Defining vision
by Joel Brinkley · first published 1997
100% recommend
Why HN recommends it
Readable history of how the US broadcast industry and government arrived at HDTV, including the standards fights behind the NTSC-8VSB and MPEG-2 system; suits anyone curious how the transition was engineered.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
HDTV - digital, high-definition television - is an invention so far-reaching that most people cannot yet grasp its full significance. But the new sets are arriving in stores, and we are in the midst of a revolution in television. In Defining Vision, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Joel Brinkley takes us inside the creation of HDTV, into a titanic competition between some of the world's most important high-tech corporations battling for a prize worth billions of dollars. Brinkley tells the story from deep inside the laboratories and boardrooms where the race was run. There, scheming contestants
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If you want a more complete (although dry) overview of how we got from NHK's MUSE to the USA's NTSC-8VSB / MPEG-2 system, the book Defining Vision: How Broadcasters Lured the Government into Inciting a Revolution in Television is a good resource: https://www.amazon.com/Defining-Vision-Broadcasters-Governme... The TLDR is that the USA took so damn…
on “Hi-Vision Laserdisc – HD in ‘93 [video]” ↗…consumers. Yet the entire transition had to be engineered at a massive level. I'd recommend anyone interested in the subject and, in particular, how it is that we got HDTV, read a nice little book titled "Defining Vision": http://www.amazon.com/Defining-Vision-Broadcasters-Governmen... I'll just mention a tid-bit that might have a bunch of readers go off and buy it: We have to thank Donald Rumsfeld for it. Yes, that…
on “Digital colours and digital photography” ↗…But they don't turn over immediately, since they're appointed at 5-year intervals. See <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Communications_Commissi.... Worth reading in this context Joel Brinkley's "Defining Vision", about the history of broadcast HDTV in the US. Also, history strongly suggests that the GOP's political rhetoric is a load of dingo's kidneys. Do you honestly believe that stuff? Do you have any corroborating…
on “FCC Chairman: This Is How We Will Ensure Net Neutrality” ↗If you're an insomniac, I recommend David Brinkley's book "Defining Vision : How Broadcasters Lured the Government into Inciting a Revolution in Television" It's an account of the incredibly messy process that got us the ATSC standard in the USA. A little dry but a little interesting.…
on “Al Alcorn, creator of Pong, explains the NTSC color graphics trick” ↗…national security, the Pentagon, US Congress and none other than Donald Rumsfeld (CIA and Defense Secretary). The story is well chronicled in a book I read about twenty years ago: https://www.amazon.com/Defining-Vision-Broadcasters-Governme... The title is intriguing enough: "Defining Vision: How Broadcasters Lured the Government into Inciting a Revolution in Television" I can't possibly do it justice here. I'll…
on “Why 23.976 and not 24 FPS? (2016)” ↗…television". Seriously. I was floored when I learned this myself about twenty years ago. He did this outside of government, when he was in private industry. There's a wonderful little book titled "Defining Vision" that is a super interesting read about how the US, and the world, moved to HD TV. It's a great book about the tech, business and political sausage making that got HDTV going. Imagine my surprise when…
on “Choose Boring Technology” ↗…difference signal from the sum to recover the right channel." Other systems were considered by the FCC, but this one won (see article for the details) If you're interested in this sort of thing, the book Defining Vision is a great discussion of the history of HDTV.
on “How to pack a stereo signal in one record groove” ↗