sdante
join:2008-02-14
Holland, MI
edit:
July 11th, @09:09PM
| reply to dagon01
Re: [CATV] Will all the channels be HD come Feb. 2009?
Indravar is half-right, to be fair - most affiliates in larger markets already broadcast an HD version of their station over the air, thats why if you have a TV with a built in QAM tuner, the channels are labeled like 13-1, 13-2, 13-3 etc... I used that as an example because our local ABC affiliate broadcasts a standard digital version of its station, an HD version, and its 24-hour weather network over the air.
Just to clarify for everyone who doesn't already know:
High Definition reffers to the RESOLUTION of the picture that you see on your screen. It has more pixels (colored squares) per square inch, therefor the detail is much higher. However most TVs can only display so many pixels at once, hence the need for a special, HD-capable TV to view HD programming.
DIGITAL is merely a way to transport a signal, It uses up less bandwidth on the RF spectrum, which frees up space for other uses (that's the primary motivation for the digital transition). It uses data bits (like binary code) to carry information instead of an analog wave, and therefor is much less prone to distortion. Given the generally poor quality of analog on an antenna, it often looks a lot better in comparison. |
