USDTV
Encyclopedia
USDTV, an acronym for U.S. Digital Television, was an over-the-air, pay television service in the United States
. Based in Draper, Utah
near Salt Lake City, it was founded in 2003 and started service there in 2004. The company ceased operations March 12, 2007.
on digital television
stations to send channels to subscribers who had a special set-top box
provided by the company. It had an ATSC tuner
that receives and decodes
regular digital TV stations, as well as being able to decode more highly-compressed WMV9 and later MPEG-4 AVC. Customers with earlier WMV9 boxes were expected to be sent an upgrade
in the form of a USB device, which handles the new codec
.
USDTV channels were broadcast by multiple stations in each area, but through the use of virtual channel
s. They all appeared as subchannels
of 99.x, even on regular sets that could not decode them. This was also true in the EPG
.
. The fact that it uses different stations, possibly in different locations, may also make re-aiming the antenna difficult or annoying, particularly since it may not be easy to find which USDTV channels are being hosted by which stations. As with free DTV, acceptable reception may require an outdoor antenna; this is true both with the US/Canadian ATSC system using 8VSB
modulation
and the COFDM based systems used in other countries.
Because it uses full-power broadcast stations, this also in turn limits the bitrate
of free "extra" channels the public can receive from those stations. Broadcasters in the US are only required to carry one SDTV channel. This has led to speculation that stations would rent
out the bandwidth of the additional five multiplex channels to pay TV services such as USDTV, instead of broadcasting in HDTV. Should this become commonplace practice among broadcasters, not only would HDTV be precluded, picture quality in SDTV can suffer noticeably due to excessive data compression
, which leaves visible compression artifact
s.
; Las Vegas, Nevada
, Norfolk, Virginia
, Albuquerque, New Mexico
, and Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas
.
on channel 99.50 for an additional fee of $6.95 per month. The basic rate represented a higher cost per channel than either cable or satellite, possibly in part because the per-subscriber rate for ESPN
is very expensive compared to other networks, with little flexibility for carriage. Cable TV and satellite TV charge about twice as much for basic service, but offer several times more channels.
as well as some limited dealer
s, and via Internet and telephone
ordering
.
s included Fox Television Stations, Hearst-Argyle Television, LIN TV
, McGraw Hill Broadcasting, Morgan Murphy Stations, and Telecom DTV. The investment
was worth about 26 million dollars.
in a Delaware
court
in July 2006, having about 14 million dollars in debt
. On November 10, 2006, NexGen Telecom, LLC announced it acquired the assets of USDTV from the bankruptcy court.
USDTV ceased operations on March 12, 2007. The set-top boxes can be converted to be an over-the-air (OTA) digital television receiver for $30 for up to four boxes. However, even without the conversion, the boxes continue to receive local OTA stations.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Based in Draper, Utah
Draper, Utah
Draper is a city in Salt Lake and Utah Counties in the U.S. state of Utah, located about south of Salt Lake City along the Wasatch Front. Between 1990 and 2000 Draper was Utah's fastest-growing city over 5,000 people . Its population in 1990 was 7,143 and had grown to 25,220 by the 2000 census...
near Salt Lake City, it was founded in 2003 and started service there in 2004. The company ceased operations March 12, 2007.
Technology
The company used extra bandwidthBandwidth (computing)
In computer networking and computer science, bandwidth, network bandwidth, data bandwidth, or digital bandwidth is a measure of available or consumed data communication resources expressed in bits/second or multiples of it .Note that in textbooks on wireless communications, modem data transmission,...
on digital television
Digital television
Digital television is the transmission of audio and video by digital signals, in contrast to the analog signals used by analog TV...
stations to send channels to subscribers who had a special set-top box
Set-top box
A set-top box or set-top unit is an information appliance device that generally contains a tuner and connects to a television set and an external source of signal, turning the signal into content which is then displayed on the television screen or other display device.-History:Before the...
provided by the company. It had an ATSC tuner
ATSC tuner
An ATSC tuner, often called an ATSC receiver or HDTV tuner is a type of television tuner that allows reception of digital television television channels transmitted by television stations in North America, parts of Central America and South Korea that use ATSC standards...
that receives and decodes
Integrated receiver/decoder
An integrated receiver/decoder is an electronic device used to pick-up a radio-frequency signal and convert digital information transmitted in it.-Consumer IRDs:...
regular digital TV stations, as well as being able to decode more highly-compressed WMV9 and later MPEG-4 AVC. Customers with earlier WMV9 boxes were expected to be sent an upgrade
Upgrade
The term upgrade refers to the replacement of a product with a newer version of the same product. It is most often used in computing and consumer electronics, generally meaning a replacement of hardware, software or firmware with a newer or better version, in order to bring the system up to date...
in the form of a USB device, which handles the new codec
Codec
A codec is a device or computer program capable of encoding or decoding a digital data stream or signal. The word codec is a portmanteau of "compressor-decompressor" or, more commonly, "coder-decoder"...
.
USDTV channels were broadcast by multiple stations in each area, but through the use of virtual channel
Virtual channel
In telecommunications, a logical channel number , also known as virtual channel, is a channel designation which differs from that of the actual radio channel on which the signal travels....
s. They all appeared as subchannels
Multiplex (TV)
A multiplex or mux is a group of TV channels that are mixed together for broadcast over a digital TV channel and separated out again by the receiver...
of 99.x, even on regular sets that could not decode them. This was also true in the EPG
Electronic program guide
Electronic program guides and interactive program guides provide users of television, radio, and other media applications with continuously updated menus displaying broadcast programming or scheduling information for current and upcoming programming...
.
Disadvantages of its Technology
One disadvantage of the system is its limited channel capacity, and the need for a strong signal through an antennaAntenna (radio)
An antenna is an electrical device which converts electric currents into radio waves, and vice versa. It is usually used with a radio transmitter or radio receiver...
. The fact that it uses different stations, possibly in different locations, may also make re-aiming the antenna difficult or annoying, particularly since it may not be easy to find which USDTV channels are being hosted by which stations. As with free DTV, acceptable reception may require an outdoor antenna; this is true both with the US/Canadian ATSC system using 8VSB
8VSB
8VSB is the modulation method used for broadcast in the ATSC digital television standard. ATSC and 8VSB modulation is used primarily in North America; in contrast, the DVB-T standard uses COFDM....
modulation
Modulation
In electronics and telecommunications, modulation is the process of varying one or more properties of a high-frequency periodic waveform, called the carrier signal, with a modulating signal which typically contains information to be transmitted...
and the COFDM based systems used in other countries.
Because it uses full-power broadcast stations, this also in turn limits the bitrate
Bitrate
In telecommunications and computing, bit rate is the number of bits that are conveyed or processed per unit of time....
of free "extra" channels the public can receive from those stations. Broadcasters in the US are only required to carry one SDTV channel. This has led to speculation that stations would rent
Renting
Renting is an agreement where a payment is made for the temporary use of a good, service or property owned by another. A gross lease is when the tenant pays a flat rental amount and the landlord pays for all property charges regularly incurred by the ownership from landowners...
out the bandwidth of the additional five multiplex channels to pay TV services such as USDTV, instead of broadcasting in HDTV. Should this become commonplace practice among broadcasters, not only would HDTV be precluded, picture quality in SDTV can suffer noticeably due to excessive data compression
Data compression
In computer science and information theory, data compression, source coding or bit-rate reduction is the process of encoding information using fewer bits than the original representation would use....
, which leaves visible compression artifact
Compression artifact
A compression artifact is a noticeable distortion of media caused by the application of lossy data compression....
s.
Services
USDTV served customers in and near Salt Lake City, UtahSalt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake City is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. The name of the city is often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC. With a population of 186,440 as of the 2010 Census, the city lies in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, which has a total population of 1,124,197...
; Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
, Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....
, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Albuquerque is the largest city in the state of New Mexico, United States. It is the county seat of Bernalillo County and is situated in the central part of the state, straddling the Rio Grande. The city population was 545,852 as of the 2010 Census and ranks as the 32nd-largest city in the U.S. As...
, and Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas
Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex
The Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington Metropolitan Statistical Area, a title designated by the U.S. Census as of 2003, encompasses 12 counties within the U.S. state of Texas. The area is divided into two metropolitan divisions: Dallas–Plano–Irving and Fort Worth–Arlington. Residents of the area...
.
Cost
The cost for this basic-tier service was $19.95 per month. USDTV also offered Starz!Starz!
Starz is an American premium subscription channel that features mainly first-run motion pictures, along with some original programming...
on channel 99.50 for an additional fee of $6.95 per month. The basic rate represented a higher cost per channel than either cable or satellite, possibly in part because the per-subscriber rate for ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
is very expensive compared to other networks, with little flexibility for carriage. Cable TV and satellite TV charge about twice as much for basic service, but offer several times more channels.
Subscribers
At shutdown, USDTV had 14,000 subscribers. Just over half were from people who had never paid for TV before due to the high cost. Units were sold at Wal-MartWal-Mart
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. , branded as Walmart since 2008 and Wal-Mart before then, is an American public multinational corporation that runs chains of large discount department stores and warehouse stores. The company is the world's 18th largest public corporation, according to the Forbes Global 2000...
as well as some limited dealer
Dealer
Dealer may refer to:* Antique dealer, someone who sells Antiques* Art dealer, gallerist, somebody or company that buys and sells art...
s, and via Internet and telephone
Telephone
The telephone , colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sounds, usually the human voice. Telephones are a point-to-point communication system whose most basic function is to allow two people separated by large distances to talk to each other...
ordering
Order (business)
In business or commerce, an order is a stated intention, either spoken or written, to engage in a commercial transaction for specific products or services. From a buyer's point of view it expresses the intention to buy and is called a purchase order. From a seller's point of view it expresses the...
.
Business
U.S. Digital Television operated USDTV. Its investorInvestor
An investor is a party that makes an investment into one or more categories of assets --- equity, debt securities, real estate, currency, commodity, derivatives such as put and call options, etc...
s included Fox Television Stations, Hearst-Argyle Television, LIN TV
LIN TV
LIN TV Corporation is an American holding company that operates 31 television stations.-History:LIN TV's roots trace back to the founding of its former parent, LIN Broadcasting Corporation, in 1961. LIN Broadcasting was engaged in radio, television, direct marketing, information and learning, music...
, McGraw Hill Broadcasting, Morgan Murphy Stations, and Telecom DTV. The investment
Investment
Investment has different meanings in finance and economics. Finance investment is putting money into something with the expectation of gain, that upon thorough analysis, has a high degree of security for the principal amount, as well as security of return, within an expected period of time...
was worth about 26 million dollars.
Bankruptcy
USDTV filed for Chapter 7 BankruptcyChapter 7, Title 11, United States Code
Chapter 7 of the Title 11 of the United States Code governs the process of liquidation under the bankruptcy laws of the United States...
in a Delaware
Delaware corporation
The Delaware General Corporation Law is the statute governing corporate law in the state of Delaware. Delaware is well known as a corporate haven. Over 50% of U.S...
court
Court
A court is a form of tribunal, often a governmental institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance with the rule of law...
in July 2006, having about 14 million dollars in debt
Debt
A debt is an obligation owed by one party to a second party, the creditor; usually this refers to assets granted by the creditor to the debtor, but the term can also be used metaphorically to cover moral obligations and other interactions not based on economic value.A debt is created when a...
. On November 10, 2006, NexGen Telecom, LLC announced it acquired the assets of USDTV from the bankruptcy court.
USDTV ceased operations on March 12, 2007. The set-top boxes can be converted to be an over-the-air (OTA) digital television receiver for $30 for up to four boxes. However, even without the conversion, the boxes continue to receive local OTA stations.