High Definition Television (HDTV) Explored - Beginning of Digital Television (DTV)

The thirst for enhanced viewing experinece led to the advent of DTV. In 1987, the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) formed the Advisory Committee on Advanced Television Service (ACATS) whose purpose it was to advise the FCC on the development of advanced television (ATV). At first it was thought to simply improve the existing NTSC analog television system, but General Instrument proposed an all-digital television system.

When you read and hear people talking about digital television (DTV), what they are talking about is the transmission of pure digital television signals, along with the reception and display of those signals on a digital TV set. The digital signals might be broadcast over the air or transmitted by a cable or satellite system to your home. In your home, a decoder receives the signal and uses it, in digital form, to directly drive your digital TV set.

DTV transmits signals using digital methods rather than using the conventional analog methods. Analog transmission is in the form of a constantly variable wave; digital transmission consists of an electrical pulse which has two possibilities: on and off (or positive and negative), which are represented by a one and a zero (this is binary data, the same type of information that a computer understands). Because a digital signal does not fluctuate, but is either perfectly intact or totally absent, a digital transmission is more precise than an analog transmission.

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