4  The DTV Receiver

This is a very confusing time for DTV receiver purchasers. Although logos identify the compatibility of DTV receivers with different audio, video and data capabilities, few consumers really understand what these features do.

Audio and video compression and forward error correction processing for transmission of a digital television program is a compute intensive, complicated fusion of numerous engineering disciplines, computer algorithms and various technologies. By placing this complicated process on the origination side of the end-to-end DTV system, consumer receivers can be built that are affordable and reliable.

But even with this asymmetric complexity, the Grand Alliance prototype HDTV “receiver” occupied the equivalent ...

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