All 347 PBS member stations in country will be equipped soon with...

replace outdated equipment in PTV stations, said John Tollefson, PBS vp-engineering and technical services. Device will insert time signal for broadcast on PBS stations, which in turn will be used by all NTSC VCRs and some TV receivers to set internal clock automatically. Tollefson said encoders also would pass other signals in vertical blanking interval (VBI), including program content rating and multiple language closed captions. If clock isn’t set correctly, VCRs can’t be preprogrammed to record programs when viewer isn’t at home. Saying present arrangement in PBS stations is unsatisfactory, Tollefson said not all member stations had insertion equipment. Insertion equipment now used removes other signals such as program content rating and multiple language closed captions. He said new equipment would provide near- universal coverage of time signal to public, while still allowing stations to broadcast program content rating and other VBI information. Many commercial stations have similar equipment, he said, but most don’t insert time signal, instead using it to insert other signals in VBI. PBS expects devices to be delivered, installed and in operation by end of year. CEA spokeswoman declined to provides details of pact with PBS until final agreement is released next week. Automatic clock set function of new equipment essentially is signal sent out by Extended Data Services (XDS) encoder, she said, and it’s part of closed caption system. Current automatic clock set inserters write time-setting data on top of all other data, overriding data required for new services, she said. CEA had been working to remedy that through hardware (encoder) upgrades, she said.