INTRODUCTION

Many people have heard all the hype about HDTV, and some have possibly read information on the subject, but most people have no idea of what it is and why it is attracting so much attention.  Ask the average person on the street about HDTV and if they have heard about it they will probably say, " I am not going to pay $6,000 for a better picture and better quality sound."  The question is, what is so special about HDTV?  In the next few paragraphs I hope that I can help answer the question that many people have, "what is the big deal?"   Before you read this however, it would be a very good idea to have read other parts of this site so that you will have an understanding of the concept of HDTV, and will be able to understand some of the lingo that I will be using.
    The possibility of television carrying a digital signal will revolutionize the way you and I watch TV.  For that matter, we will no longer just watch TV, we will interact with it.  Think of the changes that society has seen with the inventions of the television and computer, they are unbelievable and they touch every single aspect  of our daily lives.  HDTV will bring the two together in a very different way that will change the way you live.  If you have looked at the other information on this site, you should have a good understanding of how HDTV works.  There is a very strong argument that HDTV will revolutionize America the way the television has.  Lets look at the possibilities and see if it stands up to all the hype.  Nobody knows how we'll interact with our televisions in the next few years, but TV is never going to be the same.

The Possibilities

So, in some distant Christmas your family decides to take the leap to digital, and  you become the new owner of a HDTV.  You are excited about all of the things that you have heard that you can do with this new box, from ordering pizza, to racing virtual cars with your uncle in New York.  You decide where to put your new family information center and plug it in.  You have read the instruction manual and found out that you have 16:9, high definition, multi-casting, surround sound, and enhanced television.  What's next?
    As the power is turned on you begin to realize the amazing capabilities of HDTV.  Your first impression is that the picture is unbelievable.  Every detail is revealed with amazing clarity.   With 5.1 channel sound, it captures every sound that is possibly heard by the human ear with clarity that you have never heard, even with your high dollar surround sound stereo system.  With the ability to carry more than just pictures and sound, you decide to watch some nightly news.  A box pops up asking you which stocks to follow, where you want to check the weather conditions, which college football scores to list, and which stories to read more about.  You decide that you want more information about the situation in Iraq so you decide to make a print out of a more informative story that your news station has made available.  Your news has now become customized to your needs and is  a personalized report.  You decide to flip over to HBO and catch a movie.  As never before, you are able to see the entire pictures and the amazing digital surround sound is better that in the movies.  As you couch shakes, you notice that the picture quality is  just like you see in the movies.  You finally realize what you have been missing, and ask yourself why you didn't buy this thing 5 years ago.  You sit and begin to realize that Digital Television will change how we look and listen to TV.

HDTV, It is more than just a neat picture and cool sound.

Wow, that is all I can say when I think about the future of television. It is incredible to think how much is possible with the advances in technology. As you may have read earlier, there are three "channels" on the broadcast HDTV signal. The Video, Audio, and Data channels. The Video and Audio are pretty self explanatory, but the Data channel is going to be the future of HDTV. Because of the way HDTV sends data, it can send up to 19.3 Mb of data per second. Sometimes that data space goes unused when the background of a picture does not change, or it is a weather map that is not changing, so what the data channel does is sends raw digital data over the unused section of the 19.3 Mb. This data could be anything from the newest version of Netscape Navigator to the entire  Manhattan Phone Directory in text format. Microsoft could send out interactive software while their commercial is playing so that if you liked what you saw, you could go and play the game or use a demo version of the software.  Of course the computer industry is going crazy over HDTV.  There are so many possibilities to what can be sent and done with the signal.

20 years from now, when you have a HDVCR, it will be even harder to program. I'd say 6-7 years before a consumer version of an HDVCR comes to the market. But, you will be able to buy HDTV DVD discs very soon. Probably about the same time as the HD TV's start hitting the market. But don't run out and buy a DVD player now, because the DVD HD discs will not play on toady's DVD machine... But if you've got the money, DVD is pretty cool.

What Digital Television Means To The Viewer:

For the viewer at home, digital television can mean high definition television (HDTV) in a wider 16 by 9 aspect ratio (today's analog TVs have an aspect ratio of 4 by 3) as well as 5.1 channel Dolby Digital surround sound. HDTV pictures are like looking out a window and are better than any picture that today's analog TVs can produce.

SDTV Multicasting:

Digital Television also means muticasting (or more technically correct multiplexing) where two or more television programs can share the bandwidth normally used by one analog program. It is technically possible to show two HDTV programs at the
same time or one HDTV program and two standard definition (SDTV) programs at the same time, or even four to six SDTV programs at the same time each with 5.1 channel Dolby Digital surround sound. The law requires that at least one channel must be free and the same quality as the analog channel, but not the same program.

(At least not until April 2003 when 50 percent of analog programming must be simulcast on one of the DTV channel programs, then 75 percent on April 2004, and finally 100 percent on April 2005. In theory, analog TV will be shut down in 2006, but
that depends on how many people still rely on their analog TVs, which can get DTV with a set-top box)

The new (and expensive) HDTV TV sets will be able to figure out how many programs are on a channel and how to display them on the TV screen so they look the best to you.  Incredibly, it is in the specification that a single channel of digital television can have as many as 1,024 different programs, but they don't all have to be TV.

Data Broadcasting:

A program can also be non television data. Using "opportunistic" or left over bandwidth, broadcasters can transmit data over the air. What kind of data? Web content, stock reports, electronic coupons that a computer printer could print out, or even the
telephone directory. Each 6 MHz DTV channel can transport 19.39 Mbps (2.42 MBps). That data can be television, non- television data, or a combination of both. At that speed (346 times that of a 56k modem), a program like Microsoft Word could be
transmitted within five seconds.

The Future:

Only time and technology will tell what happens with digital television.  New services are being thought of every day. Wide screen TVs, flat panel TVs, computers capable of HDTV are here now. Television can only get better.
 

The Conclusion:

As one can conclude from the above information, the possibilities for HDTV seem endless.  With options like multicasting, data broadcasting, and the use of a set-top box, the future of television, and the way we conduct our lives at home and at the office will never be the same.  No one can predict the way that we will interact with our TV's in the next ten years, but the
future holds tremendous possibility.  In my opinion, HDTV has the power to change the culture of America and the world, and to leave a mark on society the same way that the television has today.  We can only wait and see.
 

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