HDTV FAQ - What You Should Know About HDTV

On February 17, 2009 all full-power broadcast television stations in the United States will stop broadcasting on analog airwaves and begin broadcasting only in digital. This Digital broadcasting in turn will allow stations to offer improved picture and sound quality as well as additional channels.

Digital Television (DTV) is an advanced broadcasting technology that will simply transform your television viewing experience. DTV enables broadcasters to offer television with better picture and sound quality, multiple programming choices called multicasting, and interactive capabilities.

Converting to DTV also will free up parts of the scarce and valuable broadcast spectrum. Those portions of the spectrum can then be used for other important services, such as public and safety services (police and fire departments, emergency rescue), and advanced wireless services.

The endless question has plagued people over the past year of “What will happen if I don’t do anything?” And I have to say that I love saying this…”You will be left in the dark…ages!” and literally at that. Your TV will simply not receive any information that it can understand, and will remain silent…still…and dark….very dark.

There are two basic reasons for the change to the digital format. First the digital format allows many improvements to be added as time goes on, such as the high tech gadgetry of TV screens that would have multi-media displays. You could watch TV, and view your computer while sending and receiving messages on screen. The uses for digital are endless.

At the same time when the conversion takes place all the old Analog transmitters will be shut off. Then according to the FCC, those frequencies will be sold for use as communication frequencies, use for cell phones data transmission and for other useful resources.

To view HD content, you need a screen that can display the full resolution of the HD content. Some HD ready screens, especially lower-priced plasma screens, can only display 720 lines, so 1080 content has to be down sampled. You also need an HD receiver, for broadcast content, an HD set-top box for cable or satellite HD content, or an HD-DVD or Blu-Ray player for HD content on DVD. VIIV PCs and current Windows Media Centre PCs can receive HDTV with the right tuner. Some HD TVs labelled as ‘HD ready’ have the receiver built in. Since March 2006 all 25-35" sets sold in the US must include an HD tuner, but before you pay extra for it, check how the HD content you want to watch is going to be broadcast.

To connect HD devices together you don't use scart or S video. Although some HD equipment lets you connect via component video or even FireWire, the main connector is High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI). This interface supports high-definition sound too: 8-channel 192kHtz uncompressed audio, as well as Dolby Digital and DTS. HDMI 1.3 will support the new Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD lossless digital audio formats. Confusingly, manufacturers can choose which features of HDMI to implement; if you want a DVD-Audio or SACD connection, check if the HDMI connection on the set you're considering implements it.

For connecting a PC or a high-definition DVD player or set-top box that decodes copy-protected content, you may need High-bandwidth Digital Copy Protection (HDCP). This is a system that applies DRM to a DVI or HDMI connection. The "protected video path" in Windows Vista uses HDCP connections to let you play DRM content but not pirate a copy. Creators of Blu-Ray and HD-DVD discs can choose to set a flag that only lets you play the content in HD via an HDCP connection; if you connect it to a system without HDCP you get a down sampled version instead.