Brazil ponders HDTV standards
by Richard Lawler 
posted Mar 25th 2006 at 1:46PM
We've frequently fawned over DVB and Japan-only
devices, now some of Brazil's top officials are doing the same thing. While Europe, Japan and the U.S. all use
different standards for broadcasting high definition television, Brazil has not chosen yet. They will be visiting
Korean companies like LG who are pushing the US standard, while Toshiba and Sony work together to promote the Japanese
standard, and European companies pushing DVB before they make a decision. According to the article, they are likely to choose the Japanese standard in return for significant investments to build manufacturing plants in Brazil.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
solicitor @ Mar 26th 2006 3:42AM
I think they will prefer ATSC standard to ISDB and definitely not DVB.
xela19115 @ Mar 26th 2006 12:35PM
I'll think they'll with whichever country makes the biggest promise of the future investment in their economy not the best technology. ATSC standard is only for the US, Canada, some Latin American countries and Korea. ISDB is purely Japanese concoction. DVB is the rest of the world. Personally I think that DVB would have been a better choice since the cost of equipment and infrastructure would have benefitted from economies of scale.
HDjanitor @ Mar 26th 2006 10:36PM
From what I've read, ATSC has the least chance in Brazil because it's considered a technology that aims primarily for broadcasting HDTV and HDTV is not what most stations will put on the air in Brazil once they go digital, besides being too expensive for the vast majority of the population. ISDB is the frontrunner... apparently not only because of the Japanese investment, but because Globo has been pushing for it and they are Brazil's biggest media company and highest-rated broadcaster. They may not need to rely on existing economies of scale with tens of millions of TVs in the country.
Another huge factor is interactivity. They want to get a system that makes it easy to have interactive features over digital OTA and access to the internet, something most people in Brazil still don't have. Brazilians love online community, chatting, games, etc. Just look at how successful orkut has been there.