Digital Television

By Author: Roy Claus
Total Articles: 9
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The availability of digital TV technology and its numerous advantages in comparison with analog television inspires the considerable number of broadcasters to enter the digital future. In the end digital television is likely to turn up rather profitable and cheap for a consumer. Those who like various TV shows or other entertaining programs would be able to access different interactive services, to take part in changing and forming programs with the help of some kind of browser just from their TV sets. It would also make possible watching favorite channels on cellphones or personal digital assistants. In spite of this, the digital TV idea and its greatest advantage in fact comes to the possibility of broadcasters to show much more channels using less spectrum of frequencies. Moreover, the better the digital signal is compressed the less space it takes in the frequency spectrum.

The difference between analog and digital TV is the way of sending the information. Digital broadcasting is accomplished by coding and packing audio and video data, sending it via cable or air and receiving it with special devices which decode ...
... it and send it to the screen. The problem here is choosing standards of broadcasting. Multiple standards started up when it appeared to be not simple to find out the optimal way of packing and transferring the video content. It can be transferred via satellite, cable, local broadcasting stations or by combining all of the above. In addition, the technologies of packing video, modulation the signal and others are constantly developing, that makes the subject even more complicated. In general there are standards of digital television: European DVB (Digital Video Broadcasting), American ATSC (Advanced Тelevision Systems Committee) and Japanese ISDB (Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting). DVB is considered to be the international standard and includes several types, among which the satellite broadcasting DVB-S is the most popular.

At first sight it seems that creating new complicated ways of broadcasting is not really necessary, especially taking into the consideration the fact that in many countries 3G and high-powered internet connections are in use and have a great success. But the thing is that the amount of sent information is really huge, video content will overload even local networks. It will surely have effect on traffic and carrying capacity. As to the benefits and prospects of digital television implementation, first of all, the number of channels will enlarge significantly. Analog TV has almost run out its frequency reserves. One analog channel can be replaced by up to sixteen digital channels. The quality of the signal will, of course, get better, there will be no annoying defects on the screen. By the way, quality will always be perfect, it does not really depend on the type of coding or packing which are only responsible for the reliability of the signal. Digital television turns the common model of relations between the broadcaster and the viewer upside down. Digital information will not go directly to the screen any more, it can be stored at external devices or home media servers. Digital television helps to get rid of everything you don't need and turn from being object to being the subject.

Smart people start using something new right away and as soon as the technology becomes widespread, they are already familiar with it and know how to use it most effectively. So be smart and go for the internet en tv today!