One of the points I've wondered about ATSC broadcasting is why 60 frames per second progressively scanned 1920x1080 video is not part of ATSC?  I can’t find a technical explanation either that explains why it’s not convenient to include it now as part of ATSC.  Any thoughts?

 Hi Paul,

1080p seems to be part of the ATSC table now. There are at least ten different versions of the table to be found on the Internet.

I remember a time when it was thought that 1080P was just too many bits to be doable, but now it seems that it has been accepted.

Back around the time when we first saw ATSC Table 3 (16:9 CRT monitors were a new thing then.... five or eight years ago?) there was no 1080P, but if you check table three today, it's there on most of them. 

 It's hard to imagine that anyone will use it for routine broadcast. One thing I don't know is if it has been officially accepetd for over the air, but I read of studios being wired for three gigabits, and I believe there are some consumer gizmos that claim it as part of their performance.

My predictions are usually wrong though!

David

Hi David,

You are correct, 60P at 1920x1080 is part of ATSC.  But apparently only for production and not for transmission.  I guess I'm not a friend of drop frame time code and so that's what motivated me to ask.  I was hoping to find data that would have allowed me to say, "wow, yes, we can transmit 60P so say no more drop frame time code."  Somebody had said somewhere that going to 60P (on the transmission side) could cause issues with AES/EBU audio.  I'll have to ask him for a clarification on that as maybe he was just talking about 1080 60P for production.