DTV Timeline

How long will the transition from analog to Digital TV take?

Digital Television will be introduced gradually over the next ten years. Some television networks in the 10 largest U.S. cities intended to begin broadcasting both DTV signals and analog signals by November, 1998, however not all cities went on-line as planned. The "simulcasting" of digital and analog signals means your analog TV sets will display analog broadcasts for several years without the need for additional equipment.

The FCC has planned all broadcasts to be digital by 2006 - but don’t worry about your current TV sets becoming obsolete. Reasonably priced digital-to-analog converter boxes will enable them to display DTV broadcast signals too. The converters won’t transform your televisions into digital receivers. However, you will be able to view the down-converted DTV pictures without any of today’s common interference problems, like ghosts and snow. You will also be able to continue subscribing to satellite or cable services that deliver analog signals directly to your TV sets. And you’ll still be able to connect your analog TVs to VCRs, Digital Video Disc (DVD) players, camcorders, game systems and other products.

This DTV tip is reproduced from "The ABCs of DTV" with the permission of Sharp Electronics. Copyright 1998 Sharp Electronics Corporation.