Choice to go digital is crystal clear, but it's expensive
By RICHARD RICHTMYER
Anchorage Daily News
September 4, 2005 at 12:49 AM
http://www.adn.com/money/story/6929595p-6828363c.html
The word "digital" has become ever-present in marketing. Cell phone
companies boast about their digital networks. Gadget makers hawk digital
music players. Pay TV companies urge us to switch to digital cable.
So just what is digital TV, and what difference does it make?
Digital TV is an umbrella term covering several types of broadcasts,
including high-definition television, or HDTV, and "multicasting," where a
broadcaster sends several channels of programming over one signal.
The technology is basically the same as that which powers computers, and it
enables TV stations to broadcast crystal-clear pictures, CD-quality sound
and programming that fits on wider, movie-theater style screens.
Getting the most out of the new TV technology, however, could cost you
thousands of dollars.
High-definition televisions have as many as 1,080 interlaced lines of
resolution, compared with 480 lines on a regular TV set. That higher
resolution gives HDTV programs their clarity and vivid color.
To watch HDTV programming, you need a high-definition television, which can
cost anywhere from several hundred dollars for a small one with few
features to as much as $7,000 for a top-of-the-line, full-featured,
flat-panel set.
There are also enhanced-definition TVs, which are less expensive and can
display HDTV programming only at a lower resolution than high-definition sets.
Standard definition digital TVs are the bottom tier. The picture is the
same resolution as analog TVs, but they can receive digital signals over
the air.
If you don't subscribe to a pay-TV service and want to view digital
programming over the air on your old TV set, you'll need to buy a tuner
that converts the digital signal to analog. The least expensive one
available at Wal-Mart last week sold for $222.
You'll be able to pick up the signal with the same UHF antenna you use for
analog signals.
But if you live in an area where your TV signal fades or has a lot of
static, digital TV probably won't work for you over the air. To get any
picture at all, you need to have a good lock on the digital signal. When
you do get a signal, though, it's crystal clear.
If you subscribe to cable or satellite TV, you've probably heard their hype
about going "digital" as well.
Cable and satellite TV providers are using a similar technology to make
more efficient use of their wires and satellites. But in many cases they
are simply converting an analog signal to a digital signal that takes up
less space on their systems.
================================
George Antunes, Political Science Dept
University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204
Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927
antunes at uh dot edu
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