HDTV: Broadcasting's quiet, pricey revolution

This month, the biggest change in television technology since TV broadcasts first began more than 50 years ago is starting to hit the airwaves -- and most people won't even notice.

But over the coming months and years, this quiet revolution will begin to show its effects: Television is going digital. It's a change more profound than when music moved from analog vinyl redords to digital CDs.

What people will be hearing about most as the television broadcasters and set manufacturers gear up their promotional campaigns is the breathtaking clarity and sharpness of the new High-Definition TeleVision, or HDTV, pictures and the CD-quality multichannel sound.

Boston's Channel 5 (WCVB-TV) was first out of the starting gate, initiating its HDTV broadcasts with a live broadcast of John Glenn's launch on the space shuttle from Cape Canaveral last week, and beginning a full digital broadcast schedule last Sunday with a high-definition telecast of the Disney classic "101 Dalmatians." WMUR (Channel 9) in Manchester N.H. plans to start its broadcasts later this month, and the other local major-network stations plan to follow suit by next May.

So far, cable companies are taking a wait-and-see attitude, with no plans to start sending out the digital channels, so those who want to start seeing HDTV will need to go back to the rooftop antenna (or, in the city, even plain old rabbit ears). Direct-broadcast satellite systems, with their greater channel capacity, may be quicker to incorporate the new digital channels into their lineups.

But the higher-resolution pictures are only part of the story. Down the road, the new digital technology offers a variety of enhancements besides HDTV. By going digital, the stations also now have the option of broadcasting up to four different channels of standard-definition pictures at once, offering a much wider range of programming choices. In addition, they can offer a variety of other services including computer data files to accompany the video.

For example, a broadcast showing excerpts of an interview could be accompanied by a complete, unedited transcript of the interview. But, as with all the new digital services, these will only be available to those with very deep pockets: The new broadcasts can only be picked up by new, digital television sets with prices ranging from around $6,000 to $14,000 -- or by set-top boxes that convert the signal to play through conventional TV sets, at prices starting at about $1,500. Until prices begin to come down -- as they inevitably will over the coming years -- HDTV and the other digital broadcasts will be a very small niche market.

In order to make the transition to the completely new technology possible -- since existing television sets will pick up nothing at all from the new broadcasts -- the Federal Communications Commission awarded every existing television station an extra channel to use for HDTV. The existing channels will stay the same, while the new stations (for example, Channel 20 for WCVB, which operates Channel 5) will send out the digital format.

At first, in most cases, the two channels will be sending out the same programming, but in two different formats. (In addition to its sharper pictures, HDTV has a different screen shape, closer to the format of wide-screen movies).

Most of those programs will simply be "upconverted" from programming originally produced for convetional television. But over time, more and more broadcasts will be taped directly on new digital cameras -- or converted directly from higher-resolution movie film -- and that's where the new medium can really show off.

For example, PBS is using the new medium to broadcast an art program this month (although Boston's WGBH (Channel 2), which won't begin HDTV broadcasts until next May, will be showing it in regular format). And a few stations around the country have already tried the new equipment for a sports telecast.

Overall, said Josh Bernoff, who as principal analyst with Forrester Research studies the market for new consumer electronics products, there are four main types of programming that will drive the HDTV market: sports, movies, concerts, and, of course, sex.

"Seinfeld isn't any funnier with wide-screen HD television," he said in a recent interview. "But with movies -- that'll make a difference. This is a different experience for movies."

And, perhaps surprisingly, a major market will be for those interested in the sound, he said. After all, audiophiles already represent a market of people who are willing to spend big bucks for what most people consider subtle improvements in sound quality. With digital broadcasting, the improvement in sound will represent a major leap, Bernoff said: "It's the same stadard as DVD (Digital Video Discs) -- five or six channel Dolby Sound. Basically, it's a theatre experience."

Only a few stores even sell the pricey HDTV sets so far: Circuit City is planning to carry a $10,000 Philips model with a 64-inch projection screen, and Tweeter Etc. already has been selling a 50-inch Mitsubishi HD-ready set for $4,000 -- but that requires an add-on adapter (which will cost $2,000 to $3,000) to actually receive the HDTV broadcasts. All the major manufacturers and major outlets plan to roll out a variety of different digital options in the coming months.

Another option, which may be more appealing in the short run, is set-top converters that adapt the new broadcasts to existing TV monitors. These don't give the full high-resolution picture unless the monitor is built for it, but will show the best possible picture that a given monitor can produce. Panasonic is already selling a $1,500 set-top converter that can be used on any TV set with video inputs; to get full high-definition pictures with it, you'd need their 56-inch projection monitor, a $5,500 item, but the converter can also be used with lower-cost monitors, at lower resolution, such as a $1,700 32-inch direct-view monitor. All the major manufacturers expect to sell such boxes within the next year.

One interesting difference people will notice is the all-or-nothing nature of the pictures. Unlike today's television, with pictures that can suffer from ghosts (double images) in the city, or from snow (random patterns of interference) in fringe areas, with digital TV you'll get an absolutely perfect picture -- or nothing at all. This is sometimes referred to as the "cliff-edge" effect. Once you go beyond a certain distance from the transmitting tower, you go over the cliff and no longer get any picture.

But for broadcasters, the opportunity to send as many as four separate programs on one channel is an especially significant prospect.

"We're excited about the delivery of extra content," said WGBH-TV spokeswoman Beth Poitier. As a PBS station, "it's very interesting to us, because we're so content driven. It goes beyond pretty pictures."

But whether it's clearer pictures, more vivid sound, or more choices, it's generally agreed that this is the biggest change ever to strike what former FCC commissioner Newton Minnow once famously called the "vast wasteland" of television.