The Future of Television - an unconventional view (some of which may be seen as heresy!)

Progressive Scan

The USA Progressive Scan system takes over from the UK Interlaced system, soon after the introduction of Digital TV.

Vertical Aperture Correction Removed

One of the main defects of present day broadcast tv pictures is the use of vertical aperture correction with interlace, in the tv camera. The aperture correction is applied at half of the ideal vertical frequency. This problem will naturally become corrected with a move to progressive scan. It accounts for the superior appearance of stills from a £200 Digital still camera from the high street, when compared with a still from a £30,000 broadcast tv camera.

Horizontal Aperture Correction Removed

Another of the main defects of present day broadcast tv pictures, when compared with the superior pictures from a domestic digital still camera, is the use of excessive horizontal aperture correction, causing black outlining and ringing.

Extended UHF Spectrum

This will prove to be the best and most economical way of getting the desired number of tv channels in the way we want them. The requirements are:

1. "Through the wall" reception on set-top tv aerials - not possible with satellite.*

2. Wide Bandwidth TV channels of 6MHz or 8MHz per programme. Because of the requirement for progressive scan at higher definition, we will lose the reduction in bandwidth which we thought we had gained by going digital.

3. As many channels on terrestrial, as there are on satellite.

The easiest way of approaching this will be with an extended UHF band. It bears some similarity with present day "MMDS" practise, but the lower the frequency, and the wider the band, the better. An ideal solution would be

UHF 1 470 to 860 MHz, used together with

UHF 2 950 to 1750 MHz.

3D Three Dimensional Colour Motion Pictures

This is the heresy! Market 3D Televisions WHICH REQUIRE THE VIEWER TO WEAR GLASSES. 3D Television is misunderstood.* The glasses are optional, not compulsory. It may start up as a "gimmick" for videodiscs or camcorders. Compare the success of the Sony Walkman, which also requires people to wear something on their head, and was not widely predicted to become a commercial success, let alone a major one.

"No Television Standard"

Another case of TV practise following PC practise, like progressive scan, high resolution, jpeg and mpeg compression. TV can and should use variable resolution with ease, just as the PC does. A national movie channel can then use 8MHz for widescreen 720 line progressive scan with possible 3D, while a local TV channel may use only 2MHz for present day style 288 line interlaced pictures with vertical detail flicker, black outlining and ringing, in 2D flat mode.

Radio Stations are all TV stations.

Radio comes to mean TV with a small picture. It is received on something that looks like an old "sound-only" radio, but with a small screen about the same size as the dial or the old speaker grill. It is broadcast on the established radio bands, Long, Medium, Short and "FM". The programmes are like radio programmes, but with some pictures to go with them. Internet style variable resolution allows anything from high resolution stills every few seconds to full motion colour television with 120 lines.