These markets represent by far the largest opportunities for new digital video technologies, and they are the drivers for some of the most exciting technological innovations around.

We also briefly discuss a few other interesting applications, such as surveillance systems.

Here comes the content
Over the past few years there has been an explosion in the availability of digital video entertainment content. This smorgasbord of content has been a key factor behind the growth of consumer digital video markets. Developments in the areas of digital television, optical storage, video compression and networking promise to vastly increase the availability of digital content in the coming years—and to power the growth of digital video markets.

DTV hits the waves
One of the most important recent developments in digital video is digital television (DTV), particularly high-definition television (HDTV). As the name implies, DTV differs from traditional television in that the television signal is digitally encoded. (See Table 1 for more key DTV terms.) Digital television technology has been under development for decades, but it is just now showing signs of life.

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Regulations are a key force behind the sudden growth in DTV. Government timelines around the world are forcing broadcasters and manufacturers to move from analog to digital technologies. Berlin has taken the most dramatic step so far: on Aug 4, 2003, the German city shut down all analog TV broadcasts. Berlin's broadcasts are now all-digital.

Other governments are taking a more gradual approach. In a typical example, the United States has dictated that all TVs over 36 inches must be digital-ready this year and that all TV sets must be digital-ready by 2006.

Because of government initiatives, many consumers can now access digital content via terrestrial broadcasts. Typically, high-definition broadcasts are limited to popular prime-time and latenight programming, however.

Consumers have also been able to access digital content via satellite and cable services for several years. Again, only some of this digital content is available in high-definition format. Typically, satellite and cable high-definition programming is limited to ESPN, some HBO programs, and a smattering of movies.