The HDTV Archive Project

Bibliography

During the course of my research, many kind souls furnished published, unpublished, personal recollections and other material, some of which is very difficult to acquire. I have deposited my reference materials, including most of the books, and hard copy of rare titles in this bibliography with the Smithsonian Institution.

Researchers are encouraged to consult the primary sources first such as the FCC, EC/EU, EBU, IEEE, BBC, SMPTE, etc.; for the serious inquirer, the monthly subscriptions or memberships fess are well worth the investment. Although this is the more difficult route, it yields the truest picture of the historical facts as well as technical and political issues regarding HDTV. And for those so inclined, patent searches contain the most esoteric technical details, and an interesting trail that tracks the evolution and interdependence of HDTV/ATV technology.

For those who are unfamiliar with the development of HDTV, it is recommended that one acquire an historical overview before delving deeper into a particular area. HDTV research began in 1964 in and only came to fruition in 2006 with the European rollout and subsequent global acceptance. Except for this book, there is no source that covers this 40+ year history to any meaningful depth.

 

Perhaps the most comprehensive on-line repository of HDTV information on all levels, from engineering participant to industry analyst can be found on-line at the

HDTV Magazine http://www.hdtvmagazine.com

Founder Dale Cripps began publishing the HDTV Newsletter in 1983 and in November 1998 he launched the Internet distributed HDTV Magazine.

HDTV World Review. Volume I, Number 4. Autumn 1990, http://www.hdtvmagazine.com/archives/wrldrvw3.html has articles by:

Corey Carbonara -A Current History of High Definition.

Jerry K. Pearlman - HDTV: The American Agenda

Robert W. Hubbard - Direct Broadcast Satellite

Events and issues up to1990 are chronicled in a number of studies done for US Government entities.

Johnson, Leland. Development of High-Definition Television: A Study in U.S.-Japan Trade Relations. RAND Corporation. Santa Monica, CA.1990. Web.

U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment, The Big Picture: HDTV and High-Resolution Systems, OTA-BP-CI'I'-64 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, June 1990). Web.

An excellent academic work that provides a great deal of detailed information about the Japanese, European and American efforts through the late 1990's: 

Dupagne, M.; Seel, Peter B. HDTV: High-Definition Television A global Perspective. Iowa State University press. Ames, IW. 1998. Print.

 

Insider accounts

Abramson, Albert. The History of Television, 1942 to 2000. McFarland & Co. Jefferson, NC. 2003. Print. Encyclopedic chronological account of equipment and events with highly detailed references.

Hopkins, Robert. "Dr. Bob" was ATSC Director from 1985 to 1995 and Director of the Sony Hi Def Center. He has posted an extensive library of primary documents and his personal publications http://www.rhopkins.us/drbob.tv/documents/Robert_Hopkins_Publications.htm

Weiss, S. Merrill. Issues in Advanced Television. Focal Press. Boston. 2006. Print. Reprints of Mr. Weiss's columns publish in TV Technology during the 1990's.

Also see Whitaker, Jerry (below)

Japan

ITE, DB-JET - Data Base of Noteworthy Japanese Contributions to Electrical Technology

Five Japanese academic societies have complied a database related to electric, electronic and information area (ITE, IPSJ, IEIJ, IEEJ, IEICE) with the cooperation of NII. It is a great source for information and images about Hi-Vision, MUSE and all Japanese HDTV related R & D. http://dbjet.nii.ac.jp/pub/pro/english/index.html

Click on dates related to Broadcasting, then scan the results; or search for HDTV,MUSE, etc...

NHK

Without the seminal work of NHK one can only speculate as to what might have been the fate of the Next generation of television. NHK and ITE have extensive historical and technical information on their websites. Many pages contain historical photographs.

NHK: Evolution of Television http://www.nhk.or.jp/strl/aboutstrl/evolution-of-tv-en/p19.html

NHK Digital: http://www.nhk.or.jp/digital/en/body.html

The classic publication from NHK, released during Dr. Fujio's tenure:

Fujio, et. al. NHK Technical Monograph No. 32. NHK Technical Research Laboratories. Tokyo Japan. June 1982. Print.

NHK Science and technical Research Laboratories. High Definition Television: Hi-Vision Technology. Van Nostrand Reinhold. New York. 1993. Print.

Information about the development of Japan's ISDB DTV technology is available in NHK documents:

NHK. Outline of the Specification for ISDB-T. NHK. 1999. Web. http://www.nhk.or.jp/strl/open99/de-2/shosai-e.html

Masafumi, Saito. Digital Satellite Broadcasting and HDTV Services in Japan. NHK Science and Technical Research Laboratories. Web.

A general history of NHK can be found in:

Krauss, Ellis S. Broadcasting Politics in Japan: NHK and Television News. Cornell University Press. Ithaca, NY. 2000.

 

Europe

The European Council/Commission and it successor the European Union issued many policy documents regarding HDTV/ATV. They usually can be located by an online search by number and date, see text and endnotes for information.

European Council. COUNCIL DIRECTIVE 92/38/EEC of 11 May 1992 on the adoption of standards for satellite broadcasting of television signals. Web.

Information about the Eureka-95/HD-MAC is can be found in IBC papers available via IEEExpore and in:

Slater, Jim. "MODERN TELEVISION SYSTEMS to HDTV and beyond." Pitman Publishing. London. 1991. Print.

Slater supplies a large amount of technical detail about not only the European effort, but also of the Japanese and American systems up to 1990 and the all-digital GI proposal.

Dai, Xiudian. Corporate Strategy, Public Policy and New Technologies: Philips and the European Consumer Electronics Industry. Pergamon. Oxford, UK. Elsevier Science, Ltd. 1996. Print.

Dai devotes a considerable portion of his book to European consumer electronics, business and political issues and a sizeable number of pages to Eureka-95

Both are out of print but might still be available from on-line used-book sources; this is where I found copies in 2010.

I was provided the following document and it is available in my archive at the Smithsonian.

Bogels, P. W. & Reid, Dr. R. A. The EUREKA 95 HDTV project - in Hindsight.

IEEExplore contains numerous HD-MAC related articles (see below)

JPRS Report. "Science & Technology Europe." JPRS-EST-92-038. Foreign Broadcast Information Service. Dec. 21, 1992. Web.

EBU Technical Review

Search at: www.ebu.ch/en/technical/

Go to last page and work forward chronologically: http://www.ebu.ch

David Wood has written extensively from the European perspective regarding the development of HDTV. Search keywords: "Wood" "EBU" HDTV

• Wood & Baron. The Worldwide ITU Dimension to DTV Standards - the impossible took a little longer. EBU technical Review. July 2006. Web.
• Wood, David. The Development of HDTV in Europe. July 2007.

BBC R&D

The BBC has an extensive archive of technical documents and white papers

http://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/pubs/papers/index.shtml

www.BBCeng.info

http://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/pubs/archive/

BBC. BBC Engineering at IBC88. ENG INF No 34. Autumn 1988. Web.

DVB - Digital Video Broadcast

DVB http://www.dvb.org/about_dvb/dvb_worldwide/

Source for DTV worldwide implementation information by country.

 

United States

For a technical paper trail and insight into how various technologies have been used as a basis in other ATV systems, patent filings shed an abundance of light.

 

US Patent Office http://www.uspto.gov/

Search Patents at: http://www.uspto.gov/patents/process/search/

European and other interantaioanlly filed patents should be consulted as well. For example, I found a Euoprean patent for an NHK tri-level sync filing.

 

Federal Communication Commission

FCC Dockets and public comments are a vast repository of original source documents. One with the "key" will find all the information necessary there to decipher the course of events. But I warn, do not jump to conclusions or use the information to support preconceived scenarios; instead, allow the documents to tell the story. It is all there.

www.fcc.gov.

The ATV proceeding is MM Docket No. 87-268. The Electronic Comment Filing System (ECFS). ECFS serves as the repository for official records in the FCC's docketed proceedings and rulemakings.

http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/ecfs/

When searching, be sure to bracket by dates, and/or use a keyword in the "Name of Filer" field.

ECFS search for Filings: http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/ecfs/comment_search/input?z=zhd5x

ECFS Search for Proceedings: http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/ecfs/proceeding_search/input?z=um4lo

The FCC ATV proceeding was initiated by a petition filed by AMST, NAB and 56 broadcasters on February 13, 1987.

http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/ecfs/comment/view?id=107110

FCC. In the Matter of Advanced Television Systems and Their Impact Upon the Existing Television Broadcast Service. Docket No. 87-268.

ACATS- Advisory Committee on Advanced Television Services

Created by FCC November 17, 1987.

FCC Comments

The definitive source for information from stakeholders in the US ATV process are their filings with the FCC. They are detailed, exhaustive and clearly state the "official" position of the ATSC, ATTC, Grand Alliance, Microsoft and CICATS, and from individual filers such as Dr. William F Schreiber. ACATS reports are available as well.

FCC Related Documents

FCC. Telecommunications Act of 1996. Washington, DC.November 15, 2008.Web. http://www.fccov/telecom.html

FCC/OET 99-2, "DTV Report on CODFD and 8-VSB Performance." FCC Office of Engineering and Technology. Washington, DC. Sept. 30, 1999. Web.

Congressional Testimony and Depositions

Numerous Congressional hearings were held and contain a vast amount of primary source material.

Liebhold, Mike. "High definition information systems : hearings before the Subcommittee on Technology and Competitiveness of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, U.S. House of Representatives, One Hundred Second Congress, first session, May 14, 21, 1991." Testimony and supporting documents. U.S. Government Printing Office. Washington, DC. 1991. Web.

Liebhold, Mike. United States. Congress. House. Committee on Energy and Commerce. Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Finance: High definition television : hearing before the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Finance of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, House of Representatives, One Hundred Third Congress, first session, May 27, 1993. (Washington : U.S. G.P.O. : For sale by the U.S. G.P.O., Supt. of Docs., Congressional Sales Office, 1993) (page images at Hathi Trust) Web. Accessed Feb. 28, 2011. http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?seq=3&view=image&size=100&id=pst.000021867101&u=1&num=87

Neuman, W. Russell. Testimony. US House of Representatives Hearings on New Directions in Video Technology. June 23, 1988. Web.

CableLabs

• Cable Labs, Timeline-1991. http://www.cablelabs.com/anniversary/timelines/1999.html
• CableLabs. A Decade of Innovation: The History of CableLabs 1988-1998. http://www.cablelabs.com/downloads/pubs/history.pdf
• CableLabs. Anniversay.

 

Consumer Electronics Association

For details about the consumer rollout of HD and DTV in the US

CEA. Digital America 2005. http://www.ce.org/Press/CEA_Pubs/831.asp

Computer Industry and Visionary Influences

The US process was heavily influenced by the Computer Industry and Media Visionaries. It is important to understand how the television industry was considered by some to be a subset of Information Technology and how the vision of the convergence of television and computing impacted the US standardization process.

Gates, Bill. The Road Ahead. Viking. (Penguin Books). New York. 1995.

Gilder, George. Life After Television: The Coming Transformation of Media and American Life. (Revised Edition) Norton. New York. Cambridge, MA. 1994.

Negroponte, Nicholas. Being Digital. Vintage Books (paperback). New York. 1996.

Neuman, McKnight, Solomon. The Gordian Knot. MIT Press. 1998. (Second Printing)

 

Technical

Jones, Graham A. A Broadcast Engineering Tutorial for Non-Engineers. Focal Press. Third Edition. 2005. Print.

Whitaker, Jerry. Mastering Digital Television: The Complete Guide to the DTV Conversion. McGraw-Hill. 2006. Print. Mr. Whitaker has edited many books and usually includes a chapter that describes, with various levels of detail, the development of HDTV from an engineering perspective with an eye to historical events.

 

Australia

Pickford, Neil. Australian digital TV - status. Power Point. Communications Lab. Web. Accessed Mar. 6, 2011. http://happy.emu.id.au/lab/lectures/brstatus/brstatus.PPT

Webb, Philip J. DIGITAL TERRESTRIAL TELEVISION IN AUSTRALIA. Digital Broadcasting Australia Limited. Australia. Web. Accessed Mar. 6, 2011.

Brazil

Ana Eliza Faria e Silva. Digital Television Laboratory and Field Test Results - Brazil. FES/ITU/URTNA Symposium On New TV Broadcasting Technologies For Africa. ABERT/SET Group. www.itu.int/ITU-D/pdf/3888-06-en.pdf

Canada

An excellent chronology of the beginnings of Canadian ATV activity and the establishment ATEL can be found at:

Research Communications Research Centre Industry Canada Ottawa Canada. History - IEEE Ottawa Section. Web. http://ottawa.ieee.ca/History/IEEE_Ottawa_History.doc

DTV implementation details, released in 2007, can be found at:

CRTC Determination 2007-53s Web. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/Eng/archive/2007/pb2007-53.htm

 

China

AVS. Audio and Video Coding Standard Workgroup of China. Audio Video Coding Standard Workgroup of China. "About" webpage. 2003-2005. Accessed Feb 18, 2011. http://www.avs.org.cn/en/

Guo Ke. DTV Development in China. Power Point. 2004. Web.

History Websites

Alvarez, Salvador; Chen, James; et. al., HDTV: The Engineering History 12/10/99. available at: http://web.mit.edu/6.933/www/HDTV.pdf

CableLabs. A Decade of Innovation: The History of CableLabs 1988-1998. Cable Television Laboratories, Inc. Louisville, CO. 1998. Web

 

Personal Websites, Monographs, Papers & Related Documents

Krivocheev, Mark I. The First Twenty Years of HDTV. SMPTE Journal. Ed. S. Baron. White Plains, NY. Oct 1992, Vol 102, No 10. pgs 913-930. Print

Solomon, Richard Jay. As If You Were There: Matching Machine Vision to Human Vision. The Hybrid Vigor Journal. Web.

W. Russell Neuman http://www.wrneuman.com/nav_pub.html

also

Neuman, W. Russell. The Mass Audience Looks at HDTV: An Early Experiment. Paper presented at NAB. April 11, 1988. Print.

 

Videographers

Barry Rebo was opened the first independent HDTV production house in the US. A personal account of his adventures through 1995can be found in:

 

Rebo Studio & Gordon, Clay. The Guide to High Definition Video Production: Preparing For A Widescreen World. Focal Press. Boston. 1996.

C. R. Caillouet, Jr. http://www.vu-la.com/papers/

with Charlie Pantuso. "WOODSTOCK '94" A LIVE MULTI-FORMAT PRODUCTION. 1994.

STS-95 High Definition Television Coverage. Preliminary Technical Report. Nov 13, 1998.

STS-95 Shuttle Launch HD Coverage - the Short Report. Nov 12, 1998.

What time is it in Jackson Hole? Vision Unlimited/LA. Introductory presentation. Jackson Hole Symposium Sept. 9, 1998.

Randall Dark at http://randalldarknews.blogspot.com/, has left an article trail back to the early 1980's of his HDTV exploits

Jeffrey Bird. DIGITAL TELEVISION BROADCASTING: Perspectives on the Future. A minor thesis for Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Multimedia. Swinburne University of Technology. 2002, updated 2003. Web. Accessed Feb 27, 2011. http://www.scribd.com/doc/14740720/Digital-TV-Broadcasting

 

Broadcast Societies, etc...

SMPTE - The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers

Access to the SMPTE Journal papers is available on-line to SMPTE members.The SMPTE Journal digital library is available at http://www.smpte.org/journal/ Recent issues are found at http://www.smpte.org/Journal/Digital_Journal/

• Baron, S. & Powers, K. "Common Image Format for International Television Program Exchange", 131^st SMPTE Technical Conference, Los Angeles, CA, October 1989.

EBU/SMPTE Task Force Report from 1997 and 1998 are available for free at:

• EBU/SMPTE. First Report: User Requirements. Task Force for Harmonized Standards for the Exchange of Program Material as Bit Streams. April 1997. http://www.smpte.org/standards/tf_home/1st_Report_-_User_Req.pdf
• EBU/SMPTE. Final Report: Analyses and Results. Task Force for Harmonized Standards for the Exchange of Program Material as Bit Streams. July 1998. http://www.smpte.org/standards/tf_home/Final_Report_-_Findings.pdf

IEEE - The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

Avaiable (for a fee) decades of papers, publication, etc. at IEEE Xplore http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/Xplore/

See References for suggested reading.

IEEE NASA

• Beakley, Kohn, van Pelt. Transmission of digital HDTV through the NASA Communications Network. Global Telecommunications Conference, 1992. Conference Record., GLOBECOM '92. Communication for Global Users., IEEE. Orlando, FL Dec 1992. pgs 1093 - 1097 vol.2. Print.
• Beakley, Prodan, Caillouet. HDTV experiment for STS-29 orbiter launch. Global Telecommunications Conference, 1990, and Exhibition. 'Communications: Connecting the Future', GLOBECOM '90. San Diego, CA. Dec 1990. pgs 1062 - 1068 vol.2. IEEE. Print.

International Telecommunications Union

ITU 2007, HDTV 25th Anniversary of the introduction of HDTV in Europe: High Definition Television Comes of Age Thanks To ITU. 2007. Web.

http://www.itu.int/ITU-R/information/docs/flyers/hdtv-25th-anniversary-en.pdf

http://www.itu.int/ITU-R/index.asp?category=information&rlink=hdtv-25&lang=ru

 

Personal Websites & Recollections

Leonardo Chiariglione was MPEG Chairman and provides a wealth of information about its the history and development. Visit: http://www.chiariglione.org/

IEEE Spectrum. The birth of MPEG, Volume 34 Number 9. September 1997.http://leonardo.chiariglione.org/media/leonardo_ieee/prof.htm

Richard Green. Cable Center, Oral History.

 

Publications

Popular Science has a number of interesting articles about early ATV work.

For events up to and including the present consult the industry trade publications, available on line:

Broadcast Engineering Magazine: http://broadcastengineering.com/

TV Technology: http://www.tvtechnology.com/

Advanced Television: http://www.advanced-television.tv/ (International)

 

Consumer Electronics & Related Industries

Changes in the consumer electronics, computers and semiconductor industries exerted a significant influence on many events during the development of HDTV. An historical overview and statistical data are available in:

Brown & Linden. Chips and Change: How Crisis Reshapes the Semiconductor Industry. MIT Press. Cambridge, MA. 2009.

Chandler, Alfred D. "Inventing the Electronic Century: The Epic Story of the Consumer Electronics and Computer Industries." Harvard University Press. Cambridge, MA. 2005.

An insight into factors that lead to the demise of the US television industries, that aired on the PBS news series Frontline presented a sobering view of activates

PBS. How Japanese Cartels Destroyed US Electronic Industries. Frontline. Shuichi Kato; narrator. Transcript. Web. http://www.zoklet.net/totse/en/politics/economic_documents/pbsjapan.html

 

Non-industry Author: Academic & Popular

Book, Constance Ledoux. Digital Television: DTV and the Consumer. Blackwell Publishing. Iowa State University Press. Ames, Iowa. 2004.

Brinkley, Joel. Defining Vision: How Broadcasters Lured the Government into Inciting a Revolution in Television. Updated and Expanded (Paperback). Harvest Books. 1998. ISBN-10: 0156005972

Hart, J A. Technology, Television, and Competition. Cambridge University. February 23, 2004.

Huff, W. A. Kelly. Regulating the Future Broadcasting Technology and Government Control. Greenwood Press. Westport, CT. 2001. Print. Also includes information regarding the attempt to mandate an FCC AM Stereo standard.

Van Tassel, Joan. Digital TV Over Broadband: Harvesting Bandwidth. Focal Press. Boston. 2001. See Chapter 4.