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I just have been shopping for a new TV and found out that almost every HDTV ready set I looked at is going to require an outboard box to actually receive an HDTV signal?
Can anyone explain to me why the tuner is not internal like a regular TV?
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What is HDTV? what is digital broadcast? Some help please.Thanks
There's probably an FAQ somewhere. "Digital TV" is just that: digital TV, like "digital audio" which includes MP3, CD's. SACD and so on. If you take the current interlaced scan analog television signal and make it digital, you've got digital tv. If you're watching DirecTV or The Dish Network, that's what you're seeing, along with a good deal of compression. If you'r watching "digital cable" that's what you're seeing."HDTV" usually refers to an image that uses 1080 lines of interlaced scanning or 480 lines of progressive scanning (as compared, I believe to the 440 lines of interlaced scanning that make up a standard broadcast TV signal in the U.S.) When HDTV was first developed (in Japan), it was analog. It was a big spectrum hog, because a lot more information is being sent.
I believe the US took the lead in developing a digital protocol for having digital HDTV and defined it as 1080 lines, interlaced. I believe (but am not positive) that part of HDTV spec is the 16 x 9 picture format, which more nearly resembles the shape of a modern motion picture screen. Standard TV is in 4 x 3 format.
We're in the U.S., re this disucssion--Digital TV broadcasting is just beginning -- and it won't necessarily be HDTV. PBS and some broadcast nets do some HDTV broadcasts, but digital broadcasting allows for the possibility that a single broadcast channel can be used to transmit several programs -- as long as they aren't HDTV.
The second problem is that the modulation system chosen for digital broadcasting is different from the one chosen for digital cable. So, even if you have a digital tuner; it will not work with digital cable. You will need another box. Right now, digital cable is not HDTV and cable is not -- in most markets -- carrying local digital broadcast signals.
DirecTV also is digital but not HDTV, although DirecTV now offers some HDTV signals from HBO. I don't know you if you pay a higher subscription rate for HDTV from DirecTV, but you do need a different box and a different dish (because you need to look at two satellites to get HDTV).
So, the bottom line is that, for some folks, a digital tuner isn't worth the money and may be rendered superfluous if the customer buys DirecTV or cable.
That said, having seen both on a high-quality plasma display, true HDTV (as is being broadcast sometimes by PBS and, I think, CBS) is much, much more impressive than line-doubled DVD playback.
Because nobody cares about free (terrestrial) TV. At least, not the sort of person who can afford to buy an "HDTV" set - he subscribes to a multichannel service, which uses its own decoder.The #1 reason why people buy these things is for (progressive scan) DVD.
Wait until the analog broadcasts stop. Then, everyone who wants FREE TV will have to buy a box and the prices will drop like a rock?
Wait until the analog broadcasts stop.That's not going to happen. There would be riots in the streets.
These are "ready" for "HDTV", although they should be "HDTV capable".
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