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WAEA TC

DCMWG - High Definition

1/22/2008

Larry Iboshi, Imagik International

Jason Songer, Spafax

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HD Content, DCMWG

• In February 2009 analog television broadcasting in the US will give way to digital. For many viewers / passengers, High Definition in16x9 aspect ratio content will become the preferred TV viewing with new HD TVs and HD service.

• When DTV happens, many of the viewers will switch to16x9 aspect ratio and some form of digital display resolution. (480P, 720P, 1080i, 1080P…. ; Near HD, HD, Full HD.....).

• This is a little more than year from now and the IFE industry and technical community should be ready for and understand the implications.

• The IFE industry relies heavily on consumer technology and consumer content that is changing rapidly. The trend and technology advances will be toward HD and its improvements.

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HD Content, DCMWG

• IFE industry and technical community should have an HD digital content specification or guidelines in place when we switch to DTV.

• All the stake holders including airlines, content owners, content service providers and system developers should participate in this activity to revisit the existing specifications and make changes to include HD.

• There are many content and display resolutions.(240, 480i, 480P, 720P, 1080I, 1080P... SD, ED, Near HD, HD, Full HD.....). A review of these resolutions and bit rates are in order.

• For IFE the choices will be few due to system limitations

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HD Trends

• The number of households around the world with high-definition television (HDTV) will treble over the next five years as viewers switch to its clearer, more vivid picture, according to a report by Informa Telecoms and Media.

• The transition to HDTV has been called a landmark move for the industry, similar to the shift from black-and-white television to color.

• The number of homes taking the product will jump to 151 million worldwide by 2011 from 48 million when an estimated 1.2 billion households had a television.

• The report said some 58 percent of HD homes were currently found in the United States and 20 percent in Japan, with Britain,Canada, China and Germany also high on the list.

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• LCD panel market for 2008 is likely to grow by 18% from 2007 to 447.7 million units.

• LCD TV panel prices are predicted to drop by 4% to 11% from 2007 through 2008.

• In 2008, LCD panel manufacturers' operating profits are likely to improve compared to 2007.

• Dec.11 2007 Displaybank

LCD Market

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WAEA SPECIFICATION 0403 and 0395

• Reviewing the 0395 and 0403 specifications-

• Neither specification deals with HD

• Both specifications have provisions for 16 x 9 aspect ratio

• The highest resolution is 720 x 480 for both 4 x 3 and 16 x 9 aspect ratio

• 16 x 9 display panel resolutions available for IFE today are 400 x 234, 800 x 480 and 1366 x 768 pixels

• Much of the IFE digital content resolution used today is at 352 x 240

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HD for IFE Systems

• New IFE systems are 16 x 9 format with SD displays in coach class and HD displays in upper class.

• The major system manufacturers have or will soon support MPEG-4. This will enable higher definition resolutions with the same file sizes and bit rates as MPEG-2.

• Hard drive advances have increased the number of movies and short subjects and could include HD content.

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DCMGW Goals for HD

• With the participation of all stake holders, the 0403 specification should be updated to include HD.

• Resulting in a specification that does not increase the number of content formats.

• A specification that leverages on consumer technology and reuse of available content.

• In earlier working group discussions separate encodes are required for the different formats and content quality. Explore encode or transcode technology to achieve above goals.

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HD Discussion Points:

• Define High Definition in the context of IFE usage

• What is the likelihood airlines will choose HD?

• Examine the practicality of HD encoding and integration from the perspective of:

• Labs:

(multiple codecs, transcoding and conversions)

• Studios:

(content availability, early window viability)

• Hardware Companies:

(compatibility, overhead vs. seatback, displays)

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Points to ponder about HD in IFE:

• Can we eventually agree on what it will be, avoiding the Elephant Test?

• Is one solution to simply not adopt HD at all?