Digital TV

75% of British households use Freeview but many have paid TV subscription packages for more channels and many more features. The average UK household spends £6.70 per week on TV licences, satellite rental and cable subscriptions (Office for National Statistics). With more features being offered digital TV remains key for household entertainment and learning.

Jargon Buster

• 'Full HD' ready TV — a TV that has a screen resolution (of at least 1080 horizontal lines) that's excellent for high-definition TV viewing
• 3D Television — TV able to show certain TV programmes and Blu-ray discs that are available in 3D format. Note: 3D TV glasses are required and for Blu-rays a 3D ready Blu-ray player
• 4k resolution — See Ultra High Definition
• Analogue — how television was transmitted and recorded traditionally before the digital switchover
• Box Storage Space — amount of space available for you to record and save programmes
• Broadband — a transmission with high bandwidth, so the data is delivered quickly. Usually associated with internet access (eg ADSL or cable) and usually means faster access
• Catch-Up TV — service offers backwards EPG for easy access to shows that you've missed
• CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) — an old-fashioned TV-tube television
• DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) — radio's equivalent of digital TV. Many radio stations are broadcasted alongside the digital TV service, so can be received on digital TVs and set-top boxes
• DTT or DTTV (Digital terrestrial television) — digital TV signal transmitted through an aerial, in the UK, this includes the Freeview service (which includes BBC One, BBC Two, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5, and newer BBC, ITV and Channel 4 services) and additional commercial free and subscription services
• DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) — are discs containing pre-recorded films or music videos. Formats include DVD+/-R, DVD+/-RW and DVD-RAMs, which may be used at home to record TV programmes or computer files
• EPG (Electronic Programme Guide) — the on-screen TV guide that provides a listing of TV channels and programmes available
• Freesat — free satellite service provided by the BBC and ITV. There is also the similarly named Freesat from Sky
• Freeview — the main UK digital terrestrial television service that requires no subscription but additional subscription services are available
• FTA (Free-to-air) — a programme or service that you don't need a subscription to get
• Hard drive digital TV recorder — a smart digital receiver that records programmes to a hard drive. Programmes you want to record can be selected directly from the on-screen TV guide (or EPG). Live TV can be paused and rewound. Note: most allow for multiple channel recording at the same time.
• HD ready TV — a TV that has a screen resolution (of at least 720 horizontal lines) that's good enough to display high-definition TV programmes and high-definition discs (HD-DVD and Blu-ray)
• HD tuner — allows you to receive high-definition TV programmes
• HDMI — a digital audio and video connection that is capable of transmitting both standard- and high-definition TV signals
• Interactive — this covers any system where the user can choose extra services or respond to events. For example, watch a particulate programme or cast a vote or take part in a quiz
• Internet TV — a TV that connects to you home network and to the internet. This allows access to selected internet features such as BBC iPlayer, YouTube, Skype, etc
• IPTV (Internet Protocol TV) — a TV service delivered over the internet by phone line or cable to select TV or radio stations or programmes from anywhere in the world
• LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) — are the most common type of flat-panel television. With conventional LCD TVs using a fluorescent tube lamp or recent models using semiconductor LED lamps for the screen’s backlight illumination
• LED (Light Emitting Diodes) — a TV where the screen consists of an array of many LED semiconductor lamps
• Modulator — an electronic gadget built into some set-top boxes and digital TV recorders that allows them to be connected to a TV using an aerial lead instead of the preferred SCART lead
• Multi-Room Box — when you can stream the same show or different shows on two different boxes, in two different rooms at the same time
• Pay-per-view — when you pay for particular films or sporting events on top of subscriptions to satellite or cable/phone line television
• PC card / adaptor — when you can turn your computer into a digital TV and watch programmes on its screen
• Plasma — a particular type of flat-panel TV. They are popular for larger screen TVs (such as 42" or greater). All recent plasma TVs are suitable for displaying HDTV
• Recording Space — the recording capacity available (usually stated in hours)
• Red button — one of the four colour-coded buttons on your remote control for selecting interactive television services
• SCART cable — a common way of connecting one TV product to another that combines the picture and stereo sound in one plug
• STB (Set-top box) — the equipment that receives digital television and converts it so it can be received on an older TV or VCR
• Switchover — term used when broadcasters switched from analogue signal to digital
• Terrestrial TV — TV transmissions that are broadcast over the air directly to your TV aerial.
• Top Up TV — a pay-TV company that provides extra channels and programmes on digital terrestrial TV
• TV on Demand — when UK broadcasters make their output available to watch online, via services BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, 4oD and Demand 5. All of these are free to watch and allow you to catch up with TV programmes you've missed
• Ultra High Defintion — Quadruples the pixels of standard HD to 3840 x 2160 resolution
• VCR (Video Cassette Recorder) — the machine used for recording and playing video tapes
• VOD (Video on Demand) — films and TV programmes you want to watch are delivered via broadband phone line, cable or satellite when you want to watch them
• Widescreen — the ratio of the width to the height of a widescreen TV picture is 16 to 9, often called 16:9 format