entertainment.

Time:

Date: 19 Aug
1.00pm - 1.30pm – Demystifying HD
1.30pm - 2.00pm – Setting up a complete HD Cinema

5.00pm - 5.30pm - Demystifying HD
5.30pm - 6.00pm - Setting up a complete HD Cinema

Date: 20 Aug
1.00pm - 1.30pm – Demystifying HD
1.30pm - 2.00pm – Setting up a complete HD Cinema

2. The Big Picture & Demystifying HD
Date: 27 Aug
Venue: Changi/ Simei Room, Level 3, Tampines Regional Library

The Big Picture presented by Chi Mei
High Definition TV (HDTV) broadcasts are on the way! What kind of television will bring the richness of multimedia into your living room…now and into the future?

Demystifying HD presented by Snazio
Discover the myths and realities of High-Definition (HD) technology and the various ways you can enjoy HD-quality entertainment.

Time:

1.00pm - 1.30pm - The Big Picture
1.30pm - 2.00pm - Demystifying HD

5.00pm - 5.30pm - The Big Picture
5.30pm - 6.00pm - Demystifying HD

Admission is free to all events.

For more updates, please visit www.hdtv-trial.sg for the latest HDTV developments and happenings.

See you there!

Best Regards
Community & International Relations
Media Development Authority

More Support for Progressive HD tranmissions

My letter to MDA chief for HD has not yet been answered. Anyway, here's something I came across while doing some other research in my line of work.

EBU recommendation for a progressive approach to HD in Europe

I'll write more about it soon. In any case, the EBU supports HD transmissions in Progressive, and gives well weighted reasons for it. Take a look yourself.

Excerpt:

EBU Project Group B/TQE looked objectively at the technical case for retaining interlaced scanning or using progressive scanning. Although it may be surprising, the group has not been able to find technical arguments to support the continued use of interlaced scanning in the circumstances being considered. These are the delivery of new HD services to progressively scanned receivers, in an environment where advanced bitrate reduction is available. The technical arguments that we have found come down in favour of progressive scanning.

If any of this means anything to you, you could drop an email to the MDA chief of the HD programme: yeo_chun_cheng@mda.gov.sg Do it before it's too late. We stand at the cusp of HD adoption in Singapore. If we are too late, we will never be able to do the right thing. For those who came in late, MDA has announced that they will standardize on an interlaced 1080i format as reported in the Straits Times. It may be a wrong decision, and one should let the government reconsider or at least address this question. After all, it is taxpayers' money, and I am a taxpayer and so may you be.

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ADB confirms that the ADB 3800C can output in 1080p/24

I spoke to the Vice President of Asia Sales of Advanced Digital Broadcast, David C. Tung, at the ADB booth in Broadcast Asia 2006, and happily he confirms that the ADB 3800C can output in 1080p/24 if Starhub broadcasts in that format.

Just a point of interest - pressing the # key to change the resolution, you can NEVER get 1080p, so I guess if what David says is correct, the box will definitely require a firmware upgrade to do that in any case.

Now, let's just hope that the MDA boss replies my letter!

Letter to MDA Chief Technology Officer

I felt compelled to write to MDA HDTV Programme Director Yeo Chun Cheng to suggest the use of Progressive Video delivery mechanism in the eventual rollout of Singapore's broadcast HDTV. Below is the letter ad-verbatim:

From: Michael Tan <michaeltanyk@gmail.com>

Mailed-By: gmail.com

To: yeo_chun_cheng@mda.gov.sg

Date: Jun 20, 2006 4:20 PM

Subject: High-Definition TV trials use widely adopted HD standard

Mr. Yeo,

I am one of the HDTV enthusiasts who have jumped on the HD bandwagon with gusto. I work in
the technology industry, in the IT environment.

A lot of us are so enthusiastic that we have made HD a chief topic of our blogs and post enthusiactically at forums. I maintain a blog at http://miketan.blogspot.com and a majority of our posts have been on HD.

Because we are at the trial stage of HD, and your organization has a large influence on HD formats, I would like to state a preference that most of us at enthusiasts forums in Singapore, including Hardwarezone and Xtremeplace, for PROGRESSIVE VIDEO FORMATS.

I include an article in issue 109 of WideScreen Review, an enthusiast magazine, on why progressive is better, technically. This article, Progressive High Definition Video, by Joe Kane, include the following points:

1) Interlace introduces artifacts, progressive escapes this.
2) Our video compression technologies for digital media content today are more efficient dealing with Progressive than Interlaced.
3) HD is our chance to escape the legacy of analog, embrace it - Interlace is an analog compression technology serving no good purpose in today's digital video environment.
4) Progressive reduces bandwidth, giving better quality at a given bandwidth. 1080p/24 takes up less bandwidth than 1080i/60, with significantly better picture quality.
5) Most of the masters for newer content is done in 1080p/24 already, not interlaced.
6) The majority of new displays appearing on the market today support progressive signals
7) We cannot always sell what the consumers want, because they are not qualified to know what better they can have. Some technology shift is necessary to reach the next stage. IF HENRY FORD GAVE WHAT THE CONSUMER WANTED, HE WOULD HAVE MADE A FASTER HORSE.

From the Singapore perspective, I would add the following points:

1) Singapore is now usually now at the forefront of product releases, almost at par with the USA. In a way, we are really quicker than the USA because our customs policies encourage free trade, and Singapore is almost totally a free-entry port. We have the newest products from USA, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and China, and our tradesmen are very up to date in their product offerings. The smaller market make niche purchases more viable, our distributors do not keep containers of stock, and our product salesout are frequent, making it easier for the Singapore
market to introduce new models.

2) Singapore does not have a huge legacy of set top boxes which are incompatible with the 1080p standard. We are starting afresh, and it is imperative that we start with the most sensible, logical mode - Progressive Video.

3) The broadcasters can easily purchase content in 1080/24 at almost no additional costs - the bulk of the costs of programming is the license fee, but the media fee is minimal in comparison.

4) One of the considerations when 1080p was not made a standard in the broadcast industry was because manufacturers cited difficulties in making a decoder which could decode and output in 1080p. Today, 5 years later, this is not an issue. Blu-Ray and HD-DVD both are in mass
production stage, and decoders outputting in 1080p are easily obtainable, competitively priced with economies of scale offered by the giants selling 1080p-capable playback devices.

Mr. Yeo, we are at the true crossroads today. Mediacorp has the ability to deliver via DVB-T and IPTV, where Starhub can deliver via DVB-C, all of which video endpoints exist today. I felt compelled to try to write to you regarding this, at least, at the end of the day, I can't say I didn't try.

Thank you for your time.

__________________________

Michael Tan
michaeltanyk@gmail.com
http://miketan.blogspot.com

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MDA Starhub Mediacorp HD Press Conference

The Media Development Authority of Singapore (MDA), together with MediaCorp and StarHub, invited the press to a press briefing on the launch of High- Definition Television (HDTV) trials in Singapore. This briefing took place today.

From some feedback I heard, this was not terribly informative but some information was distilled from there. I think they intended this to be a Rah Rah affair but somehow, the Q&A pretty much drew a lot of blanks and difficult issues out. Kudos to whichever reporter sharp enough to ask the tough questions.

A hearsay distillate (I wasn't there):

1. HDCP would not be implemented during the HDTV trials
2. HDCP MAY be implemented during the commercial HDTV rollout pending evaluation (MT: wow. Who said that MDA, Starhub and Mediacorp had enough clout to determine the future of HDCP inclusion in today's bit-torrent enabled world?)
3. A full two hundred to three hundred sets of flat screen LCD/Plasma screens exist in Singapore today (MT: wow again. How many of these are really HD ready? 10%? We're in for a load of troubles once people start to receive HDCP feeds with the broadcast flag enabled to degrade picture quality on non-HDCP TVs! And pity those guys who have ... errr.... 1024x1024 plasmas.... )
4. One of the powers-that-be mentioned that, if HDCP were implemented, no problem, just get the analog component and all will be fine. A reporter queried him - hey, won't there be degradation if you pump a HDCP enabled signal through the analog? (He was referring to `plugging the analog hole' as mentioned here and referred to here - which in summary, that there are moves to make HDCP equipment degrade content if played through analog in an attempt to stop the bypass of HDCP content protection by recording HD through analog.) The speaker said - NO. Analog will not degrade the quality, you will still get very good quality content (MT - this betrays a total lack of understanding on the part of the speaker about the brewing battles between the content providers, broadcasters and the device manufacturers, where they are fiercely fighting the battle on how to plug the analog hole)
5. Starhub's flagship content for this trial starts with the World Cup, and Mediacorp's flagship content for this trial starts with the ... err... Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers .... OMFG! << (not particularly an exclamation of joy.)

Well, now we know that they know little more than us, and perhaps a lot less than some of the enthusiasts who have been watching the developments hawkeyed. We're in for a load of forum complaints, I'm certain.

Media Development Authority of Singapore (MDA) responds: Commercial Rollout of HD WILL have HDCP!

Yesterday, I emailed a query to MDA:

Subject: Starhub Minimum Requirement Different From MDA minimum requirement for HD

Anyway, a summary of events:Starhub has released HD trials. Great!http://miketan.blogspot.com/2006/05/starhubs-requirements-not-matching.html

So how now?

Well, I think Starhub will not broadcast HDCP content in the trials, but eventually they will do so. But once they implement HDCP, if our monitor do not have HDCP, the content will be degraded to 480P from 720P. http://miketan.blogspot.com/2006/05/less-discussed-complications-of-hdmi.html

They responded:


From: MDA CIR Staff4
To: michaeltanyk
Date: May 24, 2006 2:36 PM
Subject: Re: [SPAM] Starhub Minimum Requirement Different From MDA minimum requirement for HD

Dear Mr. Tan,

Thank you for your email.

With regards to HDCP, MDA aims to keep the public informed of developments and to future proof consumers' purchase of HD-Ready TV.

For this HD Ready TV Trial, the broadcasters are to determine the best operating mode for their business which will include the activation of HDCP for content protection in the eventual commercial rollout.

Thank you.

Best Regards,
Community & International Relations
Media Development Authority

So what this this all mean? It's not clearly written at first look, but carefully reading this email reply together with their FAQ and our current knowledge now, here's my try.

Statement: With regards to HDCP, MDA aims to keep the public informed of developments and to future proof consumers' purchase of HD-Ready TV.

My interpretation: MDA's FAQ is not wrong. Their HD requirements are future proof. So, it is clear: You MUST have HDCP to future proof your LCD-TV purchase.

Statement: For this HD Ready TV Trial, the broadcasters are to determine the best operating mode for their business which will include the activation of HDCP for content protection in the eventual commercial rollout.

My interpretation: Broadcasters are free to determine the best way to represent themselves and the requirements at the time of the TV trial, optimized for their own business. HOWEVER, eventual commercial rollout WILL include (not 'MAY', MDA used 'WILL') HDCP.

So, this means, go buy a HD screen with HDCP, this is clear. Also, if MDA is right, commercial HD, by any broadcaster in Singapore, will activate HDCP. This further means that, questions of whether the content will be degraded when it goes over analog or to a non-HDCP compliant TV, will best be answered in - it's up to the HDCP parties, the content providers, the broadcasters, the device manufacturers, etc.

I asked MDA to comment on whether content will be degraded if played to a non-HDCP compliant TV - they did not respond yet, but once they do, I'll post here.

Starhub's requirements not matching MDA's requirements for HD

I just want to post that Starhub's requirements do not match MDA's requirements for minimum requirements for HD-Ready displays.

See here: http://www.hdtv-trial.sg/faq.htm

Under point #7: http://www.hdtv-trial.sg/faq.htm (update 6Jul06 - they took out point #7 from the web. LOL)

7. What are the minimum requirements for “HD-Ready” displays?
7.1 The minimum native resolution of the display must be at least 720 physical lines in aspect ratio of 16:9. The display must be able to resolve either 720p, 1080i or 1080p.
7.2 The display device must accept HD input via:
Analogue Component Y-Pb-Pr, and/ or HDMI ( High Definition Multimedia Interface) or DVI ( Digital Visual Interface )
7.3 HD capable inputs must accept the following HD video formats:
- 1280 x 720 @ 50 Hz progressive ( “720p”)
- 1920 x 1080 @ 50 Hz interlace ( “1080i” )
7.4 The HDMI or DVI input must support content protection , HDCP ( High- Bandwidth Digital Content Protection System )

Point 7.4 is critical. STARHUB DOES NOT MENTION HDCP COMPLIANCE IN THEIR WEBBIE HERE: http://www.vocanic.net/hdtv/crs/edm/appendixA.html

MDA seems to require HDCP, but perhaps NOT NOW.

What they fail to state, is that if one uses Analogue Component, there is a big chance that the video will be downgraded from 720P to 480P. And they fail to tell us what happens if you connect the display to a non-HDCP DVI/HDMI port.

Rocket science it is, but these guys are rocket scientists, can't we have more clarification?

All in all, it is still worth to get the Starhub HD, because a component, DVI or HDMI interface is a big sight better than the composite connection offered by Starhub Digital Cable. But I think it is imperative that more details are given to the public - after all, this is a PAY trial, not a FREE trial.