Digital TV

Digital TV, the latest in broadcasting technology is designed to make you feel as though you are actually at the movies with its superb picture and sound quality. In fact, with Digital TV you have a choice in programming along with interactive viewing.

While you need a digital TV antenna for the best reception, you can also use your existing antenna if it is in good shape and has good quality coaxial antenna cabling. Digital TV transmitters are of three types – cable, satellite and terrestrial. Actually you can receive digital TV via an aerial or digital terrestrial television as it is called. Here you will only get the channels picked up by the aerial and there can be fluctuations in signal quality unlike a digital television antenna. With a TV antenna, digital TV can be viewed to the full without any hassles. Indoor digital TV antennas are also available but their performance depends on how many channels you get.

These days it is possible to view digital TV channels on your PC if you have a digital TV tuner. Digital TV tuners consist of a regular coaxial aerial connector, a RF tuner and a decoder. When the signal reaches the flat digital TV antenna, it is in turn passed on to the tuner and the decoder. Tuner cards for PCs receive these signals to an MPEG-2 decoder. If you have a basic digital TV tuner kit, you’ll have a tuner card and software that will allow you to record and watch TV. Some of these also have a remote control and IR receiver with which you can operate the tuner software.

All new TVs are required to include digital TV tuners as of March 1, 2007.
If you subscribe to cable, digital televisions are required to view digital programming. Your cable provider can advise you about exactly what you need to receive digital satellite TV. With digital cable, TV hacks will have a tough time. Basically, with an analog cable, a hacker can access a TV through the computer cable model by sharing the line with the TV tuner. With digital cable, the sophisticated encryption technology will prevent unauthorized access.

Digital television is advantageous over traditional analog TV as digital TV channels occupy less bandwidth. Each digital TV station uses sub channels for multicasting video, audio and increase or decrease the bit rate for a sub channel depending on quality required for a particular channel.