What is free-to-air digital TV?
Digital TV is broadcast in digital format — encoding 0’s and 1’s — rather than analog format. Digital TV signals are compressed, providing more bandwidth in existing channels used for analog broadcasts. Digital TV signals require decoding by a digital tuner. That tuner can either be integrated into the TV, or in a separate set-top box (STB) connected to a standard television. Australia uses the Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) standard for digital TV, rather than the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) standard used in North America. Currently, the analog network is scheduled to be turned off at the end of 2013.
