Samsung SIR-TS360 owner manual What are Analog TV, Digital TV, NTSC, ATSC, SDTV, and HDTV?

1 CHAPTER 1 Technical overview

Chapter 1: Technical overview

This chapter explains the technical capabilities of the DIRECTV® HD Receiver, and provides background information on digital television. Topics covered here include:

What are Analog TV, Digital TV, NTSC, ATSC, SDTV, and HDTV?

What kinds of TV programming can I watch with the DIRECTV® HD Receiver?

What equipment is required to view HDTV programming?

Resolution and interlacing

Video output options

Aspect ratio

Screen formats

Dolby® Digital 5.1

What are Analog TV, Digital TV, NTSC, ATSC, SDTV, and HDTV?

Analog TV

Analog TV is the TV you’re probably most familiar with. Most of the TV broadcasts you receive via a standard off-air antenna or from your local cable company are analog TV broadcasts.

Digital TV

Digital television (sometimes called DTV) is a newer method of broadcasting TV signals that delivers higher quality audio and video. Digital TV is broadcast in two sets of formats, SDTV and HDTV.

NTSC

NTSC (National Television Standards Committee) refers to the group that first established the standards used for conventional analog television broadcasts and TV equipment.

ATSC

ATSC (Advanced Television Systems Committee) is the group who have been working to establish the standards for digital television broadcasts and digital television equipment — including both SDTV and HDTV.

SDTV

SDTV is a digital TV format that provides a high quality picture at resolutions that can be displayed on standard

TV sets (see more on resolutions later in this chapter).

HDTV

HDTV is a digital TV format that provides the highest quality picture at resolutions that can be displayed on computer monitors and HDTV-ready TV displays.

10