READY TO PAY $5,000 FOR A TV? : DIGITAL TV Q & A.

Byline: Jeannine Aversa Associated Press 

Pricey digital TVs with movie-quality pictures will start popping up in American stores by Christmas 1998. People won't have to immediately junk their analog TV sets and VCRs. But after nine years, they will either have to buy new ones or $100 converters.

The changes are coming under a Federal Communications Commission plan, approved 4-0 Thursday, to implement the biggest advance in broadcasting since color in the 1950s: digital television.

While the new wide-screen sets will have better picture and audio, a ``converted'' digital signal fed to today's analog set will produce no better picture and audio than the analog set already provides.

And get ready for sticker shock: Initially, the digital TV sets are expected to cost around $5,000 - up from earlier estimates of $2,000, says Gary Shapiro, president of the Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association. Digital VCRs will sell for well above $500.

But if the devices sell as briskly as VCRs did when they debuted, those prices should come down quickly.

Manufacturers predict the new sets will sell like hot cakes. They're estimating up to 20 percent of all TV households will have them within six years. VCRs, one of the best-selling consumer electronic products ever, took nine years to get 20 percent penetration.

Pete Bevacqua thinks he may be one of the first to buy. ``I would have to see if the difference was worth it, but . . . it seems like maybe it would be,'' said the 25-year-old law student, shopping at a suburban Virginia mall. He's a big fan of TV, and picture quality is important to him.

But Marie Farmer, of Temple Hills, Md., thinks $2,000 - let alone $5,000 - is too much, and sees no reason for the switch.

``I'm enjoying TV the way it is,'' said the 41-year-old postal worker. ``I don't see any difference.''

Even if they buy new sets, most of the nation's nearly 68 million cable TV subscribers will have to use their TV's rabbit ears or rooftop antenna to receive digital signals, cable officials say.

Tele-Communications Inc.'s system in Hartford, Conn., is now the only cable operator in the country that has gone digital. More cable systems are getting ready but until they do, viewers will have to rely on antennas.

The FCC will leave it up to stations to decide whether to move to an even better form of digital, called high-definition television. Many will, predicts Eddie Fritts, president of the National Association of Broadcasters.

``The dazzlement is real. It's genuine,'' Fritts said.

With the digital technology, TV stations could cram more services into their airwaves space. For example, they could offer sports scores to laptop computer users or establish separate pay-for-view sports channels. But the FCC will require them to continue free TV service.

Upon approving the plan, the FCC immediately began issuing digital broadcast licenses to every TV station.

During the nine-year conversion to digital, broadcasters will transmit programs over two channels: their existing analog and a digital channel they will get free from the government. That way, existing sets will not become useless immediately.

Here are answers to some basic questions about digital television:

Q. How is digital television different from current TV?

A. The digital signals can carry more information, capable of producing more detailed pictures, clearer images, brighter colors and sharper sound on the same amount of broadcast bandwidth. Digital TV screens will be more rectangular, like those in movie theaters, than the squarer traditional TVs.

Q. How much will new digital sets cost?

A. When the first sets arrive on the market next fall, video pioneers can expect to pay as much as $5,000 to have one in their home. But prices are expected to tumble quickly to $2,000 and below, as more sets are sold and manufacturing costs decline.

Q. How is digital TV different from high-definition TV?

A. To produce high-quality images and sound, a single HDTV channel would use virtually all the bandwith being handed out by the FCC. Broadcasters are more likely to split that bandwidth to offer a number of digital channels that would not be as super sharp, and use some channels to offer paging or other data services.

Q. Where will the digital broadcasts be first available?

A. Under pressure from the Federal Communications Commission, broadcasters have promised to begin offering digital service within two years in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Boston, Washington, Dallas-Fort Worth, Detroit and Atlanta.

Q. When will digital TV be more broadly available?

A. Network-owned and affiliated stations in the next 20 largest markets are expected to have 30 months to begin offering digital broadcasts. All other U.S. commercial stations will have five years.

Q. Will I have to buy a new TV set?

A. Not for several years. The FCC expects traditional broadcasts to continue - along with digital service - until about 2006. Even then, viewers will be able to pay less than $100 for a converter box to pick up the new signals with existing TVs. Reception with the converter will be better than now, but not as good as with a new digital TV.

Q. Will I be able to get digital TV programs from my cable company?

A. Not until your cable company converts its transmission system to digital. Digital programming from such cable suppliers as HBO and CNN also must wait until they convert to digital production.

Q. Will the new digital standards make it easier to watch TV on personal computers?

A. PC makers won agreement on digital TV standards that are expected to make it easier to view TV on new personal computers.

Knight-Ridder Tribune News Wire

CAPTION(S):

box

BOX: DIGITAL TV Q AND A (SEE TEXT)