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An enhanced definition digital TV format (EDTV) with 480 lines of progressive scan (non-interlaced) resolution. See DTV.

(Digital TeleVision) Transmitting TV using digital signals. The major DTV standards are ATSC (North America), DVB (Europe) and ISDB (Japan). All three use MPEG-2 video compression and Dolby Digital audio compression. DVB and ISDB also include MPEG audio compression (see DVB and ISDB).

The FCC approved ATSC in 1996 (see ACATS), and the U.S. switched to digital broadcasting in June 2009 (see digital TV transition). Other countries have also adopted the ATSC format, including Canada, Mexico and South Korea.

A Digital TV or a Set-Top Box
To receive a DTV program requires a digital TV set or a digital set-top box for an analog TV. However, digital TV sets may continue to have analog inputs for many years, because people have huge collections of VHS movies and recordings.

Eighteen DTV Formats
DTV offers 18 digital formats (see table below) starting with Standard Definition (SD), the digital counterpart of the NTSC analog standard, except without snow and ghosts. High Definition (HD) provides 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound and requires a wide screen TV set (16:9) in order to eliminate the letterbox effect.

The numerous options provide the broadcaster with a tradeoff between how many channels can be sent versus channel quality. The more HD channels, the fewer ED and SD channels, and vice versa. See digital TV transition, TV converter box, HDTV, letterbox, NTSC, 8-VSB, interlace, digital cable and cliff effect.