The cable TV industry has been implementing a number of advanced technologies that will undoubtedly make watching TV more pleasant for TV enthusiasts everywhere. In fact, all of these new technologies make it so that cable TV in is poised to be the dominant way of delivering TV programming for the twenty first century!



The most basic of the technologies that the cable TV industry has implemented over the past decade or so is digital TV. Digital TV uses computer technology to transmit television and results in a higher quality picture and better sound quality than the older analog TV format was capable of providing. While with analog, TV viewers had to accept whatever interference came along with the signal, digital TV receivers can clean all but the worst interference out of the signal. In other words, any analog signal that travels more than a few feet will be fuzzier than a digital signal. When combined with the fact that the cables that carry cable TV are buried underground, digital TV allows cable TV to be much more reliable than satellite TV or over the air terrestrial TV in a greater variety of weather.

Digital TV is valuable not only for the high quality of the picture and sound that it delivers, but also because it makes a variety of more advanced technologies possible. One example is interactive technology that cable TV companies take advantage of in order to provide features like an on screen program guide so that viewers can listings of what they can choose to watch.

Another useful technology that's based on digital TV is video compression. Video compression allows cable TV to make better use of its transmission bandwidth so that it can deliver more channels over the same cable. Generally, digital TV can take the form of MPEG-2 format or MPEG-4 format, both of which will consume much less bandwidth than analog TV will!

HDTV is also digitally transmitted and it's widely regarded to be the TV format of the future because of its incredibly high resolution picture, wide angle screen, and better sound quality.

Switched digital video is another up and coming thing that will allow cable TV companies in to make even better use of existing cable bandwidth by only sending the TV programming that's being viewed to any individual TV at any one time. This will be instrumental in providing access to more channels- particularly HDTV- an video on demand selections as well.

In addition to TV entertainment, digital TV technology also makes it possible for cable TV companies in to provide high speed Internet access as well. With download speeds that are as high as twelve megabytes per second, digital cable provides some of the fastest Internet access available anywhere. Most companies in also make surfing the Internet more convenient with things like complementary wireless routers, virus protection software, and a number of other bonus features.

Another extra that many cable TV companies offer is home phone service in . This also takes advantage of digital technologies and offers a significantly better value for calling plans than more conventional phone companies do. It's not unusual to be able to get a calling plan through a cable TV company that rivals the top of the line plan from a traditional phone company, but at the price of a much more basic plan.

With enhanced features and services that are brought on by better technology, cable in is the path of the future. Start now.