This article examines the digital television (DTV) transition with particular focus on technical protocols, political and legal decisions, and home hardware. Considering the great potential for redefining television in the digital medium, we highlight ways in which television was “rebooted” rather than reinvented. Without the technical constraints that shaped analog television, many carryovers to DTV can be ascribed to social rather than conventionally technical influences and stakeholders. Three themes emerge from our analysis: (1) a technocratic discourse that favored resolution over reception as central to broadcasting as public service, (2) an inadequate public information campaign and failure to explore the range of opportunities presented by the digital format, and (3) a rearticulation of the home theater assemblage to cope with DTV through replacement-driven obsolescence. We argue that approaching DTV as a “reboot” serves as a model for investigating digital transitions more broadly in a new model of public service.
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