A Look At Digital TV’s Origins And Technology

Beginning with Luxembourg in 2006, followed then by ten other European countries, the advent of government mandated digital tv began. The United States decision to transition came soon after. The U. S. Required all television stations to move from analog to digital transmission effective June, 2006. 2011 will mark Asia’s entry into the digital tv era with Japan coming on board.

The law forcing U. S. Television stations to move from analog transmission to digital transmission was grounded primarily in its desire to make more bandwidth available to critical services like police and fire, and to improve television clarity, detail and sound. To a lesser extent, the government saw the possibility to generate revenue by auctioning off some of the spare bandwidth to the private sector.

To facilitate the conversion process the government addressed the need of those people who did not own a digital-ready television. It offered to those owners a coupon, worth up to forty dollars, which could be traded in for a digital converter box. Congress also stipulated that non-digital televisions could not be imported, nor could they be manufactured in the U. S. Retailers still selling analog television stock were required to prominently display at the point of sale a statement informing the customer that a converter box would be required for those sets.

A television’s resolution, or quality of image, is defined by its detail and clarity. It is based on the number of pixels displayed. Pixels are dots on the screen arranged along the horizontal and vertical. The more pixels arranged on the screen the better the resolution of the image. In an analog environment the maximum array of pixels is typically around 500 by 400. A digitally created image is comprised of up to ten times the number of pixels.

Multicasting is another advantage of digital television transmission. In an analog environment only one channel can be allocated to a chunk of bandwidth, whereas in a digital environment that same chunk can be divided into multiple channels. This provides television stations the opportunity to provide more programming to its viewers.

Interactive programming is another advantage of digital television. People subscribing to cable or satellite services will discover enhanced functionality. Example include movies-on-demand, text-messaging via the television’s remote to live television shows, and VCR-type choices such as pause, slow motion and fast forward.

When shopping for a digital television there are four types of televisions available to the consumer. Analog televisions, but these require a converter box, digital-ready sets which include the digital converter(or tuner) but do not offer high resolution, HDTV-ready units which do provide high resolution but may not be equipped with a converter, and finally an integrated HDTV set which provides both high resolution and a tuner. Shoppers cite cost and functionality as their prime decision criteria.

With digital television viewers can realize new highs in picture quality and enhanced functionality. The developments of today represent only the beginning. As manufacturers seek out new technologies and competitive edges, the consumer can reasonably expect an even more compelling viewing experience.

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