High definition television (HDTV): a link to communications of the future

This paper addresses the issue of HDTV and its applicability to the integrated services digital networks (ISDN). Ever since cable TV was introduced, the idea of interactive TV programming on the computer terminal for the consumer was the goal of the communication industry. Present analog TV transmission did not serve the purpose because it was incompatible with the digital signal. Bandwidth limitations of cable TV was also a problem and the resolution of the NTSC analog TV signal is lower than that of the present computer graphics. The HDTV development, being entirely digital, addresses all the above issues.