HD Forum Releases TNT 2.0 Specifications and Conformance Tests

HD Forum is aimed at helping and promoting the development of innovative technologies for the French Digital TV environment. Among various topics, HD Forum has worked during the last 2 years on the TNT2.0 project.

The goal was to coordinate the launch of HbbTV interactive services in France. This effort is done in partnership with the HbbTV consortium and led to an upgrade version of HbbTV standard, version 1.5 and a first recommendation for DRM's.

In this respect:

  • The HD Forum board is making official the TNT 2.0 specifications to be applied on the French market;

  • All together, manufacturers, broadcasters and distributors representatives committed around the technical choices made so far, expecting that products and services will ramp up from Q4’2012 to April 2013 and beyond. Of course, products and service launch plans details remain the respective choices of broadcasters, manufacturers and distributors;

  • In order to support this goal, the “TNT 2 0 - Terminal Specification - V1.1 Final” including last improvement has been made available on the HD FORUM web site for a wider distribution to all interested parties, including non HD FORUM members;

  • The HD FORUM is also pleased to announce the full release of the TNT 2.0 test suite, developed in cooperation with companies Farncombe and Digital TV labs in the UK. This test suite has already been licensed to multiple manufacturers, and the HD FORUM restates the requirement for consumer electronic manufacturers to self-validate compliance of their products, by passing the TNT 2.0 test suite. The test suite is licensed under a fair and non-discriminatory terms and conditions approved by the HD FORUM;

  • In parallel, work continues on the interoperability of services;

  • In due course, HD FORUM will contribute to prepare the launch of products and services complying with the TNT 2.0 specifications.

Source: HD FORUM

What is AS12 and Why Do You Need It?

A nice video introduction to AS12 by Bruce Devlin.

DVB Steering Board Approves Phase 2a of 3DTV Specification

DVB is pleased to announce that at the 71st Meeting of the Steering Board, Phase 2a of the DVB-3DTV specification was approved. The specification will be submitted immediately to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) for formal standardisation. An amended DVB-3DTV BlueBook is to be published to reflect the addition to the specification.

The Phase 2a system, also known as “Service Compatible Mode” is designed to meet the needs of those who need to provide normal HDTV receivers with a 2D version of the 3D programme from the same broadcast channel, and at the same time improve the quality of the 3DTV images. Phase 2a provides a 2D version plus an MPEG MVC top-up signal. Although they are tailored to their different environments, both 3D Blu-ray and Phase 2a use MVC, which will enable receivers to include both capabilities.

The 3DTV Phase 1 specification was published in 2011 for “Frame Compatible” delivery, where the essential requirement was that existing HDTV set-top boxes would allow viewers to watch 3D (if they had a 3D display). This is the most used 3DTV broadcast form in the world today.

Source: DVB

MXF for Program Contribution - AS-11

Ian Wimsett, Senior Technologist at Red Bee Media, describes the Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA) specification MXF for Contribution, AS-11. AS-11 is a vendor-neutral subset of the MXF file format to use for delivery of finished programming from program producers and distributors to broadcast stations. AS-11 Files are intended to be complete and ready for playout. AS-11 supports SD video encoded as D-10, 50Mbit/s, and HD as AVC-Intra Class 100. Audio can be PCM, AC-3 or Dolby E.

What is AS11 and Why Do You Need It?

A nice video introduction to AS11 by Bruce Devlin.