Digital Television to Bring New Experience to Viewers

Digital high-definition television is finally becoming a reality. After a long, hard haul of more than 10 years, wrote Tobey Grumet in a recent issue of Popular Mechanics, the first HDTV sets are expected to appear in retail stores by the end of 1998.

Heralded as the most important revolution in broadcast TV since color, HDTV has been the focus of a bitter confrontation between the consumer electronics and computer industries, with factions proposing their own HDTV broadcast standards. At the end of 1996, the Federal Communications Commission finally decided on a standard for the new format and started the manufacturing ball rolling. In April, network television broadcasters finally agreed to a timetable to begin digital broadcasting.

Digital TV is expected to bring a whole new experience to American television viewers. Now, in addition to plain old channel surfing, you’ll be able to surf the Web, play video games, even connect your TV to your computer for business--all with a crystal clear, almost 3-D picture.

A host of high-powered companies such as Sony, Philips, Thompson, Microsoft and Oracle are testing the average consumer with products such as WebTV set-top boxes, hoping to bridge the gap between analog and digital sets before the big transition begins.

Digital transitional products are in stores; still, over the next few years consumers may be faced with some confusion--because television manufacturers are faced with a dilemma. They need to make sure their bread-and-butter analog sets continue to sell while simultaneously promoting the idea of a whole new age of high-tech television.

Some will upgrade to digital sets, and prices of equipment will fall--one hopes. Both analog and digital signals are expected to be broadcast until at least 2006.

The first series of sets will be made with dual receivers, allowing the sets to accommodate both analog and digital signals and absolving you from being forced to buy a new television even if stations are broadcasting digitally.

Early buyers can be assured that analog programming will still be available. Older VHS tapes will play on new sets, as long as there is an analog receiver in the new set.

High definition provides a bright, sharp, crystal-clear picture with no artifacts, but it takes up a much wider bandwidth than a regular digital signal.

Satellite is a digitally compressed service. Still, when it comes to HDTV, satellite companies would have to significantly cut down the number of channels they broadcast if they want to put out a full, high-definition system.