How does OpenCable account for high definition television (HDTV)?
A. HDTV is foreseen as a key component of cable television’s programming service for the future. The cable industry is format agnostic on HDTV. So, the OpenCable boxes will pass through any of the formats approved for advanced television by the Advanced Television Systems Committee. The industry intends to pass signals to a HDTV set without impairing either the audio or video quality. The cable industry, through CableLabs, has been involved in the HDTV process since its inception through work at the Advanced Television Test Center (ATTC) and through CableLabs request for information and request for proposal that date back to 1991. CableLabs also has conducted HDTV field tests with the ATTC via cable operating systems located in Charlotte. HDTV requires a higher bit rate and greater bandwidth than current NTSC television. This will be accommodated by way of a special interface that will connect the OpenCable set-top box with digital television. This interface, called the IEEE 1394, is n
