What is digital television?

Answer

Digital television, or DTV, is a new standard for high-definition television broadcasts.

Answer

Old tv was a signal transmitted to your house over the air or by cable, but the picture was actually a variable voltage going up and down to tell your tv which picture tube color dot to turn on and how bright. The voltages might vary from say 0 volts up to 1 volt. It does this very fast, there are a lot of dots!!!

With digital tv, the movie camera that takes the pictures (just like the new photo cameras) dont expose film they convert the light images into 1's and 0's, digital binary data, or computer talk. The pictures or movies go into a computer harddrive to be stored. The pictures and sound is set up to be sent to your house. All the 1's and 0's are at the same low voltage.

The tv signal you get at your house is the same computer format. Its all 1's and 0's. Your HDTV can take the data and convert it into pictures to be put on the picture tube. You can get very detailed pictures and all kinds of surround sound type special effects when you go to this kind of tv transmission. Just like all the special effects you get on video games and internet sites, these effects could be sent, and they will be in the future.

In the future its not hard to imagine watching say, the home shopping channel, and pointing your remote at the tv to buy a product right off the screen.

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