ABSTRACT
Standard Definition Television (SDTV) is one of two terms applied from the point of view of Advanced Television to the television systems currently in use. The other term is Conventional Definition Television (CDTV). CDTV applies to analog encoded signals such as NTSC and PAL and presumably to anything else that could be called "conventional television." SDTV, on the other hand, is a term much more open to interpretation. As defined in the recently approved ATSC "Digital Television Standard for HDTV Transmission," it means "a digital television system in which the quality is approximately equivalent to that of NTSC. There are two organizations principally involved in determining the SDTV standards that the industry will use and that will be submitted to the FCC as part of the recommendation for an ATV system. These are the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) and the FCC Advisory Committee on Advanced Television Service (ACATS).
