DTV

Sometimes the market for a certain thing or feature gets stagnant. There comes a point when a once innovative feature becomes standard on every product. Case in point, the DVR interface. You know what I’m talking about, those linear menus that force you to scroll down, sequentially through every option. Way too often, the buttons on the remote aren’t responsive enough making the whole idea of having a long list of content choices into a burden. Enter two new interfaces from Hitachi and HillCrest Labs:

One of the many panels at CES on Tuesday, January 8 featured a tricontinental group of communications policymakers: David Gross, United States Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy; Viviane Reding, European Commission Commissioner for Information Society and Media; and Tsutomu Sato, Senior Vice Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications of Japan.

Alex, Sherwin and I will spending most of this week at the International Consumer Electronics Show, otherwise known as CES. We’ll be trying to see what are the cool new technologies and trends and to consider their policy implications. The show is massive, the biggest trade show in the world, with nearly three thousand exhibits and 150,000+ attendees taking up the entire Las Vegas Convention Center and Sands Expo and Convention Center, as well as parts of the Hilton, Renaissance, and Venetian hotels.

There’s a lively discussion about the DTV transition going on right now. (Go ahead, ask an elderly neighbor of yours who receives television broadcasts over the air what she knows about the DTV transition. I bet not much.)

I wanted to drop a note on a couple of recent developments since my post on right-to-attach last week. They are:

I’m an analog cable subscriber and was hoping to upgrade to an HDTV this holiday season, and apparently I’m not alone. Before I buy-in, I’ve been considering the freedom that “going digital” should give me compared to the old analog world. The primary reason I haven’t “upgraded” to digital cable up to this point comes down to TiVo, it and the freedom that devices like it that connect to an analog coax cable give me. Digital technology is supposed to deliver more, not less freedom, isn’t it? It’s not clear that upgrading to digital cable gives me the freedoms I’m used to.

We had heard rumblings a few weeks ago that the MPAA was trying to push the broadcast flag, yet again. More recently we heard some more details that the content industry is trying to win over some in the consumer electronics industry to push for the technology mandate that would cripple many home devices and limit fair use of legally obtained content by consumers and educators alike.

You may remember the last push of the broadcast flag was buried in the series-of-tubes Senate telecommunications bill that thankfully went nowhere. That version’s language gave FCC the needed permission (which was lacking(PDF)) to instate the copy-protection scheme that would limit what you could do with over-the-air broadcast television.

This past spring and summer was all about broadband policy for Public Knowledge - we were consumed with the 700 MHz spectrum auction, Federal Trade Commission and Federal Communications Commission proceedings regarding net neutrality, and Congressional efforts to change the way the government defines broadband and gathers data about broadband deployment and adoption.

This fall promises to be much different.

• The LA Times reports on the Senate Commerce Committee’s hearing on the transition to digital television. Senators claimed that the public was dangerously uninformed on the issue, and that without a better education effort, the Senate could have “a disaster on our hands.” Currently the FCC has only $5 million allocated for educating the public, and thus far the television industry and consumer electronics companies have yet to advertise new products for the digital transition.

• Reversing an earlier decision, Verizon agreed to bid in the 700 MHz spectrum auction under the conditions set by Chairman Martin’s proposal. However, CNet wonders whether this concession will have any impact on consumers:

Tomorrow night at the Rock and Roll Hotel on DC’s up-and-coming H-Street, the Digital Freedom Campaign will be hosting a concert with Baumer, DC-based Exit Clov, and Jonathan Coulton (there may be a few spaces left—email here if you’re interested).