On Monday, Seattle, Washington-based KOMO TV became part of a small fraternity of stations around the United States to broadcast in high-definition television (HDTV), starting a testing phase that station engineers said is necessary to see what obstacles they would face in a wholesale move to digital.
Last November's ruling by the Federal Communications Commission set a standard for HDTV's data format, but left the scanning rates - the way in which a screen draws a picture - for broadcasters and the computer industry to duke out among themselves.
KOMO TV is using the 1080i standard, which interlaces the screen image. Interlacing is the process of drawing a screen by dividing up the number of lines into odds and evens. In the first one-sixtieth of a second, all the odd-numbered lines of the 1080-line picture are transmitted. In the second one-sixtieth, the even-numbered lines are transmitted.
Until KOMO's test, the station used the standard NTSC screen of 525 lines. With digital, the picture is wider and images are clearer.
But the move to full digital, likely a 15-year process, will be a costly one for broadcasters and consumers alike. Don Wilkenson, vice president and director of engineering for KOMO TV, estimated a station would have to spend from several million dollars to roughly US$20 million, depending on what equipment - transmission towers and cameras, for example - is replaced.
Another barrier is consumer acceptance. To receive digital television, a consumer will have to buy a television set designed for the high-definition broadcasts, sets that will initially cost between $1,500 and $2,500.
Wilkenson concedes that KOMO and other stations embracing HDTV have a lengthy road ahead, but the gamble is necessary to remain relevant amid a sea of multiple-channel offerings from cable and satellite broadcasters.
"We risk becoming the equivalent of a vinyl record manufacturer in an age of CDs," Wilkenson said.
