Why Have A Digital Television Transition?

Digital Television: Why The Conversion?

We am here today to give you all some answers about the digital broadcasting transition and explain the reasons and benefits of the digital transition. Hopefully these answers will help you all to see why the digital TV broadcasting transition is a good thing for all of us and not just another way for big corporations to make more money.

As we have said before, on February 17Th, 2009 at midnight all full-power television stations will switch to a 100% digital broadcasting signal and will no longer provide any analog TV signals. The reasons for this digital broadcasting transition are listed below.

Better Picture Quality and Sound Quality?

After the Digital Broadcasting transition most viewers should see improved clarity and color. This is indeed true for anyone that has a Digital Television but this could be untrue for anyone that is using a digital converter box. For those using an analog digital converter the results have been mixed. Some have found that they get a better picture while other have found that with the analog to digital converters they no longer get some channels. Still again, others have found that they get more channels with their analog digital converter

More Programming Options?

Comcast has said that the digital TV broadcasting will open up the opportunity for additional channels and multi casting. This means that channels will be able to provide sub channels at no extra costs to the consumer. For example, channel 4.0 might be able to also provide channel 4.1 that airs its most popular shows at different times of the day. Then it could also provide channel 4.2 for the airing of local weather forecasts all day.

Digital television broadcasting will also allow for significantly better closed-captioning options that are not available with analog TV.

Improved Emergency Services Communications?

After the digital broadcasting transition some of the analog airwaves, known as the spectrum, will be opened up to emergency services such as police and firefighters. The plan here is to use these airwaves to help emergency services provide citizens with better communications.

Those are the three main benefits of digital broadcasting. The most obvious benefits include a better picture and more programming options.

If you have an old analog TV and want to see the full benefits of the digital broadcast transition you will need to purchase a new analog digital TV. You can also get a analog digital converter or subscribe to a paid service like cable or satellite but it will have to be the more expensive digital services since there is no digital cable converter at this time.

For more answers about the digital broadcasting transition please see our related posts about the analog to digital converter transition.

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