ATSC celebrates 25 years

by Darren Murph, posted May 9th 2008 at 12:54PM

Can you believe it? No really, can you believe ATSC has been kickin' around in TV sets and on street corners for a quarter-century now (okay, so maybe just "established" for that long)? Sure enough, the Advanced Television Systems Committee gathered on Thursday to celebrate its silver anniversary and to take a long hard look at what the future holds. Needless to say, quite a few folks will be getting acquainted with the standard now that the analog shutoff is getting dangerously near. The meeting also touched on taking ATSC mobile with ATSC-M/H and the "next generation of services for fixed receivers" with ATSC 2.0. We know, it's probably all you can do to hold back those tears after hearing of this momentous occasion, but once you're over it, why not chime in below with your fondest ATSC memories? Remember that first digital-tuner TV you got? Yeah, good times.

Filed under: Misc, Regulatory, Other formats, Tuners, OTA

Tags: atsc, birthday, broadcast, broadcasting, digital, digital tv, DigitalTv, format, milestone, ota, programming, stanard

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

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MrSatyre @ May 9th 2008 1:48PM

ATSC has not been kicking around in TVs and on street corners for 25 years. It was established 25 years ago, but not until 1998---10 years ago, give or take six months---that the first ATSC tuner-equipped STBs and TVs appeared on the market. 99.999% of the HD-ready TVs which streeted that year used plug-in or external ATSC tuners.

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Mr. E @ May 9th 2008 2:33PM

Yep, sounds about right. I remember getting so excited about HDTV in the '80s when I first heard about it. It seemed like FOREVER until I was able to finally get my first HDTV in early 2002. HD was long in coming, but it's sure worth the wait.

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GhostDoggy @ May 10th 2008 6:46PM

The specification may have been around for 25-years. The spec and the adoption of the spec are two different things. Is someone celebrating the adoption as being 25-years?

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David Varney @ May 9th 2008 2:26PM

I built a new PC in 2003, my existing TV card died so I replaced it with a NTSC/ATSC dual tuner, a Kworld and Beyond TV software, bought a $30 RCA UHF antenna....lets just say the first thing I watched in High Def, OTA was a Saturday night hockey game, I was impressed and now 5 yrs later, HD is the way to go......

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boxmyth @ May 9th 2008 5:53PM

After moving from Cleveland to LA back in 2004, my very first big purchase was a shiny new Samsung HDTV, my first HDTV. I've since upgraded to a bigger set, but that first HDTV treated me well for two years.

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