Chapter 5: Television and Digital Television

Introduction
Scope
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Appendix A
Appendix B
Appendix C
Glossary
About the Author
Index
Acronyms

Chapter 5: Television and Digital Television

Television viewing is the most popular leisure activity in the developed world. Americans watch more television than all other leisure activities combined. Some researchers consider it addictive. Broadband Entertainment focuses more on video than audio and gaming combined.

Chapter 5 takes an extended look at video quality since it is a highly confusing topic. Video quality is spatial (resolution of pixels), temporal (frames per second and interlaced versus progressive), and spectral (quality of color). The chapter discusses the different points in the video delivery process that may degrade your video signal.

The chapter reviews the various types of televisions from cathode ray tubes to plasma TVs. The television is matched up to the human as as shown in the graphic below.

The chapter discusses digital over-the-air broadcasts that are slow to take off. The change to digital is not as important as it used to be since most people get their content from cable or satellite. Never the less, read about the latest news on digital television here.