Spring 1998 Table of Contents

Digital TV has exploded across the land with DBS. Offering increased channel selection, digital video and audio signal quality, unobtrusive size and an affordable price, direct-to-home satellite is a practical digital TV solution. Here's a rundown on the tecgnology, the players, the hardware and the programming, including a handy at-a-glance Buyer's Guide grid.

Combining PC power and the Internet to the living room viewing mix is a new idea that takes some getting used to. Here's some suggestions how to try it, and if you like it, some ideas about how to build your own PC/TV.

With the rapid expansion in the number of TV channels, intelligent surfing is more difficult than ever. With the imminent addition of the Internet to the mix, it is nearly impossible to easily navigate everything on TV. Use technology to tame the tube with your own digital compass.

If TV becomes the cornerstone of digital conversion, then the most powerful medium of all time stands to have an even greater effect on our children. Dr. Roger Desmond, Ph.D., a noted scholar on the subject of TV and children, offers a survey of the existing body of research and some helpful hints for helping kids learn media literacy.

Great Internet TV requires the biggest, fastest Internet connection you can get. A host of technologies are vying to become your friendly neighborhood fat pipe. Which is likely to win out in the end?