The cool new high tech gadget everyone's talking about these days is something we've been watching in our living rooms for almost 60 years. Television viewers may think that their football game, soap opera or science show looks fine as it is. But when a show is broadcast digitally onto a high definition television, the action appears disturbingly lifelike, nearly three-dimensional. Although the high definition digital television debuted Nov. 1, its introduction as a mainstream consumer item comes Jan. 7 to Jan. 10 at the 1999 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Prices, though, are expected to drop 10 to 20 percent in 1999.
Electricity travels through either analog or digital signals.
Analog signals are generated directly, like a light hitting a camera picture tube. They can be converted into digital signals that are composed entirely of ones and zeros. A lot more can be done with digital information because it can be manipulated by computers and is more immune to noise. For example, digital VCRs can now record on a hard drive instead of cassettes, a function that allows television watchers to set up their own instant replays and pauses during broadcasts. And digital telephones can package Caller ID and an answering machine.