This is Internet On The Air...I'm Joan Silvi. Movies, e-mail and Internet access...all
for couch potatoes. Details in a moment.
Funding Credit: Internet On The Air is a production of the University of
Michigan School of Information and Michigan radio, made possible by a grant from the W.K.
Kellogg Foundation.
Say you are sitting at home, watching Casablanca when an e-mail message
pops up on the screen. You read the message, reply and then decide to check out a new Web
site dedicated to Bogie and Bacall -- all on your new digital television.
It could happen in the not-so-distant future. Digital television, also known as high
definition television or "HDTV", is very different from today's sets. It will
have movie quality pictures, better sound... and will cost $1500 more than current TVs.
But, the price is likely to go down as the market expands. Soon, only digital TVs may be
available for sale.
Digital TVs receive digital signals instead of electromagnetic waves to translate
pictures and sound. Each set can be customized to receive any number of information
programs, including TV shows, movie-quality video, e-mail and Web sites. Plus, the
resolution is much better - returning to Casablanca, you'd be able to read the wine
bottles that line the bar while Sam plays "As Time Goes By".
Could HDTV be the "beginning of a beautiful friendship?" Stay tuned...
To learn more about digital television and the Internet, contact our Web site at
www.si.umich.edu/iota. For Internet On The Air, I'm Joan Silvi.
