Clash of the Titans: Interactive TV vs Regular TV

by: Alan Spencer

Quality on screen

Interactive tv is a form of digital tv and that means nothing more than razor sharp images and lots of eye for detail. A regular tv is analogue and that results in static. The images are granular and that won’t happen with interactive tv.

Amount of channels

Digital or interactive tv means a lot more channels than you get on your regular tv. Lots of foreign channels, but also theme channels about travelling, cooking, cars… basically any subject has its own channel! Of course sports and films have their own channels too, but you’ll have to pay extra for those.

Making decisions

With a regular tv you’re forced to turn to your tv guide. This isn’t the case with interactive tv. You can choose whatever you want to watch, whenever you want to watch it. It’s no problem is you’ve missed something you’d wanted to watch, because you can tape the stuff you want to see! Another advantage is that you can fast forward those annoying, long commercial breaks. This of course, is impossible with a normal tv.

A box

A normal tv you just switch on and you can watch tv. Or flick through channels because that’s why you’ve got that remote control. It’s not as simple with digital/interactive tv. You’ll need to install a box that receives digital tv. Plug it in with the scart cable and then just kick back and relax while flicking through a whole mother load of extra channels. If you want to be able to tape things, get yourself a hard disk recorderd. When you decide to get ITV, you usually get the choice anyway: a tv-receiver or a tv-receiver with hard disk recorder. Of course it’s possible to tape stuff with a normal tv as well. Use the almost extinct videorecorder or the more modern dvd recorder.

Interactive participation

With ITV you can actually participate in programs. With regular tv you just grab a pen and write down answers during a quiz or test, with interactive tv you use the remote control to push buttons to vote and pick answers while watching.

Home cinema

Of course you can just as easily hire a dvd or watch a movies at home with your regular tv set. With interactive tv however, you’ll bring home the cinema. Or more like the video shop, because with one push of the button you’ll enter a long lists of movies you can watch. Apart from those there are also lots of tv series available. Just sit back and watch whatever you want without having to leave the house on a rainy day.

Watch missed shows

With a regular tv you have to wait for the rerun if you’ve missed a program you wanted to see. And waiting sucks, especially if they air the rerun at a ridiculous time at night or in the morning right in the middle of the week. If you’ve got interactive tv, you can watch everything you’ve missed today or yesterday with Missed Airings. The whole grid of the three main channels is available, but you can rewatch other channels too. Just adjust your subscription.