Difference between revisions of "NextGen TV"

Revision as of 23:01, 4 April 2024

ATSC 3.0 aka NextGen TV over-the-air (OTA) standard for North America. ATSC 3.0 is a new version of the Advanced Television Systems Committee standards, defining how exactly television signals are broadcast and interpreted. ATSC 1.0 standard definition goes up to 1080i (interlaced) MPEG-2 while the upgraded ATSC 3.0 offers the higher than human perception on a home TV screen 4K Ultra High Definition compression via the H.265 HEVC codec.

ATSC 3.0 will also let broadcasters track your viewing habits with the Internet integration component. Tracking information can be used for targeted advertising, just like companies such as Facebook and Google use online. Ads specific to your viewing habits, income level and even ethnicity will be used.

NextGen TV is IP-based, so in practice it can be moved around your home just like any internet content can right now. For example, you connect an antenna to a tuner box inside your home, but that box is not connected to your TV at all. Instead, it's connected to your router. This means anything with access to your network can have access to over-the-air TV.

Conversion of TV broadcast stations in the United States is not being mandated by the FCC as of 2023. The transition to DTV was federally mandated, but the FCC’s approach to ATSC 3.0 is to put the decisions and timeline mostly in the hands of station owners, with some guidance from the commission on protecting traditional digital broadcasts. Stations that switch to NextGen TV will still have to keep broadcasting ATSC 1.0 for five years.

• In November of 2017, the Federal Communications Commission approved ATSC 3.0 as the next generation of broadcast standard, on a "voluntary, market-driven basis."
• NextGen TV is not backward compatible with current TV tuners. To get it, you'll eventually need either a new TV or an external tuner.
• Devices like Tablo will use NextGen TV and also a converter for your ATSC 1.0 television to receive NextGen (projected 2024 new version)
• As of 2023 only the ZapperBox M1 at $250 is near NextGen TV certified and available to consumers as a conversion box for ATSC 1.0 televisions.

NextGen TV tuners are full of nasty DRM and requiring meeting DRM requirements for certification. Enforcement of disabling the ability to skip commercials automatically will be a mandatory part of the DRM requirement. Further DRM requirements in the works could restrict consumers from having the ability to record specific broadcasts, time to get out that old VCR again! NextGen DRM could theoretically cripple DVR products like Tablo and TiVo. Some stations in South Korea, for instance, are already using ATSC 3.0 to broadcast 4K video, and those feeds are encrypted to prevent viewers from recording with a DVR.