ABC Aggressive On Digital TV

The Disney-owned ABC Television Network recently participated in a digital technology seminar in New York to tout DVDís Compatibility with Digital TV. Joe Kane, Widescreen Reviewís Contributing Technical Video Editor and ABC consultant, made the presentation to industry participants and press. During the presentation there was a demonstration of high definition television. Some of the images projected during the 15-minute ABC segment included a visit to the new ""HD stage set"" of Good Morning America, horse-racing footage and footage from the Disney movies Toy Story and The Parent Trap. The footage was delivered in 720 progressive ñ ABSís choice for HDTV broadcasting ñ rather than 1080 interlaced. Following the demonstration Kane said, ""Does anyone really want to go back to regular TV after seeing that?"" Kane, as Widescreen Review readers know, is a leading proponent of the 720p format. Kane points out that ""there is too much artifacting going on with 1080I and that artifacting is not present with 720p."" While Kane acknowledges that 1080p represents an improvement over 1080I, he said that ""there are lots of problems to be solved, and there are no devices for this yet."" He added, ""but the progressive domain is easy to convert, which is not so easily done with interlaced."" Kane also told the audience that digital television ""will create a demand for higher quality sources from everywhere."" Kane believes that evidently digital television sets will be able to be built which incorporate the same electronic modules, and thus drive costs significantly down.Kane advocates using the 720p format for DVD as well. ""Using a DVDís dual layer, we can put a two-hour movie in 720p on one DVD, and we will see such players in a year,"" he said. But as with the current situation with respect to 480p DVD-Video players already announced by Toshiba, copy protection continues to be the holdup.