Digital TV - Video & Transcript

Transcript

Over seventy years ago the first television screens warmed up to show blurry black and white images. Since then television has changed in almost every way. Today, TV is multiplatform, which means you can watch programs on all kinds of devices from mobile phones and computer monitors, to giant LED screens in your living room.

Combine this with the ability to control what you watch and when you watch it, and we have the main ingredients for a revolution in the experience of television. TV is no longer a purely linear medium – the days of missing your favourite program on a handful of free-to-air channels are rapidly disappearing.

Digital home media centres, with a choice of screens and internet connections, personal video recorders, and media streaming devices are sweeping away the traditional idea of the TV set. With these media centres, comes a much wider range of channels to choose from, allowing you to watch programs ‘on-demand’ and catch programs outside their scheduled broadcast times.

And, with the right pair of glasses, you can do all your viewing in 3D! So why have things changed so rapidly?

The first reason is the Internet. Fast Internet allows the delivery of high quality video content, and that means there is the potential for programs to be watched at any time, not just at 1 specific time per week.

Episodes and entire series are now offered as part of a “catch up” service – for viewing later online. The ABC offers iView, an extended Internet TV service, available on your screen of choice. Other internet services, like YouTube, offer a huge array of programs that can also be viewed on all sorts of screens. And, with services such as iTunes, Hulu and Netflix you can rent or buy TV shows and movies without ever leaving your couch. So one reason for the speed of change is the Internet.

The other is changes in consumer hardware. Not only has there been an explosion in the types of devices that carry screens, but the function of what is considered a TV screen has been transformed.

The days of having a single aerial socket in the back of your TV are gone – modern screens are multi-purpose, allowing you to connect to the internet directly, or to a computer, game console, set top box, media streamer and many other devices. This rapid convergence of options, new technologies and hardware means that it’s no longer just a question of what you watch, or even when you watch it, but how you watch it.