Television has come very far over time since the first TV was invented. Gradually TV has developed further and there are all sorts of different TV's and TV features now. The first major improvement to TV was being able to watch it in colour but since then there have been many step's up such as 3D television, satellite televison, cable television, interactive television, high definition television, streaming media and internet television/on-demand viewing, digitial recorders and pay per view.
3DTV is watching television in 3 dimensions so certain things look like they're coming out of the screen and it's made to look more realistic for the viewers. It is done by a scene being filmed with two cameras, one focusing on an image for the left eye, the other for the right, then they are merged together and it looks like a blurry image but when it is watched through 3D glasses, it creates a 3D image. Alternatively, you can have the light source split the images directionally into the viewer's eyes, this means the viewer doesn't require glasses. I think 3DTV is good because it does enhance the viewing experience and makes you feel more involved, but I find that having to wear glasses throughout the film quite annoying and sometimes it can hurt your eyes. I also don't find it majorly different to just watching a film on a cinema screen because there's not always a lot of the film that uses 3D and comes out of the screen.
Satellite TV is television received through a satellite dish, things like Sky and Virgin are both forms of satellite TV which must be paid for and a satellite dish must be attached to your house in order to receive signal from the corresponding satellite in space. It's done to offer a wider range of programmes from all over the world to viewers and offer them channels that would be hard to get otherwise. I think satellite TV is very good because you get access to so many more channels than you would normally be able to and it's nice and easy to get and usually quite cheap. It's also improving nowadays and gives you the ability to do things such as pause and rewind live TV and the ability to record your favourite programmes. The only flaw is interferences due to weather and things like that, but they're quite uncommon.
Interactive TV is a feature that allows viewers to interact with the television whilst watching it. It can allow viewers to do things such as respond to a competition, vote for the favourite act on a talent show, access internet based servicesm, view things that aren't on standard channels and more. The red button is a service on some channels where some content can be accessed by pressing the red button on your remote. I think this is good because it gets the audience more involved with certain programmes and it's one thing about TV that could be developed further and a lot more could come of this.
High Definition TV (HDTV) is video that is of a much resolution and looks much better than standard definition. HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times more than SD. Early HDTV broadcasting used analog techniques, but today HDTV is digitally broadcast using video compression. I think HDTV looks good particularly on large TV's but sometimes it doesn't look that much better than SD and the price for HDTV isn't always worth the difference. It also causes some TV companies to make their standard definition channels of worse quality to make people want to pay for the HD channels.
Cable TV is a way of receiving television through radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers on the house. FM radio programming, high-speed internet, telephony, and similar non-television services can also be accessed through cable TV. The major difference is the change of radio frequency signals used and optical connections to the subscriber property. I think cable TV is good but is quite outdated in some countries because of things like Satellite TV, it is good for getting less interferences however and is also useful in countries where satellite signal is difficult to get.
Analogue Television is the analog transmission that involves the broadcasting of encoded analog audio and analog video signal one in which the message conveyed by the broadcast signal is a function of deliberate variations in the amplitude and/or frequency of the signal. All broadcast television systems preceding digital transmission of digital television (DTV) were systems utilizing analog signals. Analog television may be wireless or can require copper wire used by cable converters.
Digital Televison is the transmission of audio and video by digital signals, in contrast to the analog signals used by analog TV. Many countries have replacing broadcast analog television with digital television to allow other uses of the television radio spectrum.
Streaming Media and Internet Television/on-demand viewing. Streaming media is watching videos on an internet website that are provided by someone else who is streaming it on a website, things such as live football matches that are not on TV are usually streamed or live events. It could also mean the person streaming is recording footage and streaming it as it's being recorded. Internet Television/on-demand viewing is showing TV programmes online on a website and offers a wide range of programmes that have already been aired on TV. There are official on demand websites such as 4oD, BBC iPlayer and ITV player and also unofficial on demand websites which don't show content specific to certain channels. I think this is very good because if you've missed a programme, you can just watch it again in an internet browser and usually the programmes are available for a long time and of course if for some reason you can't watch something that's live, you can just stream it even if it's not as good as watching the actual thing on TV. It can sometimes lag or run slightly slow but it is still a very good way of showing TV content.
Digital Recorders are similar to VCR's in the way that you can record what's on TV, but it has been made much easier by things such as the Sky + box where you can easily record live programmes and save them on your box to watch at any time as opposed to having to fast forward through your video to find what you're looking for. You can also use it record an entire series simply by selecting one episode and setting it to record the series. Also it can be used to pause and rewind live TV and record specific parts of programmes. I think digital recorders are incredibly good because you can record what you want and watch it at any point and it's easy to find and much more efficient than VCR recorders. The only flaws are how much space you have, usually they provide you with a good amount of space but it depends how much you want to record.
Pay Per View is a TV service which allows viewers to buy certain events to watch via private telecast. The broadcaster shows the event at the same time to everyone ordering it instead of viewers being able to see it whenever they like like video on demand. Sky Box Office is an example of this, viewers can purchase films to watch when they're on, films that are too new to be shown on Sky Movies but are no longer in the cinema, also sporting events such as boxing matches are usually purchase only events. I think this is good because a lot of people will want to see things like big sporting events and will be prepared to pay for them, but with things like movies some people may not want to pay to watch it for a one off, but it is still quite an effective way of making money.
Film Based: CGI (computer generated imagery) is used in some films and is basically computer animation, some films are made entirely of CGI and contain a world and all characters made by CGI, films such as Shrek, Toy Story and Avatar. For example, in Toy Story, Buzz and Woody are both made from CGI and animated and everything else in that film is made from CGI. It can be used in films with humans though, an actor acts out all the movements of the character and then the CGI is added in afterwards. It all used mainly to create scenes that would otherwise be impossible to make, or just to make a film look better and can also be cheaper to make films if they're made entirely out of CGI. I think CGI is good because it makes some scenes that would be impossible, possible and I think it does enhance the viewing experience because they quality is better and in general it just looks better. I think some films have relied too much on the CGI used and not put enough effort into the actual story however, but films like Toy Story and Shrek are an example of films that have used good CGI and a good story. Overall it's more positive than it is negative.
Overall you can see that TV has changed and improved a lot over the years and there are so many different types now. I don't see much more that they could do with TV but they've got plenty so far so I think there will be more in the future.
