Patents and the Digital TV Standard?

Karpe asks: "I noticed that the Brazilian Telecom Agency is not sure if they should use the American Digital TV standard or the Japanese. Brazilian media is saying that if most TV programs we watch are american and not japanese, we should use the american standard, but the agency is not sure because of the technical aspects. I was wondering, in this world of patents, can someone help on which patents should be licensed in order to make ATSC DTV devices? I think this should be a fundamental aspect in the decision. Dolby says it will license it's AC-3 audio under reasonable terms and conditions, but what does that mean?"

Japanese DTV versus American DTV standards

[gavinhall]

Posted by torian:

In my experience, the Japanese DTV standard is far superior to the American standard, mainly due, no doubt, to the many more years of expertise that the Japanese have with electronics in comparison to their American counterparts. Compared to the American DTV, the Japanese system is actually watchable and any flashing lights, fast-moving images, etc. doesn't turn to the picture into a pixellated mess.
It's also worth noting that Japanese DTV rerouters are linux-based, whereas American ones are m$-based. I think the choice is obvious.

isnt it MPEG ?

[johnjones]

surly its MPEG ?

isnt it just MPEG if so then its a ISO and therefore you can view any patents from there

most cable is Mpeg and RTP

regards

john jones

What's the diff?

[zentigger]

Can anyone actually explain what the differences are between the American Standard and the Japanese? I was under the impression that DTV was supposed to be just one universal standard--didn't they learn their lesson when NTSC got it's butt kicked around the block by PAL?!?

Re:What's the diff?

[rstaveley]

Unless I am mistaken... HDTV=High Definition TV (analogue) DTV=Digital TV

Patents

[Detritus]

I believe most of the patents are held by Zenith, General Instruments, MIT and AT&T. These were the primary organizations in the development of the ATSC standard.