WASHINGTON — Seeking to put an end to a divisive debate about the viability of the U.S. digital TV standard, the Federal Communications Commission said late Friday (Feb. 4) that it is denying a broadcaster petition to modify the modulation format for digital TV broadcasts.
The petition, filed late last October by Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. (Hunt Valley, Md.), sought to reopen the debate over whether to permit broadcasters to use coded orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (Cofdm) modulation in place of the U.S. spec, vestigial sideband (8-VSB).
Sinclair argued that VSB was prone to multipath interference that would make indoor reception of digital TV signals difficult. The problem would slow viewer acceptance of digital TV services, Sinclair maintained.
In denying the petition, FCC officials said studies have so far shown that replication of NTSC signals are "attainable" using VSB modulation, and that set manufacturers are aware of multipath problems and are working to solve them in their next-generation receiver designs.
The FCC also concluded that the benefits of changing the DTV transmission standard to Cofdm did not outweigh the costs of a revision.
The FCC said it would begin a biennial review of the transition to digital TV within 30 days, and invited industry comments on its concerns about the transmission standard.
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