Digital TV will improve lives, expert says at U.

Digital television will not only help improve your viewing experience, but it will also improve the way people live their lives.

That was the message conveyed Friday at the University of Utah by guest lecturer Robert K. Graves, a U. alumnus and chair of the Advanced Television Systems Committee forum, a group of more than 200 companies that educate governments and broadcasters around the world regarding the benefits of digital television.

Graves spoke to a group of students and faculty members at the Warnock College of Engineering Building regarding the nationwide switch to all-digital television signals.

Analog transmission will cease on June 12. People who subscribe to cable and satellite service or who have a digital TV with a digital tuner probably will not be affected, but those who rely strictly on free, over-the-air broadcast signals captured by rooftop or rabbit-ear antennae and viewed on analog TV sets will be unable to get programming unless they obtain a set-top converter box.

Besides providing a dramatically enhanced picture, digital transmission will open the door to a wide new array of informational technologies and applications, Graves said.

"The same broadcaster can provide service to homes and service to handheld devices," he told the Deseret News in an interview. Digital technology will allow broadcasters to serve their audiences better in the future, he added.

Graves said the problem that caused a delay in the original planned February conversion was "turning off the old system and relying on the new system exclusively."

As soon as the transition is fully completed, the capabilities of virtually any information device will be enhanced, he said.

"With an antenna and the right chip, you can turn every computer into a TV, you can turn your cell phone into a TV, you can turn your PDA into a TV," he said.

"There are lots of opportunities for (local) broadcasters sending signals from their towers out into the community to send all kinds of new services."

E-MAIL: jlee@desnews.com