ABSTRACT
ATSC stands for the Advanced Television Systems Committee, which developed the standards for DTV used in the United States (as well as in Canada, Mexico, and Korea). The principal standards comprise ATSC documents A/53 for digital television and A/52 for AC-3 audio compression. These standards were adopted (with the exception of the video formats table) by the FCC in 1996. Other standards for different aspects of the system have since been developed. In September 2004, the FCC adopted updates to A/52 and A/53, along with A/65B, the Program and System Information Protocol Standard (PSIP). As discussed in this chapter, DTV transmission is very different from analog TV, both in the type of video and audio signals and in the way they are modulated onto the RF carrier.
