At least one piece of household technology has yet to become a full-fledged player in the digital revolution: the television set.
But last week, the Federal Communications Commission took its most forceful action in that direction since Congress decided that over-the-air television signals should go digital.
The commission ruled that TV manufacturers must include tuners that receive digital signals in every television with a 13-inch screen or larger after June 30, 2007. Beginning in July 2004, at least half of all large-screen televisions sold must have the DTV receiver.
The goal: to send the decades old analog TV set into oblivion, along with the rotary phone and vinyl records.
But the parties involved can't agree on how much money and inconvenience the change will cost consumers - or whether the benefits outweigh the pain.
Consumer advocates argue that viewers have never demanded DTV, even though it promises improved pictures and sound. In fact, 85 percent of American households pay to get their television signals though cable or satellite services, which don't require the new tuners. That means everyone buying a TV will have to pay for technology that only 15 percent actually use.
The two TV makers who own patents on the new digital technology support the switch, but the rest of the industry opposes it. Its trade organization, the Consumer Electronics Association, said it will appeal the FCC ruling and sue, if necessary, to block it.
Broadcasters applaud the FCC, saying it's about time they got help after spending hundreds of millions on equipment to transmit digital signals that only a few viewers can watch.
Spectrum swap
Why the fuss? Analog TV and DTV work on different principles and operate on a different set of radio frequencies (known in the trade as "spectrums"). Under a deal struck in the mid-1990s, Congress gave broadcasters the DTV spectrum free of charge under the condition that it return the current analog spectrum after the switchover.
DTV, which is broadcast as a pattern of ones and zeros, can't be received by today's analog sets. But it can provide a much higher resolution image and sound in a single broadcast (known as high definition or HDTV) or multiple programs at lower resolution in the same bandwidth.
