Understanding Your Tuner Options

When shopping for a television, you will notice that there are a whole lot of terms being thrown around. Making sense out of these terms can be confusing at times, particularly since different manufactures often use different terms to describe the same thing.

One term you may have noticed when shopping for a new television is “integrated ATSC tuner.” Fortunately, this term is not different from one manufacturer to the next, but you still might not know quite what this term means.

In short, ATSC tuners are slowly tanking over the more traditional NTSC tuner. The NTSC, or National Television Systems Committee, standard is the type of tuner we are all familiar with. Established in 1940, the NTSC standards is concerned with analog broadcasts. As such, an NTSC tuner allows you to receive analog television broadcasts.

The ATSC, or Advanced Television Systems Committee, is the newer digital technology that is replacing the analog broadcast system. Therefore, if you plan on purchasing a television that can receive digital channels, you will want to get one that has an ATSC tuner. When purchasing a new television, it is in your best interest to obtain one with an ATSC tuner because all of the television broadcasts will be switched over to digital in February of next year. If you picture a television without an ATSC tuner, you will have to purchase a receiver in February in order to watch television.

Many televisions available on the market today offer both NTSC and ATSC tuners. In this way, you can still pick up the analog broadcasts that are still being transmitted. You can also pick up digital broadcasts now and you will be prepared when the switchover takes place.

The ATSC standard was actually established in 1982, but it has taken several years for the switchover to digital to take place. Other countries, including Mexico and Canada, are also adopting ATSC as their standard.

There are many advantages to the ATSC standards. Namely, the image created with digital broadcasts is far superior to NTSC. The ATSC standard also makes it possible to view broadcasts in widescreen format and the audio standard is superior as well.

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