communications & Technology

ATSC (Advanced Television Systems Committee) is a group formed in 1982 that developed the ATSC Standards for digital televisions in the United States and in many other countries such as Canada
South Korea
Mexico
and Honduras. The abbreviations are also known to refer to the ATSC Standards itself.

ATSC Standards is a digital television format which will in the long term replace the current NTSC television system
as is the case in United States by February 17
2009
and in Canada by August 31
2011
These new high definition standards produce a display resolution better than approximately six times its predecessor — it shows off a lucrative 16:9 wide screen images up to 1920x1080 pixels in size. Not to forget
other different image sizes are still supported so that a maximum of six standard definition channels can still be broadcasted.

Sound wise
the ATSC is capable of a “theater quality” audio as it adopts the Dolby Digital AC-3 format
which also produces the 5.1 channel surround sound.

When broadcasting with the ATSC and an analog signal
two separate channels are required as the ATSC requires an entire channel for itself. As virtual channels can be remapped to any other number from 1 to 99
ATSC stations will often associate with one of the NTSC channels or all stations will use the same number.

Also
like many other systems
the ATSC is an interwoven standard
and is also heavily patented as it includes elements from MPEG
AC-3 audio coding
and the 8VSB modulation.


Comparison with Other Standards
Nowadays
the ATSC system
despite previously being criticized as being too complicated for the ordinary and over-priced to be a household system
is relatively simplified and is moderately priced compared to the current world’s most used system
the DVB.

Also
the ATSC signal
ironically
is more capable of adopting the changes in radio propagation conditions compared to the likes of DVB-T and ISDB-T. Were the ATSC capable of changing its parts such as its error correction modes
code rates
the randomizer
and the interleaver mode
it could become even more robust. Regardless of such fixed settings
it still is sturdy under various conditions.

Territories Using ATSC

Americas
Argentina
Bahamas
Bermuda
Canada
Colombia
Chile
Guatemala
Honduras
Mexico
Peru
United States

Asia/Pacific
American Samoa
Guam
Northern Mariana Islands
South Korea