Sieberg: Opening the door to 'TV-plus'

Interactive TV is tied in with digital TV

CNN Technology Correspondent Daniel Sieberg

(CNN) -- Thursday's vote by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) forces all television-makers to manufacture sets for U.S. consumption that can receive digital signals by July 2007. The government move effectively creates a new timetable to get the ball rolling toward a digital U.S. TV system.

A digital TV system -- reception and broadcast -- would open the door to a whole new television world, beginning with clearer images and leading to interactive possibilities such as viewers taking part in game shows and being able to surf the Internet while watching television. Broadcasters might be able to gather specific information on what programs are being watched and, perhaps, by which demographic groups, offering advertisers a potential gold mine of marketing information.

CNN Technology Correspondent Daniel Sieberg offers some details on the future of television, which could be just around the corner.

SIEBERG: Higher-resolution digital TV is meant to replace the lower-quality analog signal that most people receive now. Even "digital satellite systems" are not true digital TV, since the signal is converted to analog when it's received by a typical TV. True digital TV means using digital cameras and a digital display.

EXTRA INFORMATION An interactive look at how HDTV, a class of digital television,  improves on what most people are watching now.

High-definition TV or HDTV is the highest class or resolution of digital TV. There is also a different "aspect ratio" or way of displaying the image with HDTV.

Consumer rights groups say that incorporating digital TV tuners could cost as much as $250 more for each television. But the broadcasters debate that amount and with the ruling today, FCC Chairman Michael Powell rejected that idea saying that over time that price would drop dramatically because of mass production.

For interactive television, it's a step forward in terms of bringing it into more people's homes. Interactive TV is tied in with digital TV in terms of providing people with more features, and in the future there will be the capability to do more on your television such as Web browsing, different programmable features on the television, ways to record programs, play along with game shows and the incorporation of more technology into the television itself.

Long time coming

FCC Chairman Michael Powell rejected industry complaints that the action would force consumers to pay more for television sets.

It has taken a long time for the United States to incorporate digital television. The problem mainly is that it's a question of who's going to make the first move -- the manufactures or the broadcasters.

The broadcasters say that they need more people to have the ability to receive a digital TV signal before they're able to broadcast it. The television manufacturers say there has to be more digital broadcasters before they're willing to incorporate it into TVs.

The FCC has stepped in to say that it will be the manufacturers.

Beyond that, there are also concerns about piracy -- how a digital broadcast could possibly be recorded in perfect digital quality and then shared more easily over the Internet.