FREE ESSAY ON WHAT IS HDTV

WHAT IS HDTV

What is HDTV? HDTV, the first completely new TV standard since the introduction of the
medium in the 40's, allows a picture with much finer visual detail and better color than
the NTSC standards used with today's analog TV sets. Pictures can have 3 to 5 times the
sharpness of today's broadcasts and no noise or snow. A good analogy is that you can see
picture improvement like CD's improved over vinyl records! And speaking of sound, HDTV
broadcasts also include CD quality surround sound based on the Dolby Digital (AC3)
standard. HDTV sets use a wide screen more like those in movie theaters (16:9 width to
height ratio compared to 4:3 today). These new sets may also be compatible with PC's so
you may look forward to combination TV/PC applications.
Should you put off buying a TV now and wait for the first HDTV sets to hit the market?
Good question! We believe the set you buy today will serve you well for many years and
that the HDTV experience will take a long time to develop in terms of affordability and
programming choices. Aside from our ardent desire to sell TV's this year we think there
are a number of facts which support this position:
The FCC has mandated that standard TV signals continue to be broadcast through the year
2006 to insure a smooth transition to HDTV. This deadline may be moved back if consumers
and/or the Congress protest having to throw away or upgrade their existing sets but it
will certainly not be moved forward. The set you buy today will have signals to show for
at least nine years!
Manufacturer's plan to introduce add-on boxes to allow conventional TV sets to receive
and show digital broadcasts. Of course you won't see broadcasts in a wide screen format
and you may not see all of the resolution that MAY be broadcast, but you will be able to
watch your set beyond 2006 and you can add the converter box at any time before that.
Broadcasters outside of the top 30 markets are not mandated to begin ANY digital TV
broadcasting until 2002 - and no one has said how MUCH digital broadcasting they will
have to do at that point. (Top Ten market broadcasters must do some HDTV broadcasting by
5/1/99 and Top 30 markets must have some by 11/1/99. Other commercial stations have until
2002 to begin, but again, there is no mandate as to how much HDTV must be broadcast.)
The FCC has left it up to broadcasters to choose the digital format and resolution they
wish to broadcast in. Within the frequency spectrum they have been allocated,
broadcasters may choose to transmit one wide-screen very high resolution channel (HDTV)..
or several conventional screen channels with resolution comparable to today's digital
broadcast satellites, (DBS), or DVD. Such Standard Definition Digital TV (SDTV) would be
perfecly viewable on a conventional set with a digital decoder box. Broadcasters could
get revenue from advertisers on several channels this way... so there is some
dis-incentive to providing the best picture possible at the moment!
Even if you live in one of the top ten markets where digital broadcasts are mandated to
begin by May 1999, (stations in about 25 markets will begin some HDTV broadcasting this
fall), -the first DTV sets will be VERY expensive. Zenith, Sony, Mitsubishi, Panasonic,
RCA and others have already announced models of sets for introduction in Fall '98 with
initial prices of from $5,000 to $14,000. The industry believes that after several years
of mass production, the price may be only $1000 to $1500 more than a conventional TV set
of comparable size. Clearly, we will be well into the first decade of our new century
before DTV becomes affordable for most people.