Westinghouse SK-16H120S user manual About Digital Channels

About Digital Channels

Currently, all broadcasters have an analog TV channel and a digital TV channel. The digital bandwidth has the capability of accommodating more than one program stream because each broadcaster’s assigned digital channel carries a 19.39-megabit-per-second (Mbps) digital data stream. This allows the broadcaster the option of broadcasting a single program or dividing the digital data stream into multiple programming streams. These streams include the “major” channel specific to a broadcasting station, as well as any additional programming streams on the bandwidth, which are referred to as “minor channels” or “sub-channels,” each broadcasting a different program. As a result, the numbering system for digital channels is different than that of traditional analog TV.

Here’s how it works:

•Each physical channel is mapped to one or more digital channel numbers, known as “virtual channels,” and represented by a number, followed by a dot and then another number; for example, 7.1, 7.2, etc. (the old analog channel is always referenced to minor channel “0”, as in 7.0, while 7.1 would represent the new digital television channel)

-The first number is the major channel used for all channels of a particular broadcasting station

-The number following the dot is the minor channel number assigned to each broadcaster’s additional programming streams; digital television stations may have only one virtual channel, or as many as six

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