CHAPTER 24, Inc., MADISON, WI
Digital Television (DTV) Information
Digital television (DTV) enables local broadcasters to send a "computer-like" data stream from their towers to a receiver or TV set in your home or office
CHAPTER 24, Inc., MADISON, WI
Digital Television (DTV) Information
Digital television (DTV) enables local broadcasters to send a "computer-like" data stream from their towers to a receiver or TV set in your home or office. In that data stream broadcasters can send many things. They are required to send at least one TV program with sound but they can send much more. For example, the pictures and sound being sent can have very high resolution for amazing picture and sound quality. That's called High Definition Television or HDTV. Broadcasters could instead send several "standard definition" TV programs (SDTV) at once. That's called “multicasting.” These "standard definition" digital TV pictures are somewhat lower in clarity and detail than HDTV programs. Broadcasters could send a combination of an HDTV program and one or more SDTV programs as well. They could also send other information that has nothing to do with the TV picture and sound they are sending. Those other services are often referred to as "data casting". In addition something brand new is being deployed now on some DTV stations. Its called MobileTV which will enable reception of local TV while moving. The mobile TV channels will not initially be available on normal DTV sets, a special mobile receiver or hand held device will be necessary.
HOW DO I RECEIVE DTV?
That depends on how you are watching local TV channels. Most television viewers fit into one these different categories: 1) Cable TV subscriber (your TV is connected to a cable), 2) Satellite TV subscriber (your TV is connected to a Dish), 3) Other Video Service subscriber (Your TV is connected to a utility broadband company like AT&T U-Verse or a provider from the internet), or 4) Off-Air TV viewer (your TV is connected to an indoor or outdoor TV antenna). If you are a Cable, Satellite, or other video provider subscriber, your provider works with local broadcasters to insure those channels are available to you in standard definition (SDTV) or High Definition (HDTV) depending on the level of subscription you purchased.
If you are an Over-The-Air TV viewer (you are not paying any company a fee for TV), you have an antenna connected to a newer DTV capable TV set, you have an antenna connected to an HDTV tuner which is connected to an HDTV display, or you have an older TV set connected to a converter box which converts the DTV signals to analog TV signals for your older TV set. In the later case, you cannot experience the higher resolution of HDTV but will instead see any HDTV programming down converted to SDTV for your older TV set.
Some subscription TV viewers also may have one or more off air TV sets somewhere in their home in places other than the main TV viewing room. This is common if rooms in the home were not wired for a subscription service but occassional TV viewing is desired in those rooms.
IF I BUY A NEW DTV SET DO I THROW MY ANALOG SET AWAY?
That depends. Your old analog TV set will continue to work with your older VCR, DVD, DVR, Camcorder, Video Game, or other devices that output an analog TV signal. Those older units will still function with your old analog TV set. Most new DTV sets also have inputs for those older analog-only appliances so you'll have to decide whether you want to keep the old TV set based on what you buy. To be clear, your old analog TV set will not tune in DTV signals from your antenna. Every other analog device connected to your old analog TV set will continue to work as they did before.
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