HDTV, or High Definition Television, is the revolutionary way to view television. But what is it and why should you, as a consumer, switch to it? In reading this paper many of your questions and concerns will be answered, and hopefully give you a better idea of what you would, and should, be getting yourself into. We will look at the history of HDTV, compare and contrast HDTV and analog TV, and finally what to look for if you want HDTV in your home. .
As far back as 1987, the FCC (or Federal Communications Commission) stated, "the HDTV standards to be issued would be compatible with existing NTSC service, and would be confined to the existing VHF and UFH frequency bands"(lecture). The NTSC is the National Television Standards Committee and set the standards for normal analog television viewing. The FCC had received 23 different proposals by the end of 1988 of standards for HDTV. All of them were analog or analog mixed with digital and had varying resolution, interlace and bandwidth options. It wasn't until 1990 that an all-digital proposal was made by General Instrument (GI), followed by ARTC in December, then Zenith, AT&T, and MIT. During the next year these contender's products were tested and in 1993 FCC announced that they had made a key decision for all digital technology, but could not pick one of the candidates. So they formed the "Great Alliance", which included AT&T, GI, MIT, Phillips, Sarnoff, Thomson, and Zenith. This alliance took the best features and created the standard for HDTV. The system was created in 1994 and tested in 1995. "Currently, the FCC rules state the start-up of digital broadcasts and phase-out of analog broadcasts in 2006" (Brown). HDTV is just around the corner.
Now that you know a little about how HDTV began, let us compare analog television to HDTV. Conventional analog television uses a cathode ray tube to deliver images whereas HDTV uses a digital display like a computer monitor (Yahoo).
