The new era of television: Digital TV

May 1, 2008 6:50 am admin Digital TV

In the near future, the format of transmitting TV signals will change from analog to digital. With this coming up, majority of the TV companies, including the cable companies are trying to educate their customers regarding this change. This transition from analog to digital will occur on 17th February 2009. When this happens, those people who depended on analog TV broadcast will no longer be able to watch TV. In order to continue watching TV, you will need to be able to receive digital signals. Therefore, if you still own an analog TV set, you will need a digital converter to convert the analog signals being broadcasted to digital signal.

This change from analog to digital has been work and studied since the mid 90s. However, this surge for improvement has faced a lot of criticism - particularly by consumer groups who felt that this was an act to force consumer to spend more in TV systems. The issue remains debatable for years and never had a winning party until last year when the deadline for this transition was set.

All this while, TV dealers have selling analog TV sets without warning the consumers that one day, their analog TV sets will be useless. When this happens, they will need to purchase a new set. Therefore, dealers will be left smiling away because consumers will have to get either a new TV set or a converter to change the digital signal to analog so that the old analog TV will be able to transmit the pictures on the TV.

In other cases, consumers might choose to sign up with cable TV or satellite TV. However, the government does have a subsidy program for the purchase of a converter box but the subsidies amount is not enough to cover the entire price of he converter box. No matter what, the consumer electronics industry will profit from this. They will profit directly if consumers buy the converter box or earn through taxes from the government that fund the subsidy.

Another topic that is worth the debate is the awareness of the public regarding digital TV. Recent surveys have proved that majority of the public who relies on air broadcast has no idea of digital TV. This draws us the idea that they will also have no idea about the transition from analog to digital signal.

Therefore, it is predicted that unhappiness among the public will arise when this transition takes its place. Viewers would be left fuming when they realize that they can no longer enjoy their favorite TV programs on air.
So, it is clear that the fund that has been put aside by the government to address this awareness is insufficient.

In one of the development regarding this issue, the chairman of House Energy and Commerce Committee has ensured that he will not let American to be without TV when the transition from analog to digital happens. Well, this big promise seems to be like a political posturing and looks to be unrealistic. So, time will tell on how this transition will take place and what effect it will bring to the world of TV.