CEA Standard To Enhance The Performance Of DTV Systems In The Home

19-Dec-01

Digital television (DTV) consumers will enjoy a more consumer-friendly interface and enhanced features now that a new standard (EIA/CEA-861A) has been unanimously adopted by the Consumer Electronics Association's (CEA) DTV Interface Subcommittee. The standard, developed by CEA engineering group R-4.8 (Working Group 7), defines a method for sending digital video signals over the Digital Visual Interface (DVI) and OpenLDI video interface specifications. It is the successor to EIA/CEA 861, which was approved in November 2000.EIA/CEA-861A (861A) is fully backward-compatible with EIA/CEA-861 (861), which has already been implemented using DVI1.0. As with 861, devices making use of the 861A standard can incorporate a digital content protection system to ensure interoperability and protect copyrighted content. The new features in 861A will be available when enhanced versions of the DVI or OpenLDI interfaces are adopted that are capable of carrying auxiliary video information, such as picture aspect ratio and native video format information.The original, 861 standard was adopted in order to add high definition television (HDTV) and enhanced definition television (EDTV) video formats and requirements to DVI1.0, which was once only used for personal computer monitors. Manufacturers saw a need for 861A in order to produce consumer-friendly enhancements which improve and optimize the picture quality of DTV. The new standard allows DTV source devices such as set-top boxes, digital video recorders and DVD players to determine the preferred video format of a television automatically, over the digital video connection. This will help consumers obtain optimum picture quality from their home entertainment systems. ""The new standard will allow manufacturers to offer customers additional and enhanced features with their DTV products,"" said Frank Kot, Director of Product Strategy and Planning with Philips Business Creation Team PTV and chair of CEA's DTV Interface Subcommittee. Tom Stahl, Chair of Working Group 7 of the DTV Interface Subcommittee and Principal Member, Technical Staff in the Corporate Research Organization of Thomson multimedia Inc., added, ""Most important, the industry believes that availability of 861A will stimulate growth in the HDTV market, which will help advance the goal of a swift analog to digital television transition.""In addition to announcing the new standard, CEA's DTV Interface Subcommittee also released a Request for Information (RFI) on proposals to enable 861A, including methods for carrying audio, for carrying CEA InfoPackets (861A includes an optional Infopacket structure that is carried from the source to the DTV Monitor), and for supporting the YCbCr pixel format. Details on the RFI are available at www.ce.org under ""Tech Topics."" Responses are due by close of business, December 21, 2001. For more information about the CEA, visit www.ce.org.

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