Before investing in a new TV, be sure you have
all the facts about digital broadcast television
and understand the differences between Digital
Television (DTV) and High Definition Television
(HDTV). There are a lot of choices out there
and TriCounty Telecom (TCT) wants to help you be
prepared to make a wise purchasing decision.
TriCounty Telecom has upgraded to a fully digital headend.
This means all of the television signals sent to
your home is of digital quality. The
upgrade allowed for the addition of new channels
to our lineup, including high definition
programming. This was completed in January 2009.
What is analog television?
Analog television service is
the traditional TV system. Analog
television has been the standard broadcast
technology since the inception of television
using magnetic waves to transmit and display
pictures and sound.
What is Digital Television (DTV) and why did
television broadcasters transitioning to DTV?
Digital television (DTV) is revolutionizing the
television marketplace, offering improved
service quality, greater service innovation,
and new capabilities not currently available
from the analog broadcast television
service. DTV will allow broadcasters to
offer viewers better image and sound quality
and also more programming choices.
There are other benefits to the nation as well. The
DTV service is designed to use radio
spectrum more efficiently than the current
analog service. Therefore, the Federal
Government has reclaimed and reassigned analog
broadcast television spectrum to other
important uses, including public safety and
advanced wireless services.
If I am shopping for a new TV,
what should I look for?
Digital TV(DTV): Television
delivered and displayed using radio
frequency waves that contain information
that is digitally encoded for improved
quality and efficiency.
Standard
Definition TV(SDTV): Basic digital
television transmission that may be
displayed with fewer than 480 progressively
scanned lines (480p) in 16 X 9 or 4 X 3
format. 480 interlaced (480i) is the quality
of today's analog TV system.
High-Definition Television (HDTV): The best
quality digital picture, widescreen (16 X 9)
display with at least 720 progressively
scanned lines (720p) or 1080 interlaced
lines (1080i) and Dolby® digital surround
sound.
Plug-and-Play or Digital Cable Ready: A DTV
or other device for digital cable customers
that plugs directly into the cable jack and
does not require a separate set-top box.
Plug and Play TV owners must obtain a
CableCARD from their cable company in order
to view scrambled programming services.
What is high definition TV
(HDTV)? How is it different from analog
television?
HDTV is a name given to two
of the digital television (DTV) formats.
HDTV provides high resolution programming.
A current analog TV picture is made up of
horizontal lines on the picture screen; an
HDTV picture can have more than twice as
many lines, allowing for stunning picture
detail.
HDTV uses a “widescreen
format.” “Widescreen format” refers to
an image's aspect ratio, which is a
comparison of screen width to screen height.
Analog television has an aspect ratio of 4
X 3, which means the screen is 4 units wide
by 3 units high. The aspect ratio of HDTV is
16 X 9, similar to a movie theater screen.
HDTV programs can include Dolby Digital
surround sound, the same digital sound
system used in many movie theaters and DVDs.
HDTV uses the same amount of
bandwidth (the size of the communications
channel) as the current analog system, but
with HDTV, about six times more information
is transmitted. This capability translates
to much better quality in picture and sound.
Is HDTV the same thing as DTV?
No. HDTV is the highest
quality of DTV, but it is only one of many
formats. In addition to HDTV, the most
common formats are Standard Definition
Television (SDTV) and Enhanced Definition
Television (EDTV).
SDTV is the baseline display
and resolution for both analog and digital.
Transmission of SDTV may be in either the
traditional (4:3) or wide-screen (16:9)
format. EDTV is a step up from Analog
Television. EDTV comes in
widescreen (16:9) or traditional (4:3)
format and provides better picture quality
than SDTV, but not as high as HDTV.
TriCounty Telecom is currently offering HDTV programming.