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Are you confused about the DIGITAL
TRANSITION?
You’re not alone! Wrong terminology, incomplete
information—what does it mean to me, the average television viewer and
what do I need to do to watch television on February 18th, 2009…
ANALOG HISTORY:
Let’s start at the beginning. The original black and white television
broadcast standards were developed prior to World War II. In 1953, a
second standard, NTSC, was developed to allow for the commercial
application of color signal while at the same time backward compatible
with Black & White television sets. NTSC stands for National Television
System Committee. Broadcast engineers jokingly will tell you it stands
for Never The Same Color or Never Twice the Same Color. Color accuracy
varied from station to station and television set to television set.
 In
reality, the color phase of the signal tended to drift out of align,
requiring adjustment on the TV set—tint and contrast.
TV channels first broadcast were VHF which stands for Very High
Frequency on channels 2 thru 13. In the mid 1960’s it became apparent
the need for more channels and UHF—Ultra High Frequency channels 14 thru
69 were created. While imperfect, it worked for several decades. Until…
the wireless spectrum became a log-jam: television, radio, pagers, two
way communications and cell phones all competing for the same, limited
spectrum… And ATSC or Digital Television was born.
DIGITAL BASICS:
ATSC stands for Advanced Television Systems Committee. On the technical
side, the video codec is MPEG-2 with Dolby Digital AC-3 audio and 8-VSB
modulation. There are three levels for display size—basic is 480 or 576
scanlines, medium is 720 and the top tier is 1080 scanlines. This gives
the resolutions of 720x480, 1280x720 and 1920x1080 respectively using
16:9 aspect. The different resolutions are either Progressive or
Interlaced, indicated by either the letter P or I after the number of
scanlines. Progressive displays each line of video in sequence.
Interlaced displays are really two signal—the odd numbered lines and the
even lines displayed in alternating fields. The advantage of progressive
over interlaced is higher vertical resolution, fewer artifacts and no
intentional blurring to mask video twitter and eye strain associated
with interlaced display. The disadvantage is progressive requires
significantly more bandwidth. OK, enough of the technical mumbo-jumbo.
TERMINOLOGY: DTV, HD vs SD—What’s the Difference?
Digital television is DTV. HD is High Definition. HDTV is High
Definition Television. SD is Standard Definition. The terms are not
interchangeable. HD and SD refer to the quality of the digital
television signal and are not separate broadcast formats.
FEBRUARY 17, 2009—What does this date mean to me?
This is the date that Congress established for all FULL POWER television
stations to cease analog broadcast operations and begin digital
broadcast. Not all television stations, including KCAB—TV28 are required
to switch to digital operations on or before that date. Over 7,700
television stations, in three categories—Low Power, Class A and
Translators, are NOT yet required to switch. Most will continue
broadcasting in the current analog standard until such time as Congress
defines the standards for their migration to digital. This is
anticipated to occur around 2012. Until then, you can watch KCAB—TV28
the same way you are watching today! But there could be conditions
attached, so keep reading!
SO HOW DO I WATCH BOTH DIGITAL AND ANALOG TELEVISION?
Good question. There is no one easy answer. You do however, have
several choices.
You can:
- Buy a new television with both ATSC and NTSC tuners
- Buy a Digital to Analog Convertor Box (Coupons available—see
below for more)
- Buy a VCR, DVD recorder or TiVo type device with both ATSC and
NTSC tuners
Subscribe to either cable or satellite television service
The good news is with Digital Television—the number of channels
available to you FOR FREE has never been greater! Let’s assume that you,
like most people, are not planning on buying a new television and will
continue to use your older NTSC analog set. If you currently subscribe
to cable or satellite—you don’t have to do anything. If you will need a
new decoder box, your service provider will contact you with more
information. A word of caution, if you don’t currently have a High
Definition (HD) television set, you don’t need to upgrade your service
plan to include HD. Your existing set is not capable of receiving the
higher quality broadcast. You will be able to view the programming
according to your television set’s capabilities.
If you elect to purchase a Digital to Analog converter box, the
government has available discount coupons to offset the costs to
individuals. The $40 coupons are available by going to the following
website:
www.ntia.doc.gov
There is a limit of two coupons per household, and have a 90 day
expiration date. The US government has set a limit on the number of
coupons to be issued but may revise this at a later date.
WARNING: NOT ALL CONVERTER BOXES ARE CREATED
EQUAL!
Unfortunately, not all of the authorized converter boxes allow both
digital AND ANALOG signals to be sent to the television. This even
though the Community Broadcasters Association warned the National
Telecommunications Information Administration (NTIA) back in 2006 about
overlooking NTSC or analog pass-through features. The NTIA has
authorized over 80 models of converter box as eligible for coupon
redemption, with only 18 allowing analog pass-through. Before you buy,
read the box carefully or you won’t be able to watch KCAB—TV28. For a
list of converter boxes that allow analog pass-through go to:
www.keepuson.com
SO HOW DO I MAKE THIS WORK?
Connect your antenna to the digital to analog converter inputs.
Connect the video outputs from the converter to your television input.
And you’re done!
Depending on your existing antenna equipment, you may need to
upgrade or install an attic or outdoor digital antenna and new coaxial
cable. Read the literature included with your converter box for details.
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