KOTV broadcasting a digital signal

For the first time ever, KOTV broadcast its programming over a "digital" signal. <br><br>It's transmitted from 7 to 10 PM on Channel 55, but you would have to have a digital TV set or a digital converter

Thursday, May 2nd 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

For the first time ever, KOTV broadcast its programming over a "digital" signal.

It's transmitted from 7 to 10 PM on Channel 55, but you would have to have a digital TV set or a digital converter box to see it. There's not a huge difference in the picture now, but "digital" TV is what will make new technologies like High Definition Television possible.

The switch to digital is being mandated by the federal government. Right now, we'll broadcast in both the old and new format. But by 2006, the government wants "all" TV signals to be digital. We don't have High Definition yet, because right now, hardly anyone has a HDTV set. KOTV chief engineer, Don Dobbs, "Once consumers go out and buy the televisions, and there's enough receivers in the market to make it practical to make those investments, then that's when we'll go the high definition."

Right now, the average High Definition TV is priced in between $2,000 and $3,000 dollars.