Well, it's been talked and talked about for years, but what is going to happen with this new technology called digital television? There are many things in store for the future of digital television, and supposedly all these ideas are going to be reality by the year 2006.
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What has to happen before this change can take place? The government, the FCC, and other leaders of industry are now admitting that it's not likely everything will be ready in such a short amount of time. One of the biggest reasons is money. It is going to cost a lot of money to completely change a system that has been in place since the invention of television. The hardest part is going to be developing a product and coming up with a standard. With this new technology every set in America will be useless. There has to be a standard for the new digital television set. Right now the industry can not agree on a standard, so there are very few digital televisions being manufactured. This makes them very expensive. As with any new invention it's all going to cost a lot of money at first, but just like the computer it will eventually be drastically reduced in price. Right now there are only a few people who would actually spend the money to buy one. The key to reducing the price is mass production.
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What is this new TV set going to physically look like? Many people do not realize that this televisions set is going to be entirely different from any television anyone has ever seen. It will be rectangular shaped, much like a movie screen. The clarity is going to be immensely better. That includes visual clarity and audio clarity. It will basically be a computer in it self. It will be the smartest television yet. The industry and manufacturers are now saying that the best performance comes from a very large screen, but this poses a problem to people with very little room. So, that's another problem that has to be considered. Every little thing is going to be completely changed.
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What type of programming will be available?
Programming will even be completely changed as well. We will see less and less of shows like Seinfeld and Friends. The emphasis will be more on movie productions, reality based programs, and sports. It will cost so much money to make a TV show that it will be more cost effective to make more made-for-TV movies. Sporting events are very cheap to produce because the only cost is cameramen and a coupe of announcers. A reality-based program only requires video footage usually taken by someone else and a host for the show. On CNN it was reported that currently it costs around $500,000 to make a reality based show. Shows like Seinfeld on the other hand, cost up to $3 million for a twenty-two minute episode. So, with the expense of a new technology, producers are going to be looking for cheaper programming.
You want to know the future of digital television? Well, basically with only and handful of sets, everything about it is future right now. The Internet is loaded with sites dealing with digital television and even places to order and see what a set looks like.
If you're interested in seeing some other digital items, please visit
Digital Products (They have an inventory of some the various digital products offered.)