The reasons for going digital
DTV offers quality, frees up bandwidth
10:46 p.m. Monday, January 21, 2008
Topeka — All this week on 49 News, we're bringing you information about making the digital switch.
It's to get you ready for the change-over from an analog TV signal to digital.
That change comes in a little more than a year.
The switch to digital television, or DTV, has been in the works for several years now. Now, it's more than a "sometime" thing. In a little more than a year, February 17, 2009, by law, transmission of all TV signals will be digital.
For many TV viewers, making the digital switch will be seamless. You won't have to do anything.
Those most impacted are people currently receiving TV signals by use of an antenna.
But before you accuse the government of simply thinking up new ways to require you to spend money, there are some good reasons for the switch.
"Not only are there enhancements for the TV, but there are also secondary benefits as a country, as a safety factor, that this is a good change," says Ed Cape of Superior Sound Design in Topeka. "So we don't want to look at it as being forced to do something. It is a positive change and there's good motives behind it."
So digital is better. It's where the technology has been inevitably heading for some time now.
But that increased bandwidth, or freeing up frequencies that other entities can use, is a big benefit of making the digital switch.
"It's for the better," says Cape. "We're going to have better audio and better video picture. The other thing that it does is it opens up more bandwidth so that the emergency broadcast stations, the fire, the police can use more technology."
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