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Code of Federal Regulations (Last Updated: November 8, 2024) |
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Title 47 - Telecommunication |
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Chapter III - National Telecommunications and Information Administration, Department of Commerce |
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Part 301 - Relocation of and Spectrum Sharing by Federal Government Stations |
Technical Appendix 1
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NTIA Coupon-Eligible Converter Box (CECB) Required Minimum Performance Specifications and Features REFERENCE DOCUMENTS ATSC A/74, Receiver Performance Guidelines, June 2004 ATSC A/53E, ATSC Digital Television Standard, Revision E with Amendments No. 1 and No. 2, September 2006 ATSC A/65C, Program and System Information Protocol for Terrestrial Broadcast and Cable (Revision C) With Amendment No. 1, May 2006 Recommendation ITU-R BT.500-11, Methodology for the subjective assessment of the quality of television pictures ATSC A/69, PSIP Implementation Guidelines for Broadcasters, June 2002 ELIGIBLE CONVERTER BOXES SHALL COMPLY WITH THE FOLLOWING MINIMUM PERFORMANCE SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES: 1. Decoder Equipment shall be capable of receiving and presenting for display program material that has been encoded in any and all of the video formats contained in Table A3 of ATSC A/53E. The image presented for display need not preserve the original spatial resolution or frame rate of the transmitted video format.
2. Output Formats Equipment shall support 4:3 center cut-out of 16:9 transmitted image, letterbox output of 16:9 letterbox transmitted image, and a full or partially zoomed output of unknown transmitted image.
3. PSIP Processing Equipment shall process and display ATSC A/65C Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP) data to provide the user with tuned channel and program information. See ATSC A/69 for further guidance.
4. Tuning Range Equipment shall be capable of receiving RF channels 2 through 69 inclusive.
5. RF Input Equipment shall include a female 75 ohm F Type connector for VHF/UHF antenna input.
6. RF Output Equipment shall include a female 75 ohm F Type connector with user-selectable channel 3 or 4 NTSC RF output.
7. Composite Output Equipment shall include female RCA connectors for stereo left and right audio (white and red) and a female RCA connector for composite video (yellow). Output shall produce video with ITU-R BT.500-11 quality scale of Grade 4 or higher.
8. RF Dynamic Range (Sensitivity) Equipment shall achieve a bit error rate (BER) in the transport stream of no worse than 3×10
−6 for input RF signal levels directly to the tuner from -83 dBm to -5 dBm over the tuning range. Subjective video/audio assessment methodologies could be used to comply with the bit error rate requirement.1 Test conditions are for a single RF channel input with no noise or channel impairment. Refer to ATSC A/74 Section 4.1 for further guidance. (Note the upper limit specified here is different than that in A/74 4.1).
9. Phase Noise Equipment shall achieve a bit error rate in the transport stream of no worse than 3×10
−6 for a single channel RF input signal with phase noise of -80 dBc/Hz at 20 kHz offset. The input signal level shall be - 28 dBm. Subjective video/audio assessment methodologies described above could be used to comply with the bit error rate requirement. Refer to ATSC A/74 Section 4.3 for further guidance.10. Co-Channel Rejection The receiver shall not exceed the thresholds indicated in
Table 1 for rejection of co-channel interference at the given desired signal levels. Refer to ATSC A/74 Section 4.4.1 for further guidance.Table 1—Co-Channel Rejection Thresholds. Type of Interference Co-Channel D/U Ratio (dB) Weak Desired - (−68 dBm)
Moderate Desired - (−53 dBm)
DTV interference into DTV +15.5 +15.5 NTSC interference into DTV +2.5 +2.5 Notes: NTSC split 75% color bars with pluge bars and picture to sound ratio of 7 dB should be used for video source. ATSC high definition moving video should be used for video source. All NTSC values are peak power; all DTV values are average power. 11. First Adjacent Channel Rejection The receiver shall not exceed the thresholds indicated in
Table 2 for rejection of adjacent channel interference at the given desired signal levels. Refer to ATSC A/74 Section 4.4.2 for further guidance.Table 2—Adjacent Channel Rejection Thresholds Type of Interference Adjacent Channel D/U Ratio (dB) Weak Desired - (−68 dBm)
Moderate Desired - (−53 dBm)
Strong Desired - (−28 dBm)
Lower DTV interference into DTV ≥−33 −33 −20 Upper DTV interference into DTV ≥−33 −33 −20 Lower NTSC interference into DTV ≥−40 −35 −26 Upper NTSC interference into DTV ≥−40 −35 −26 Notes: NTSC split 75% color bars with pluge bars and picture to sound ratio of 7 dB should be used for video source. ATSC high definition moving video should be used for video source. All NTSC values are peak power; all DTV values are average power. 12. Taboo Channel Rejection The receiver shall not exceed the thresholds indicated in
Table 3 for rejection of taboo channel interference at the given DTV desired and undesired signal levels. Refer to ATSC A/74 Section 4.4.3 for further guidance.Table 3—Taboo Channel Rejection Thresholds for DTV Interference into DTV Channel Taboo Channel D/U Ratio (dB) Weak Desired - (−68 dBm)
Moderate Desired - (−53 dBm)
Strong Desired - (−28 dBm)
N±2 ≥−44 −40 −20 N±3 ≥−48 −40 −20 N±4 ≥−52 −40 −20 N±5 ≥−56 −42 −20 N±6 to N±13 ≥−57 −45 −20 N ±14 and N±15 ≥−46 −45 −20 Notes: ATSC high definition moving video should be used for video source. All DTV values are average power.13. Burst Noise Equipment shall tolerate a noise burst of at least 165 μs duration at a 10 Hz repetition rate without visible errors. The noise burst shall be generated by gating a white noise source with average power -5 dB, measured in the 6 MHZ channel under test, referenced to the average power of the DTV signal. The input DTV signal level shall be -28 dBm. Refer to ATSC A/74 Section 4.4.4 for further guidance.
14. Field Ensembles Equipment shall demonstrate that it can successfully demodulate, with two or fewer errors, 30 of the 50 field ensembles available from ATSC in conjunction with ATSC A/74. Error counts are not expected to include inherent errors associated with the start and end or looping of field ensembles for playback.
Refer to ATSC A/74 Section 4.5.2 for further guidance.
15. Single Static Echo Equipment shall comply with either
CRITERIA A orCRITERIA B , below.CRITERIA A: Equipment shall tolerate a single static echo with the magnitude, relative to a desired DTV signal power of -28 dBm, and delay defined in
Table 4 .CRITERIA B: Equipment may demonstrate compliance by tolerating a single static echo with the magnitude, relative to a desired DTV signal power of -28 dBm, and delay defined in
Table 5 , if the equipment also demonstrates that it can receive 37 of the 50 field ensembles. SeeField Ensembles requirement.CRITERIA A: Table 4—Maximum Single Static Echo Delay Echo Delay Desired to Echo Ratio −50 μs 16 dB −40 μs 12 dB −20 μs 6 dB −10 μs 5 dB −5 μs 2 dB 0 μs 1 dB 10 μs 2 dB 20 μs 3 dB 40 μs 10 dB 50 μs 16 dB CRITERIA B: Table 5—Minimum Single Static Echo Delay Echo Delay Desired to Echo Ratio −50 μs 16 dB −40 μs 16 dB −20 μs 7.5 dB −10 μs 5 dB −5 μs 2 dB 0 μs 1 dB 10 μs 2 dB 20 μs 3 dB 40 μs 16 dB 50 μs 16 dB 16. Channel Display Equipment must display all channels, including multicast channels, broadcast by a digital television station that can be displayed on an analog TV receiver.
17. Closed Captioning, Emergency Alert System (EAS) and Parental Controls (V-Chip) Equipment must display (1) EAS message broadcast pursuant to 47 CFR § 11.11 of the FCC Rules; (2) parental control information as required by the FCC Rules in 47 CFR § 15.120 and incorporate the EIA/CEA-766-A standard; and (3) Close Captioning information as required by the FCC Rules in 47 CFR § 15.122 and incorporate the CEA 708/608 standard.
18. Remote Control A remote control to operate the equipment shall be provided with batteries. Standard
codes will be used and provided so the consumer can program an existing remote control to, at a minimum, change channels and turn on and off the converter box and the consumer's existing analog television receiver. 19. Audio Outputs The RF output must be modulated with associated audio program information; the RCA audio connectors must provide stereo left/right, when broadcast.
20. Energy Standards The equipment shall use no more than two watts of electricity in the “Sleep” state. Sleep state power shall be measured in accordance with industry standard CEA-2013-A. Eligible equipment shall provide the capability to automatically switch from the On state to the Sleep state after a period of time without user input. This capability shall be enabled at the factory as the default setting for the device. The default period of inactivity before the equipment automatically switches to the Sleep state shall be four hours. Eligible equipment may allow the current program to complete before switching to the Sleep state. The default energy related settings shall not be altered during the initial user set-up process and shall persist unless the user chooses at a later date to manually: (a) disable the “automatic switching to Sleep state” capability, or (b) adjust the default time period from 4 hours to some other value.
21. Owner's manual An owner's manual shall include information regarding the remote control codes used to permit the consumer to program a universal remote control. The owner's manual will include information regarding the availability of the main audio channel and other associated audio channels on the RF and left/right audio outputs.
22. LED Indicator The equipment shall contain an LED to indicate when the unit is turned on.
23. RF Cable The equipment will include at least one RF cable to connect the unit with its associated analog television receiver.
24. Signal Quality Indicator The equipment will display on the television receiver signal quality indications such as signal strength per ATSC A/74, Section 4.7.