Ads the USA plods along toward HDTV, I wonder what is being done in Europe? For example, the French have always had their own standard for color TV (“SECAM”, while the UK and Germany have a different standard. Now that Europe has one currency, willit have one standard for HDTV?
I can’r imagine the French accepting anybody else’sTV standard…let’sfaceit, the French like being mavericks in just about every area of technology.
Anyway, when will Europehave one transmission standard? And, is it compatiblewith the digital HDTV system which the USA will adopt?
The European standard for digital TV, whether high definition or standard definition, is DVB, which is not compatible with US ATSC standards. SD digital TV is fairly widespread, HDTV is almost non-existent. A satellite channel, Euro1080 has just launched - 1920 pixels x 1080 lines @ 50 hertz interlaced.