-ATSC- - -KINGDOM OF JOGA-

“ADVANCED TELEVISION SYSTEMS COMMITTEE”

Below are the published ATSC standards for ATSC digital television service, issued by the Advanced Television Systems Committee...

A/49: Ghost Canceling Reference Signal for NTSC (for adjacent-channel interference or co-channel interference with analog NTSC stations nearby)

A/52B: audio data compression (Dolby AC-3 and E-AC-3)

A/53E: “ATSC Digital Television Standard” (the primary document governing the standard)

A/55: “Program Guide for Digital Television” (now deprecated in favor of A/65 PSIP)

A/56: “System Information for Digital Television” (now deprecated in favor of A/65 PSIP)

A/57A: “Content Identification and Labeling for ATSC Transport” (for assigning a unique digital number to each episode of each TV show, to assist DVRs)

A/63: “Standard for Coding 25/50 Hz Video” (for use with PAL and SECAM-originated programming)

A/64A “Transmission Measurement and Compliance for Digital Television”

A/65C: “Program and System Information Protocol for Terrestrial Broadcast and Cable” (PSIP includes virtual channels, electronic program guides, and content ratings)

A/68: “PSIP Standard for Taiwan” (defines use of Chinese characters via Unicode 3.0)

A/69: recommended practices for implementing PSIP at a TV station

A/70A: “Conditional Access System for Terrestrial Broadcast”

A/71: “ATSC Parameterized Services Standard”

A/72: “Video System Characteristics of AVC in the ATSC Digital Television System” (implementing H.264/MPEG-4 as well as MVC for 3D television)

A/76: “Programming Metadata Communication Protocol” (XML-based PMCP maintains PSIP metadata though a TV station’s airchain)

A/79: “Conversion of ATSC Signals for Distribution to NTSC Viewers” (recommended practice, issued February 2009)

A/80: “Modulation and Coding Requirements for Digital TV (DTV) Applications Over Satellite” (ATSC-S)

A/81: “Direct-to-Home Satellite Broadcast Standard” (not yet implemented by any services)

A/82: “Automatic Transmitter Power Control (ATPC) Data Return Link (DRL) Standard”

A/85: “Techniques for Establishing and Maintaining Audio Loudness for Digital Television”

A/90: “Data Broadcast Standard” (for datacasting)

A/92: “Delivery of IP Multicast Sessions over Data Broadcast Standard” (for IP multicasting)

A/93: “Synchronized/Asynchronous Trigger Standard”

A/94: “ATSC Data Application Reference Model”

A/95: “Transport Stream File System Standard” (TSFS is a special file system for downloading computer files)

A/96: “ATSC Interaction Channel Protocols” (interactive TV)

A/97: “Software Data Download Service” (used by UpdateTV for upgrades and software patches in ATSC tuners)

A/98: “System Renewability Message Transport”

A/99: “Carriage Of Legacy TV Data Services” (for former analog supplemental services that used the vertical blanking interval lines, such as closed captioning and teletext)

A/100: “DTV Application Software Environment – Level 1” (DASE-1)

A/101: “Advanced Common Application Platform” (ACAP)

A/103:2014: “Non-Real-Time Delivery”

A/104: “ATSC 3D-TV Terrestrial Broadcasting”

A/105:2015: “Interactive Services Standard”

A/106:2015: “ATSC Security and Service Protection Standard”

A/107:2015: “ATSC 2.0 Standard”

A/110A: “Synchronization Standard for Distributed Transmission” (single-frequency networks)

A/112: E-VSB (Enhanced Vestigal Sideband)

A/153: ATSC-M/H

In 2004, the main ATSC standard was amended to support Enhanced ATSC (A/112); this transmission mode is backwardly compatible with the original 8-Bit Vestigal Sideband modulation scheme, but provides much better error correction.

ATSC-M/H for mobile TV has been approved and added to some stations, though it is known that it uses MPEG-4 instead of MPEG-2 for encoding, and behaves as an MPEG-4-encoded subchannel, inheriting 8VSB from the remainder of the channel.

ATSC 3.0[edit]
ATSC 3.0 is a non-backwards-compatible version of ATSC being developed (as of May 18, 2016) that uses OFDM instead of 8VSB and a much newer video codec (instead of ATSC 1 and 2’s MPEG-2). At the time of this article’s writing,[when?] it has several candidates and one finalized standard.

On March 28, 2016, the Bootstrap component of ATSC 3.0 (System Discovery and Signalling) was upgraded from candidate standard to finalized standard.[1]

On May 4, 2016, the Audio Codec component of ATSC 3.0 was elevated to candidate standard, with two finalists remaining: Dolby AC-4[2] and MPEG-H Audio Alliance format from Fraunhofer IIS, Qualcomm and Technicolor SA.[3][4] A third entry from DTS named DTS:X (a successor to DTS-HD) was withdrawn before the standard was upgraded to candidate status.[5]

On September 8, 2016, the Physical Layer Download (OFDM) component of ATSC 3.0 was upgraded from candidate standard to finalized standard.[6]

On October 5, 2016, the Link Layer Protocol Standard (A/330) was elevated from Candidate to final standard, along with the Audio Watermark Emission Standard (A/334) and Video Watermark Emission Standard (A/335). ATSC Technology Group 3 (TG3) members have also begun voting on elevating the following Candidate Standards to Proposed Standard status (the final step before becoming an approved standard): Service Announcement (A/322), Service Usage Reporting (A/333) and Captions and Subtitles (A/343). TG3 members also are voting to elevate Security (A/360) to Candidate Standard status, joining Schedule and Studio-to-Transmitter Link Standard (A/324), which was recently elevated.[7] On March 30, 2016, A/324 (Schedule and Studio-to-Transmitter Link) was upgraded from Proposed to Candidate Standard.

On January 3, 2017, ATSC announced the updated status of its standards, in time for its debut at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.[8] As a result, this update, Captions and Subtitles (A/343) was upgraded from Candidate to Finalized Standard; Security (A-360), Lab Performance Test Plan (A-325) and Field Test Plan (A-326) were upgraded to Candidate Standard from “Under Consideration”.

By March 7, 2017, ATSC announced a further update to the status of its standards, with the following as Finalized: A/321 (System Discovery and Signaling); A/322 Physical Layer Protocl (COFDM); A/326 (Field Test Plan [Recommended Practice]); A/330 (Link Layer Protocol); A/333 (Service Usage Reporting); A/334 (Audio Watermark Emission); A/335 (Video Watermark Emission); A/336 (Content Recovery in Redistribution Scenarios [ATSC 3.0 over Cable and Satellite]); A/342 Part 1 (Audio Common Elements); A/342 Part 2 (Audio: Dolby AC-4 System); A/342 Part 3 (Audio MPEG-H System); and A/343 (Captions and Subtitles). The following are Proposed Standards: A/325 (Lab Performance Test Plan [Recommended Practice]); A/332 (Service Announcement); A/338 (Companion Device); A/341 (Video – H.265/HEVC). The following are Candidate Standards: A/300 (ATSC 3.0 System); A/324 (Scheduler/Studio-to-Transmitter Link); A/331 (Signalling, Delivery, Sync Error Protection); A/337 (Application Signalling); A/344 (Interactive Content); A/360 (Security and Service Protection). The following is a Draft Standard: A/323 (Physical Layer Uplink/Downlink).[9]

Structure/ATSC 3.0 System Layers[10]
Bootstrap: System Discovery and Signalling
Physical Layer: Transmission (OFDM)
Link Layer Protocols: IP, MMT
Presentation: Audio and Video standards (to be determined), Ultra HD with High Definition and standard-definition multicast, Immersive Audio
Applications: Screen is a web page
Finalized Standards
A/200: Regional Service Availability (finalized on July 8, 2020)
A/300: ATSC 3.0[11]
A/321: System Discovery and Signalling
A/322: Physical Layer Download
A/323: Dedicated Return Channel for ATSC 3.0 (Physical Layer Upload/Download (Uplink/Downlink)) (accepted on 2 November 2017, finalized on December 7, 2018)
A/324: Schedule and Studio-to-Transmitter Link (finalized on 5 January 2018)
A/325: Recommended Practice: TG3/S32 Lab Performance Test Plan
A/326: Field Test Plan (Recommended Practice)
A/330: Link Layer Protocol
A/331: Signaling, Delivery, Synchronization, and Error Protection (finalized on 6 December 2017)
A/332: Service Announcement
A/333: Service Usage Reporting
A/334: Audio Watermark Emission
A/335: Video Watermark Emission
A/336: Content Recovery in Redistribution Scenarios
A/337: Application Signaling (finalized on January 2, 2018)
A/338: Companion Device
A/339:2017, “ATSC Recommended Practice: Audio Watermark Modification and Erasure”
A/341: Video Standard (H.265, Scalable HEVC with HDR) [12][13]
A/341:2018, “Video – HEVC, With Amendments No. 1 and No. 2″ (Approved January 24, 2018. Amendment No. 1 approved March 9, 2018. Amendment No. 2 approved March 12, 2018, finalized on February 14, 2019)
A/342: Audio Standard (composed of the following three parts)[14]
A/341 Amendment – 2094-40 (HEVC Video Codec, Finalized on September 19, 2021)
A/342 Part 1: Audio Common Elements
A/342 Part 2: AC-4 System
A/342 Part 3: MPEG-H AA System (declared the audio standard for ATSC 3.0 in South Korea)[8]
A/343: Captions and Subtitles
A/344: Application Runtime Environment Standard (apps for advanced televisions) (finalized December 18, 2017)
A/360: Security and Service Protection (encryption for broadcasters) (finalized January 9, 2018)
Proposed Standards
Candidate Standards
A/331:2021: Signaling, Delivery, Synchronization, and Error Protection (Most Recent Document, approved on December 9, 2021
A/344:2021: Interactive Content (Most Recent Document, approved November 24, 2021)
A/345: Personalization
Draft Standards
Under Consideration – Working Drafts and Recommended Practices
A/327: Guidelines for the Physical Layer Protocol (Most Recent Document Approved January 25, 2021)
A/350: Guide to the Link-Layer Protocol (Most Recent Document Approved: July 19, 2019)
A/351: Techniques for Signaling, Delivery and Synchronization (Most Recent Document Approved: February 15, 2021)
A/361: Security and Content Protection (Most Recent Document Approved: December 10, 2019)
A/362: Digital Rights Management (DRM) (Most Recent Document Approved: January 17, 2020)
A/370: Conversion of ATSC 3.0 Services for Redistribution (Most Recent Document Approved: December 11, 2019)
A/380: Haptics for ATSC 3.0 (Most Recent Document Approved: February 3, 2021)
References[edit]
^ “First Element of ATSC 3.0 Approved for Standard”. 28 March 2016.
^ “Next generation audio with Dolby AC-4”.
^ “ATSC A/342 Audio Elevated to Candidate Standard”. 4 May 2016.
^ “mpeghaa.com is for sale”. HugeDomains.
^ “Advanced Television Systems Committee Begins Review of ATSC 3.0 Audio System Proposals”. 10 March 2015.
^ “ATSC 3.0 Physical Layer Standard Approved”. 8 September 2016.
^ “ATSC Approves More 3.0 Components”. 5 October 2016.
^ Jump up to: a b “ATSC 3.0 Getting the Spotlight at CES 2017 | TvTechnology”. www.tvtechnology.com. Archived from the original on 2017-01-04.
^ Whitaker, Jerry (2017-08-19). “A ‘Tipping Point’ for ATSC 3.0 Standards Development”. Archived from the original on 2017-08-19. Retrieved 2021-08-05.
^ “Archived copy”. Archived from the original on 2016-10-04. Retrieved 2016-05-18.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^ “ATSC 3.0: What will the “standard” look like?”. 3 August 2015.
^ “A/341, ATSC Candidate Standard: Video – ATSC”. atsc.org. Archived from the original on 2016-02-24.
^ “HPA 2016: ATSC 3.0 Update | TvTechnology”. www.tvtechnology.com. Archived from the original on 2016-02-17.
^ “‘Bootstrap’ Proposed Standard TG3 Ballot Imminent; More ATSC 3.0 Candidate Standards in the Wings”. February 2016.
External links[edit]
ATSC standards

*’ATSC standards’ are an american set of ‘standards’ for ‘digital television transmission’ over ‘terrestrial/cable/satellite networks’*

It is largely a replacement for the analog NTSC standard and, like that standard, is used mostly in the United States, Mexico, Canada, and South Korea.

Several former NTSC users, in particular Japan, have not used ATSC during their digital television transition, because they adopted their own system called ISDB.

The ATSC standards were developed in the early 1990s by the Grand Alliance, a consortium of electronics and telecommunications companies that assembled to develop a specification for what is now known as HDTV. The standard is now administered by the Advanced Television Systems Committee. It includes a number of patented elements, and licensing is required for devices that use these parts of the standard. Key among these is the 8VSB modulation system used for over-the-air broadcasts. ATSC[clarification needed] technology was primarily developed with patent contributions from LG Electronics, which holds most of the patents for the ATSC standard.[1]

ATSC includes two primary high definition video formats, 1080i and 720p. It also includes standard-definition formats, although initially only HDTV services were launched in the digital format. ATSC can carry multiple channels of information on a single stream, and it is common for there to be a single high-definition signal and several standard-definition signals carried on a single 6 MHz (former NTSC) channel allocation.

Background[edit]
The high-definition television standards defined by the ATSC produce widescreen 16:9 images up to 1920×1080 pixels in size – more than six times the display resolution of the earlier standard. However, many different image sizes are also supported. The reduced bandwidth requirements of lower-resolution images allow up to six standard-definition “subchannels” to be broadcast on a single 6 MHz TV channel.

ATSC standards are marked A/x (x is the standard number) and can be downloaded for free from the ATSC’s website at ATSC.org. ATSC Standard A/53, which implemented the system developed by the Grand Alliance, was published in 1995; the standard was adopted by the Federal Communications Commission in the United States in 1996. It was revised in 2009. ATSC Standard A/72 was approved in 2008 and introduces H.264/AVC video coding to the ATSC system.

ATSC supports 5.1-channel surround sound using Dolby Digital’s AC-3 format. Numerous auxiliary datacasting services can also be provided.

Many aspects of ATSC are patented, including elements of the MPEG video coding, the AC-3 audio coding, and the 8VSB modulation.[2] The cost of patent licensing, estimated at up to $50 per digital TV receiver,[3] has prompted complaints by manufacturers.[4]

As with other systems, ATSC depends on numerous interwoven standards, e.g., the EIA-708 standard for digital closed captioning, leading to variations in implementation.

Digital switchover[edit]
ATSC replaced much of the analog NTSC television system[5] in the United States[6][7] on June 12, 2009, on August 31, 2011 in Canada, on December 31, 2012 in South Korea, and[8] on December 31, 2015 in Mexico.[9]

Broadcasters who used ATSC and wanted to retain an analog signal were temporarily forced to broadcast on two separate channels, as the ATSC system requires the use of an entire separate channel. Channel numbers in ATSC do not correspond to RF frequency ranges, as they did with analog television. Instead, virtual channels, sent as part of the metadata along with the program(s), allow channel numbers to be remapped from their physical RF channel to any other number 1 to 99, so that ATSC stations can either be associated with the related NTSC channel numbers, or all stations on a network can use the same number. There is also a standard for distributed transmission systems (DTx), a form of single-frequency network which allows for the synchronised operation of multiple on-channel booster stations.

Audio[edit]
Dolby Digital AC-3 is used as the audio codec, though it was standardized as A/52 by the ATSC. It allows the transport of up to five channels of sound with a sixth channel for low-frequency effects (the so-called “5.1” configuration). In contrast, Japanese ISDB HDTV broadcasts use MPEG’s Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) as the audio codec, which also allows 5.1 audio output. DVB (see below) allows both.

MPEG-2 audio was a contender for the ATSC standard during the DTV “Grand Alliance” shootout, but lost out to Dolby AC-3. The Grand Alliance issued a statement finding the MPEG-2 system to be “essentially equivalent” to Dolby, but only after the Dolby selection had been made. Later, a story emerged that MIT had entered into an agreement with Dolby whereupon the university would be awarded a large sum of money if the MPEG-2 system was rejected. Dolby also offered an incentive for Zenith to switch their vote (which they did); however, it is unknown whether they accepted the offer.[10]

Video[edit]
The ATSC system supports a number of different display resolutions, aspect ratios, and frame rates. The formats are listed here by resolution, form of scanning (progressive or interlaced), and number of frames (or fields) per second (see also the TV resolution overview at the end of this article).

For transport, ATSC uses the MPEG systems specification, known as an MPEG transport stream, to encapsulate data, subject to certain constraints. ATSC uses 188-byte MPEG transport stream packets to carry data. Before decoding of audio and video takes place, the receiver must demodulate and apply error correction to the signal. Then, the transport stream may be demultiplexed into its constituent streams.

MPEG-2[edit]
There are four basic display sizes for ATSC, generally known by referring to the number of lines of the picture height. NTSC and PAL image sizes are smallest, with a width of 720 (or 704) and a height of 480 or 576 lines. The third size is HDTV images that have 720 scan lines in height and are 1280 pixels wide. The largest size has 1080 lines high and 1920 pixels wide. 1080-line video is actually encoded with 1920×1088 pixel frames, but the last eight lines are discarded prior to display. This is due to a restriction of the MPEG-2 video format, which requires the height of the picture in luma samples (i.e. pixels) to be divisible by 16.

The lower resolutions can operate either in progressive scan or interlaced mode, but not the largest picture sizes. The 1080-line system does not support progressive images at the highest frame rates of 50, 59.94 or 60 frames per second, because such technology was seen as too advanced at the time. The standard also requires 720-line video be progressive scan, since that provides better picture quality than interlaced scan at a given frame rate, and there was no legacy use of interlaced scan for that format. The result is that the combination of maximum frame rate and picture size results in approximately the same number of samples per second for both the 1080-line interlaced format and the 720-line format, as 1920108030 is roughly equal to 128072060. A similar equality relationship applies for 576 lines at 25 frame per second versus 480 lines at 30 frames per second.

A terrestrial (over-the-air) transmission carries 19.39 megabits of data per second (a fluctuating bandwidth of about 18.3 Mbit/s left after overhead such as error correction, program guide, closed captioning, etc.), compared to a maximum possible MPEG-2 bitrate of 10.08 Mbit/s (7 Mbit/s typical) allowed in the DVD standard and 48 Mbit/s (36 Mbit/s typical) allowed in the Blu-ray disc standard.

Although the ATSC A/53 standard limits MPEG-2 transmission to the formats listed below (with integer frame rates paired with 1000/1001-rate versions), the U.S. Federal Communications Commission declined to mandate that television stations obey this part of the ATSC’s standard. In theory, television stations in the U.S. are free to choose any resolution, aspect ratio, and frame/field rate, within the limits of Main Profile @ High Level. Many stations do go outside the bounds of the ATSC specification by using other resolutions – for example, 352 x 480 or 720 x 480.

“EDTV” displays can reproduce progressive scan content and frequently have a 16:9 wide screen format. Such resolutions are 704×480 or 720×480[citation needed] in NTSC and 720×576 in PAL, allowing 60 progressive frames per second in NTSC or 50 in PAL.

ATSC Standard A/53 Part 4:2009 (MPEG-2 Video System Characteristics)
Resolution Aspect ratio Pixel aspect ratio Scanning Frame rate (Hz)
Vertical Horizontal
1080 1920 16:9 1:1 progressive 23.976
24
29.97
30
interlaced 29.97 (59.94 fields/s)
30 (60 fields/s)
720 1280 16:9 1:1 progressive 23.976
24
29.97
30
59.94
60
480 704 4:3 or 16:9 10:11 or 40:33 progressive 23.976
24
29.97
30
59.94
60
interlaced 29.97 (59.94 fields/s)
30 (60 fields/s)
640 4:3 1:1 progressive 23.976
24
29.97
30
59.94
60
interlaced 29.97 frames/s (59.94 fields/s)
30 frames/s (60 fields/s)
ATSC also supports PAL frame rates and resolutions which are defined in ATSC A/63 standard.

ATSC Standard A/63:1997 (Standard for Coding 25/50 Hz Video)
Resolution Aspect ratio Pixel aspect ratio Scanning Frame rate (Hz)
Vertical Horizontal
1080 1920 16:9 1:1 interlaced 25 (50 fields/s)
progressive 25
720 1280 16:9 1:1 progressive 50
576 720 4:3 or 16:9 SMPTE 259M progressive 25
50
interlaced 25 (50 fields/s)
544 4:3 or 16:9 SMPTE 259M
three quarters progressive 25
interlaced 25 (50 fields/s)
480 4:3 or 16:9 SMPTE 259M
two thirds progressive 25
interlaced 25 (50 fields/s)
352 4:3 or 16:9 SMPTE 259M
half progressive 25
interlaced 25 (50 fields/s)
288 352 4:3 or 16:9 CIF progressive 25
The ATSC A/53 specification imposes certain constraints on MPEG-2 video stream:

The maximum bit rate value in the sequence header of the MPEG-2 video stream is 19.4 Mbit/s for broadcast television, and 38.8 Mbit/s for the “high data rate” mode (e.g., cable television). The actual MPEG-2 video bit rate will be lower, since the MPEG-2 video stream must fit inside a transport stream.
The amount of MPEG-2 stream buffer required at the decoder (the vbv_buffer_size_value) must be less than or equal to 999,424 bytes

In most cases, the transmitter can’t start sending a coded image until within a half-second of when it’s to be decoded (vbv_delay less than or equal to 45000 90-kHz clock increments).

The stream must include colorimetry information (gamma curve, the precise RGB colors used, and the relationship between RGB and the coded YCbCr).
The video must be 4:2:0 (chrominance resolution must be 1/2 of luma horizontal resolution and 1/2 of luma vertical resolution).
The ATSC specification and MPEG-2 allow the use of progressive frames coded within an interlaced video sequence. For example, NBC stations transmit a 1080i60 video sequence, meaning the formal output of the MPEG-2 decoding process is sixty 540-line fields per second. However, for prime-time television shows, those 60 fields can be coded using 24 progressive frames as a base – actually, an 1080p24 video stream (a sequence of 24 progressive frames per second) is transmitted, and MPEG-2 metadata instructs the decoder to interlace these fields and perform 3:2 pulldown before display, as in soft telecine.

The ATSC specification also allows 1080p30 and 1080p24 MPEG-2 sequences, however they are not used in practice, because broadcasters want to be able to switch between 60 Hz interlaced (news), 30 Hz progressive or PsF (soap operas), and 24 Hz progressive (prime-time) content without ending the 1080i60 MPEG-2 sequence.

The 1080-line formats are encoded with 1920 × 1088 pixel luma matrices and 960 × 540 chroma matrices, but the last 8 lines are discarded by the MPEG-2 decoding and display process.

H.264/MPEG-4 AVC[edit]
In July 2008, ATSC was updated to support the ITU-T H.264 video codec. The new standard is split in two parts:

A/72 part 1: Video System Characteristics of AVC in the ATSC Digital Television System[11]
A/72 part 2 : AVC Video Transport Subsystem Characteristics[12]
The new standards support 1080p at 50, 59.94 and 60 frames per second; such frame rates require H.264/AVC High Profile Level 4.2, while standard HDTV frame rates only require Levels 3.2 and 4, and SDTV frame rates require Levels 3 and 3.1.[dubious – discuss]

ATSC Standard A/72 Part 1:2008 (Video System Characteristics of AVC)
Resolution Aspect ratio Pixel aspect ratio Scanning Frame rate (Hz) Level
Vertical Horizontal
1080 1920 16:9 1:1 progressive 23.976
24
29.97
30
25 4
progressive 59.94
60
50 4.2
interlaced 29.97 (59.94 fields/s)
30 (60 fields/s)
25 (50 fields/s) 4
1440 16:9 HDV
(4:3) progressive 23.976
24
29.97
30
25 4
progressive 59.94
60
50 4.2
interlaced 29.97 (59.94 fields/s)
30 (60 fields/s)
25 (50 fields/s) 4
720 1280 16:9 1:1 progressive 23.976
24
29.97
30
59.94
60
25
50 3.2, 4
480 720 4:3 or 16:9 SMPTE 259M
(10:11 or 40:33) progressive 23.976
24
29.97
30
59.94
60
25
50 3.1, 4
interlaced 29.97 (59.94 fields/s)
30 (60 fields/s)
25 (50 fields/s) 3
704 4:3 or 16:9 SMPTE 259M
(10:11 or 40:33) progressive 23.976
24
29.97
30
59.94
60
25
50 3.1, 4
interlaced 29.97 (59.94 fields/s)
30 (60 fields/s)
25 (50 fields/s) 3
640 4:3 1:1 progressive 23.976
24
29.97
30
59.94
60
25
50 3.1, 4
interlaced 29.97 (59.94 fields/s)
30 (60 fields/s)
25 (50 fields/s) 3
544 4:3 SMPTE 259M
three quarters
(40:33) progressive 23.976
25 3
interlaced 29.97 (59.94 fields/s)
25 (50 fields/s)
528 4:3 SMPTE 259M
three quarters
(40:33) progressive 23.976
25 3
interlaced 29.97 (59.94 fields/s)
25 (50 fields/s)
352 4:3 SMPTE 259M
half
(20:11) progressive 23.976
25 3
interlaced 29.97 (59.94 fields/s)
25 (50 fields/s)
240 352 4:3 SIF
(10:11) progressive 23.976
25 3
120 176 4:3 SIF half
(10:11) progressive 23.976
25 1.1
Transport stream (TS)[edit]
The file extension “.TS” stands for “transport stream”, which is a media container format. It may contain a number of streams of audio or video content multiplexed within the transport stream. Transport streams are designed with synchronization and recovery in mind for potentially lossy distribution (such as over-the-air ATSC broadcast) in order to continue a media stream with minimal interruption in the face of data loss in transmission. When an over-the-air ATSC signal is captured to a file via hardware/software the resulting file is often in a .TS file format.

Modulation and transmission[edit]
ATSC signals are designed to use the same 6 MHz bandwidth as analog NTSC television channels (the interference requirements of A/53 DTV standards with adjacent NTSC or other DTV channels are very strict). Once the digital video and audio signals have been compressed and multiplexed, the transport stream can be modulated in different ways depending on the method of transmission.

Terrestrial (local) broadcasters use 8VSB modulation that can transfer at a maximum rate of 19.39 Mbit/s, sufficient to carry several video and audio programs and metadata.
Cable television stations can generally operate at a higher signal-to-noise ratio and can use either the 16VSB as defined in ATSC or the 256-QAM defined in SCTE, to achieve a throughput of 38.78 Mbit/s, using the same 6 MHz channel.
The proposals for modulation schemes for digital television were developed when cable operators carried standard-resolution video as uncompressed analog signals. In recent years, cable operators have become accustomed to compressing standard-resolution video for digital cable systems, making it harder to find duplicate 6 MHz channels for local broadcasters on uncompressed “basic” cable.

Currently, the Federal Communications Commission requires cable operators in the United States to carry the analog or digital transmission of a terrestrial broadcaster (but not both), when so requested by the broadcaster (the “must-carry rule”). The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission in Canada does not have similar rules in force with respect to carrying ATSC signals.

However, cable operators have still been slow to add ATSC channels to their lineups for legal, regulatory, and plant & equipment related reasons. One key technical and regulatory issue is the modulation scheme used on the cable: cable operators in the U.S. (and to a lesser extent Canada) can determine their own method of modulation for their plants. Multiple standards bodies exist in the industry: the SCTE defined 256-QAM as a modulation scheme for cable in a cable industry standard, ANSI/SCTE 07 2006: Digital Transmission Standard For Cable Television. Consequently, most U.S. and Canadian cable operators seeking additional capacity on the cable system have moved to 256-QAM from the 64-QAM modulation used in their plant, in preference to the 16VSB standard originally proposed by ATSC. Over time 256-QAM is expected to be included in the ATSC standard.

There is also a standard for transmitting ATSC via satellite; however, this is only used by TV networks[citation needed]. Very few teleports outside the U.S. support the ATSC satellite transmission standard, but teleport support for the standard is improving. The ATSC satellite transmission system is not used for direct-broadcast satellite systems; in the U.S. and Canada these have long used either DVB-S (in standard or modified form) or a proprietary system such as DSS or DigiCipher 2.

Other systems[edit]
Digital terrestrial television broadcasting systems. Countries using ATSC are shown in orange.

ATSC coexists with the DVB-T standard, and with ISDB-T. A similar standard called ADTB-T was developed for use as part of China’s new DMB-T/H dual standard. While China has officially chosen a dual standard, there is no requirement that a receiver work with both standards and there is no support for the ADTB modulation from broadcasters or equipment and receiver manufacturers.

For compatibility with material from various regions and sources, ATSC supports the 480i video format used in the NTSC analog system (480 lines, approximately 60 fields or 30 frames per second), 576i formats used in most PAL regions (576 lines, 50 fields or 25 frames per second), and 24 frames-per-second formats used in film.

While the ATSC system has been criticized as being complicated and expensive to implement and use,[13] both broadcasting and receiving equipment are now comparable in cost with that of DVB.

The ATSC signal is more susceptible to changes in radio propagation conditions than DVB-T and ISDB-T. It also lacks true hierarchical modulation, which would allow the SDTV part of an HDTV signal (or the audio portion of a television program) to be received uninterrupted even in fringe areas where signal strength is low. For this reason, an additional modulation mode, enhanced-VSB (E-VSB) has been introduced, allowing for a similar benefit.

In spite of ATSC’s fixed transmission mode, it is still a robust signal under various conditions. 8VSB was chosen over COFDM in part because many areas are rural and have a much lower population density, thereby requiring larger transmitters and resulting in large fringe areas. In these areas, 8VSB was shown to perform better than other systems.

COFDM is used in both DVB-T and ISDB-T, and for 1seg, as well as DVB-H and HD Radio in the United States. In metropolitan areas, where population density is highest, COFDM is said to be better at handling multipath propagation. While ATSC is also incapable of true single-frequency network (SFN) operation, the distributed transmission mode, using multiple synchronized on-channel transmitters, has been shown to improve reception under similar conditions. Thus, it may not require more spectrum allocation than DVB-T using SFNs. A comparison study found that ISDB-T and DVB-T performed similarly, and that both were outperformed by DVB-T2.[14]

Mobile TV[edit]
Mobile reception of digital stations using ATSC has, until 2008, been difficult to impossible, especially when moving at vehicular speeds. To overcome this, there are several proposed systems that report improved mobile reception: Samsung/Rhode & Schwarz’s A-VSB, Harris/LG’s MPH, and a recent proposal from Thomson/Micronas; all of these systems have been submitted as candidates for a new ATSC standard, ATSC-M/H. After one year of standardization, the solution merged between Samsung’s AVSB and LGE’s MPH technology has been adopted and would have been deployed in 2009. This is in addition to other standards like the now-defunct MediaFLO, and worldwide open standards such as DVB-H and T-DMB. Like DVB-H and ISDB 1seg, the proposed ATSC mobile standards are backward-compatible with existing tuners, despite being added to the standard well after the original standard was in wide use.

Mobile reception of some stations will still be more difficult, because 18 UHF channels in the U.S. have been removed from TV service, forcing some broadcasters to stay on VHF.

This band requires larger antennas for reception, and is more prone to electromagnetic interference from engines and rapidly changing multipath conditions.[citation needed]

Future[edit]
ATSC 2.0[edit]
ATSC 2.0 was a planned major new revision of the standard which would have been backward compatible with ATSC 1.0. The standard was to have allowed interactive and hybrid television technologies by connecting the TV with the Internet services and allowing interactive elements into the broadcast stream. Other features were to have included advanced video compression, audience measurement, targeted advertising, enhanced programming guides, video on demand services, and the ability to store information on new receivers, including Non-realtime (NRT) content.[15][16][17]

However, ATSC 2.0 was never actually launched, as it was essentially outdated before it could be launched. All of the changes that were a part of the ATSC 2.0 revision were adopted into ATSC 3.0.[18]

ATSC 3.0[edit]
ATSC 3.0 will provide even more services to the viewer and increased bandwidth efficiency and compression performance, which requires breaking backwards compatibility with the current version. On November 17, 2017, the FCC voted 3–2 in favor of authorizing voluntary deployments of ATSC 3.0, and issued a Report and Order to that effect. ATSC 3.0 broadcasts and receivers are expected to emerge within the next decade.[19]

LG Electronics tested the standard with 4K on February 23, 2016. With the test considered a success, South Korea announced that ATSC 3.0 broadcasts would start in February 2017.[20]

On March 28, 2016, the Bootstrap component of ATSC 3.0 (System Discovery and Signalling) was upgraded from candidate standard to finalized standard.[21]

On June 29, 2016, NBC affiliate WRAL-TV in Raleigh, North Carolina, a station known for its pioneering roles in testing the original DTV standards, launched an experimental ATSC 3.0 channel carrying the station’s programming in 1080p, as well as a 4K demo loop.[22]

Structure/ATSC 3.0 System Layers[23]
Bootstrap: System Discovery and Signalling
Physical Layer: Transmission (OFDM)
Protocols: IP, MMT
Presentation: Audio and Video standards (to be determined), Ultra HD with High Definition and standard-definition multicast, Immersive Audio
Applications: Screen is a web page
ATSC 3.0 advantages[edit]
Better image quality. ATSC 3.0 allows 4K UHD transmission, including high-dynamic-range imaging (HDRI), wide color gamut (WCG), and high frame rate (HFR).
Reception upgrades. ATSC 3.0 allows the same aerial to receive more channels with better quality.
Portable devices as mobile phones, tablets, car devices can perceive TV signals.
Emergency alerts. Emergency signals can be geographically oriented and inform about evacuation plans to areas where are required.
Audience measure. The audience data gathering can be easily taken by telecommunication companies.
Targeted advertising.
Content variety and diversification.
Countries and territories using ATSC[edit]
North America[edit]
Antigua and Barbuda 2018
Bahamas On December 14, 2011, the Bahamas’ national public broadcaster ZNS-TV announced that it would adopt ATSC, in line with the United States and its territories.[24]
Barbados
Canada adopted ATSC, with full-power analog stations in specified “mandatory markets” (which included provincial capitals, and cities with a population of 300,000 or higher) shutting down on August 31, 2011. The CBC only converted its originating stations to digital; it was given permission to operate its repeaters in mandatory markets (such as CBKST in Saskatoon) for an additional year, but later announced that it would shut down all of its analog repeaters on July 31, 2012—citing budget issues and their distribution network as being obsolete.[25]
Dominica
Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic announced its adoption on August 10, 2010, completing the transition on September 24, 2015, but most companies were not able to meet the deadline and the government had to move it forward to the year 2021.[26]
Grenada
Haiti
Jamaica Will convert to ATSC 3.0 instead of 1.0. The conversion will begin in 2022 and is expected to be completed by 2023.[27]
Mexico began converting to ATSC in 2013;[28] a full transition was scheduled for December 31, 2015,[9] but due to technical and economic issues for some transmitters, the full transition was extended to December 31, 2016.
Trinidad and Tobago
United States Full-power television stations in the United States ended analog television service on June 12, 2009. Analog low-power stations and translators were all wound down by July 13, 2021.[29][30]
South America[edit]
Asia/Pacific[edit]
Patent holders[edit]
The following organizations hold patents for the development of ATSC technology, as listed in the patent pool administered by MPEG LA. Actual in July 2021 there are about 75% expired.

Organizations[34] Active patents Expired patents (07-2021) Total patents[1]
LG Electronics 127 227 354
Zenith Electronics 1 53 54
Panasonic 3 47 50
Samsung Electronics 0 25 25
Columbia University 0 16 16
Mitsubishi Electric 1 13 14
JVC Kenwood 0 6 6
Cisco Technology, Inc. 0 4 4
Vientos Alisios Co., Ltd. 1 0 1
Philips 0 1 1
See also[edit]
Advanced Television Systems Committee
ATSC tuner
List of ATSC standards
Broadcast flag
Broadcast-safe
Digital terrestrial television (DTT)
Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB)
CTA-708
ISDB – Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting
OpenCable
Standard-definition television
T-DMB – South Korean terrestrial mobile digital broadcasting system
Digital Terrestrial Multimedia Broadcast (DMB-T/H) Chinese terrestrial digital broadcasting system
Ultra-high-definition television (UHDTV) – Digital video formats with resolutions of 3840×2160 and 7680×4320
References[edit]
^ Jump up to: a b “ATSC Patent List” (PDF). MPEG LA. Retrieved July 11, 2019.
^ “TV makers to fight royalties”. www.chinadaily.com.cn. Archived from the original on March 16, 2018. Retrieved March 16, 2018.
^ FCC Opens Inquiry Into Patent Costs For Digital TVs[permanent dead link], Dow Jones, February 25, 2009
^ Amtran affiliate accuses Funai of unfair competition Archived February 27, 2009, at the Wayback Machine, Lisa Wang, Taipei Times, February 24, 2009
^ “Best Buy Exits the Analog TV Business, Outlines Plans to Help With Digital Broadcast Transition”. businesswire.com. Archived from the original on March 16, 2018. Retrieved March 16, 2018.
^ A New Era in Television Broadcasting Archived November 23, 2007, at the Wayback Machine – DTVTransition.org
^ “Congress delays DTV switch”. Christian Science Monitor. February 4, 2009. Archived from the original on August 15, 2009. Retrieved March 16, 2018.
^ The Commission establishes a new approach for Canadian conventional television Archived May 19, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
^ Jump up to: a b “DOF – Diario Oficial de la Federación”. dof.gob.mx. Archived from the original on January 21, 2018. Retrieved March 16, 2018.
^ Keith J. Winsteln (November 8, 2002), “MIT Getting Millions For Digital TV Deal” (PDF), The Tech, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, archived (PDF) from the original on March 26, 2009
^ “Archived copy” (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on April 7, 2014. Retrieved 2014-04-03.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^ “Archived copy” (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on April 7, 2014. Retrieved 2014-04-03.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^ Nick (October 16, 2008). “ATSC vs DVB for North American amateurs”. nsayer.blogspot.com. Archived from the original on March 16, 2018. Retrieved March 16, 2018.
^ Julian Clover DVB-T far superior to ISDB, DVB-T2 beats them both Archived June 12, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, in broadbandtvnews November 2, 2010
^ 2013_electronic.indd Archived May 9, 2013, at the Wayback Machine. (PDF) . Retrieved on May 11, 2014.
^ George Winslow. “With ATSC 2.0, Broadcasting Gets Facelift Archived March 1, 2013, at the Wayback Machine”. Broadcasting & Cable, June 6, 2011.
^ “A/103:2012, Non-Real-Time Content Delivery” (PDF). atsc.org. Archived (PDF) from the original on April 5, 2015. Retrieved March 16, 2018.
^ “ATSC 3.0: Everything You Need to Know About Broadcast TV’s Next Big Thing”. July 24, 2020.
^ “FCC Authorizes Next Gen TV Broadcast Standard”. Federal Communications Commission. November 16, 2017. Archived from the original on December 1, 2017. Retrieved November 18, 2017.
^ Tribbey, Chris (March 7, 2016). “ATSC 3.0 Passes Key Test, But Is It Ready to Graduate?”. Broadcasting & Cable: 16–17.
^ “First Element of ATSC 3.0 Approved for Standard”. tvtechnology.com. March 28, 2016. Archived from the original on March 2, 2017. Retrieved March 16, 2018.
^ “WRAL Launches ATSC 3.0 Service”. TVNewsCheck. Archived from the original on November 17, 2017. Retrieved June 29, 2016.
^ “Overview – ASTC 3.0 System Layers”. Archived from the original (PNG) on October 4, 2016. Retrieved May 18, 2016.
^ Bahamas national TV to get multi-million dollar digital upgrade – video Archived April 13, 2014, at the Wayback Machine. The Bahamas Investor. Retrieved on May 11, 2014.
^ “CRTC allows CBC to continue broadcasting analog television signals in 22 markets until August 2012”. News Releases. Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. August 16, 2011. Archived from the original on May 29, 2013. Retrieved June 4, 2013.
^ Advanced Television Systems Committee, Dominican Republic Adopts ATSC Digital Television Standard Archived August 23, 2010, at the Wayback Machine, August 12, 2010
^ “Digital Television Switchover in Jamaica set to begin in 2022”. The Gleaner. Gleaner Company. December 7, 2021. Retrieved January 8, 2021.
^ Dibble, Sandra (May 30, 2013). “New turn for Tijuana’s transition to digital broadcasting”. San Diego Union-Tribune. Archived from the original on September 6, 2013. Retrieved June 4, 2013.
^ Jump up to: a b “Low Power Television (LPTV) Service”, CDBS Database, Federal Communications Commission, May 17, 2011, archived from the original on April 1, 2013, retrieved April 3, 2013
^ FCC Public Notice: “THE INCENTIVE AUCTION TASK FORCE AND MEDIA BUREAU ANNOUNCE PROCEDURES FOR LOW POWER TELEVISION, TELEVISION TRANSLATOR AND REPLACEMENT TRANSLATOR STATIONS DURING THE POST-INCENTIVE AUCTION TRANSITION”, May 17, 2017
^ “FAQ digitale telivisie (DTC)”. Telecommunication Authority of Suriname. Retrieved July 9, 2015.
^ “N. Korea in the process of introducing digital TV broadcasting”. Yonhap News Agency. March 19, 2013. Archived from the original on October 1, 2013. Retrieved June 4, 2013.
^ “North Korean television sets still receive South Korean signals”. News Focus International. Archived from the original on June 14, 2015. Retrieved July 12, 2015.
^ “Licensors Included in the ATSC Patent Portfolio License”. MPEG LA. Retrieved July 11, 2019.
Further reading[edit]
Joel Brinkley (1998), Defining Vision: The Battle for the Future of Television, New York: Harcourt Brace.
External links[edit]
ATSC website
ATSC standards download page
ATSC-MH Platform for testing and deploying Mobile TV in the US
ATSC Mobile DTV (ATSC-MH) Analysis, Monitoring, Measurement
ATSC Mobile DTV (ATSC-MH) Mobile DTV Viewer
ATSC 3.0 Overview
ATSC 3.0 Scheduler