dtvtips.info

Summary

DTV stands for Digital Television. The digital part refers to the fact that with DTV the TV signal is a digital signal, which is different than the analog TV signal. Over the air analog signals will be permanently turned off in February 2009, most analog subscription TV services will continue.

HDTV

A digital signal is digital information that has to be interpreted by a computer in your TV before it can be displayed. An analog signal does not need to be interpreted by your TV. The benefits of a digital signal is that it can be compressed, which allows the signal to contain more information. The ability to handle more information allows the digital signal to be display HDTV which has increased resolution (a better picture).

HDTV and SDTV

DTV does NOT necessarily mean HDTV, it only means that the signal is a digital signal. Standard definition TV (SDTV) can also be displayed using a digital signal.

Strong Signal Needed

One partially bad note about a digital signal is that you must have a good signal to watch a digital channel. That is because of the nature of a digital signal. A digital signal requires that all the information be received by your TV, interpreted and then displayed. Your TV can NOT display a picture with only a part of the display information. This is unlike an analog signal which had varying degrees of success. One person could get a certain analog channel perfectly and another person may get that same channel with very fuzzy reception. Long story short you need a good signal to get a digital picture, because partial digital signals don't work. A side note to this is that if you are getting a digital channel then you are seeing the same picture quality as everyone else also watching that channel.

Note:

Many TV stations are currently NOT broadcasting there digital signal at full strength, mainly because they still have to broadcast the analog signal also. So hopefully after the switch is made it won't be much of a problem to get a good digital UHF signal where you live. Consult a local electronics expert to help you pick out the right antenna for your location and setup.