Progress on HDTV broadcasting standards in the United States

In the United States, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) began a process six years ago to develop a terrestrial high definition television (HDTV) broadcasting standard. Early in 1993 a comprehensive report was released by the FCC's Advisory Committee on Advanced Television Service comparing five proposed systems that had undergone extensive testing. Although the report did not pick a "winning system," it did recommend that only digital systems receive further consideration as the United States standard. This paper presents comparisons and conclusions from that report and notes the recent formation of a "Grand Alliance" by the individual proponents of digital systems to propose a single system.