What Is Digital Television?

2A GUIDE TO DIGITAL TELEVISION

Digital television is a new way of transmitting high quality video and audio to your TV set. Using digital television, broadcasters can transmit high definition TV (HDTV) images. This High Definition LCD TV has a built-in digital television tuner. The advantage

of an integrated digital television set is that it can tune both analog and digital TV channels. All you'll need to do is to add an external antenna and you are ready to watch digital television.

Digital Television Picture

Digital television programs are transmitted in two different formats. The first is Standard Definition Television (SDTV) and the second is High Definition Television (HDTV).

SDTV program formats include 480-line interlaced (480i) and 480-line progressive (480p) video. 480i programs are essentially a digital version of our current analog TV programs, while the 480p format offers improved image detail over 480i. Some 480p programs are broadcast in widescreen and are comparable to progressive-scan DVD movies in image quality.

HDTV and standard definition television (SDTV) are the two categories of display formats for digital television transmissions. HDTV provides a higher quality display with a vertical resolution display of 720p or 1080i. The “p” stands for progressive scanning, which means that each scan shows every line for a complete picture at 1/60th of a second. The “i” stands for interlaced scanning which first shows every odd line at one scan of the screen and then follows with every even line in the second scan for a complete picture at 1/30th of a second. Both HDTV formats are always broadcast in widescreen, and both offer much higher picture quality than SDTV.

English