ATSC DTV SystemChapter 13.1 The ATSC DTV System Jerry C. Whitaker, Editor-in-Chief 13.1.1 Introduction1 The Digital Television (DTV) Standard has ushered in a new era in television broadcasting [1]. The impact of DTV is more significant than simply moving from an analog system to a digital system. Rather, DTV permits a level of flexibility wholly unattainable with analog broadcasting. An important element of this flexibility is the ability to expand system functions by building upon the technical foundations specified in ATSC standards such as the ATSC Digital Television Standard (A/53) and the Digital Audio Compression (AC-3) Standard (A/52). With NTSC, and its PAL and SECAM counterparts, the video, audio, and some limited data information are conveyed by modulating an RF carrier in such a way that a r……