I went TV shopping recently, and it's not a pretty picture. Television is moving from analog to digital, just like everything else in your living room. But while the transition to digital high-definition TV (HDTV) promises stunning pictures on your own silver screen, things are getting infinitely more complicated. That's because we're going through the first real change in the way television pictures look and are transmitted since color TV came along in the 1950s. Broadcasters are reluctant to spend the money for all-new cameras and transmission gear. And Napster-stung studios are stalling, worried that picture-perfect digital copies of their reality shows and sitcom hits will leak out onto the Internet.
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