TV goes digital: in a world of bits and bytes, you control the camera angles and everything you see on TV.

Coming soon to your TV: views of the hottest live basketball plays from any seat in the stadium. Want a better look at that three-point shot? Can for a replay from behind the basket. Or better yet, follow the "view" of the ball as it swishes through the net.

While watching, you might use a built-in speakerphone to talk with a fan in the stands. Or send the score via e-mail to your dad in Japan.

Sound impossible? It wont be when the computer and television industries combine to create digital TV -- machines that receive, send, store, and manipulate TV programs the way computers now manipulate other data.

Industry and government representatives recently reached an agreement on how this techno-merger will take place. New digital TVs and converter boxes that allow current TVs to receive digital signals may hit store shelves by next spring.

To understand how this digital revolution will change the way you watch TV, it helps to know how TVs work now.

Today, TV networks such as CBS, Fox, and Nickelodeon broadcast TV shows as analog electrical signals. These signals travel via the airwaves, satellites, or cable as a continuous stream of electromagnetic energy (like light and radio waves). That energy controls a beam of electricity at the back of your TV set. When the beam hits chemicals called phosphors on the inside of the picture tube, the phosphors glow to light up millions of colored dots on the screen. The higher the voltage of the signal, the brighter the dot. Your eyes and brain blend the dots to see a complete picture.

BINARY BROADCAST

But this system leaves a lot of room for error. The main problem is that interference can change the voltage of the signal as it travels. Result: A distorted or miscolored picture. The solution: Send out the signal in a form that's nearly immune to interference -- binary code.

Binary code is the language of computers. It consists of only two digits: ones (1) and zeros (0). Each string of binary digits, or bits, tells the beam at the back of your TV how bright to make each dot. A dot encoded by the series 10010010 looks ever so slightly different from one encoded by 10010011.

This digital code is broadcast as a series of "on" and "off" pulses of electromagnetic energy. A 1 means the current is on; a 0 means its off. So instead of "listening" for the exact voltage to produce a picture, a digital TV just listens for the on/off code. Changes in voltage caused by interference won't matter as long as the TV receives the correct series of on/off pulses (1's and 0's).

You'll need to buy a new TV -- or a converter box -- to receive these signals. And the new sets may initially cost $1,000 more than today's TVs. But they'll come with other benefits that may make the price worthwhile.

For one thing, the screens will be wider, like movie screens. In addition, the color win be richer, with more shades available for each dot. And, with digital bits (and no interference), you'll also get digital CD-quality sound.

Some of these benefits are already available with small-dish satellite TV systems that receive digital signals. But when mainstream broadcasters go digital within the next year, everyone will have access to clearer picture -- and a lot more programs.

Digital data expands TV choices because computers can compress digital signals. Broadcasters will be able to transmit six times as much info on the same "channel," says Saul Shapiro of the Federal Communications Commission, the government agency that regulates television. "NBC will be simultaneously offering a choice of Friends, a comedy movie, a Western, news, and two other programs," he says.

Broadcasters may even send out different versions of the same programs to allow custom-viewing. Say there are 20 cameras at a football game. If you want a view from the 50-yard line, just click on that position and the broadcaster will feed you the signal from the closest camera.

Too much to choose from? Don't worry. In the not-too-distant future, you'll be able to program your TV/computer to sort through thousands of programs and "record" into memory only those you want, says Nicholas Negroponte, director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Laboratory.

CUT-AND-PASTE TV

And because the data arrives in digital form -- just like other computer data -- future software programs may allow you to manipulate TV shows as easily as you now cut and paste paragraphs in a word-processing program.

"People will be able to manipulate video stored in their TVs, assemble their own versions of shows, and send them to friends," says Andrew Lippman of the MIT Media Lab. Go ahead, change Brandy's hair color. Or combine the signals from several real cameras to create a computer-generated view from a football as it sails into a receiver's hands!

Of course, digital TVs will also have links to other computer goodies, such as CD-ROMs and the Internet. Eventually, when today's analog phone lines go digital, they'll be hooked into the TV/computer, too. Even commercials could take on a new life. Links to advertisers' Web pages may encourage viewers to buy on the spot.

The bottom line, says Lippman, is that television will no longer be a separate box that does one thing. Instead, digital TV will be a "media bank," where people make withdrawals, transfers, or deposits of audio, video, Internet, telephone, CD-ROM, or other digital data anytime they want.

Forget television, he says. In three years, you won't even recognize it!

RELATED ARTICLE: FROM SIGNAL TO PICTURE Today's TVs receive an analogy electrical signal, which controls an electric beam at the back of the TV set. The beam scans dots on the screen line by line. The voltage of the signal tells the beam how bright to make each red, green, and blue dot. Digital TVs, on the other hand, receive a series of electrical pulses (a code of 1s and 0s). The code tells the beam how bright to make each dot. In either case, your eyes and brain combine the light from millions of dots to see a complete color picture.