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"When the digital television transition started, we thought it would be driven by broadcasters," said Gary Shapiro, president of the Consumer Electronics Association. "What were we thinking? Cable and satellite is where the action is."

According to the F.C.C., more than 80 percent of American households subscribe to cable or satellite service. Under a voluntary agreement originated by the agency, 10 of the top cable television companies have pledged to offer at least five channels of HDTV or other digital programming in their markets with the greatest channel capacity by the beginning of next year.

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But to accommodate those people who are not cable or satellite subscribers, the agency ruled last month that by July 2007 all new television sets 13 inches and larger must come equipped with a tuner for digital over-the-air broadcasts. (Sets that are 36 inches or larger must have them by July 2004.) Depending on who is doing the estimating, the addition of a digital tuner will add $16 to $250 to the price of a set.

The Programming

Consumers with digital sets have a significant amount of HDTV programming to choose from. ABC and CBS now offer most of their prime-time entertainment programming in HDTV. (Of course, it is only available in areas where the local affiliate broadcasts digitally. And stations that have gone digital still broadcast analog signals as well, meaning that the letter box format and other features of many HDTV broadcasts do not show up on older, analog television sets.)

This month CBS broadcast the United States Open tennis tournament in high definition. NBC says its HDTV offerings will expand this fall, possibly including "Ed" and "Crossing Jordan." The WB Network will offer five weekly hours of HDTV programming, including "Smallville" and "Family Affair."

So far Fox has shunned HDTV, instead using the wide-screen Enhanced Definition digital format, which the company says is perceived to be as sharp as HDTV by most viewers. The network offers two-thirds of its nonsports programming with this system. Beginning this month, Fox will also offer wide-screen Enhanced Definition presentations of football and Nascar racing each weekend to its digital viewers.

Despite the increase in programming, there is no guarantee that broadcast networks will be able to get their HDTV offerings in front of cable subscribers' eyes, as cable companies could decide to provide HDTV programming furnished mainly by their industry. Both HBO and Showtime offer HDTV programming on separate channels available to DirecTV and Dish Network users. In May the Discovery Channel began Discovery HD Theater, a high-definition channel available only to Dish Network customers and one cable system.

The HDTV network HDNet, which was started by Mark Cuban, the Internet entrepreneur and owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team, provides a mix of sports, general entertainment and news programs. It is available only to DirecTV subscribers. Mr. Cuban plans to add three more HDTV channels to the network in coming months.

This year HDNet showed the Winter Olympics, but Mr. Cuban agreed to delay the broadcasts 24 hours. "NBC needed to protect their affiliates, who were worried that HDTV's great picture quality would draw viewers away," he said. "That really says it all."

The Equipment

For many consumers, the question has not been whether they want HDTV but whether they can afford it. Prices are dropping from the stratosphere. A 34-inch wide-screen Sony HDTV cost $9,000 when introduced in 1998. Sony has a new 34-inch model that will have a street price approaching $2,500, although this model is only "digital ready" and does not include the digital decoder, which costs from $550 to $1,000.

RCA's 61-inch wide-screen full-digital projection television cost $8,000 in 1999. A successor to be introduced this fall has a list price of $3,799. Warehouse discount stores regularly sell digital-ready picture-tube sets with the standard television aspect ratio of 4:3 for $1,000, and small 16:9, or wide-screen, projection versions for $1,500.

With the high price of digital set-top boxes and the shortage of HDTV programming, it is the popularity of DVD's that has fueled the growth of digital-ready wide-screen sets. "DVD's have definitely driven the market," said Bob Nocera, vice president for digital television marketing at Philips Consumer Electronics. "In 18 to 24 months, we'll stop selling analog projection TV's."

Other manufacturers have also widened their digital and wide-screen television offerings. This year, 20 of the 35 Sony models offered in the United States will be HDTV-capable or include an HDTV decoder, said Rick Clancy, a Sony spokesman. RCA markets nine digital televisions under its Scenium rubric, all of them wide-screen models.

Digital television sets may also affect the ability of consumers to record programs. The opportunity to copy digital signals with no loss of quality worries Hollywood studios, who argue that piracy will increase if such copying is allowed. While antipiracy technology standards have not been set, many of the newest digital televisions come with two types of plugs that can be used to restrict or prevent recording.

Using connectors called DVI and IEEE 1394 (or FireWire), consumers could, at the discretion of the program's licenser, be prevented from making any copies of a digital television program, or permitted to make only a limited number — or keep them just for a specified time.

Antipiracy technology is still an issue that concerns mostly program providers rather than consumers. And while no one knows what mix of standard and high-definition programming will eventually be offered via digital television, it will be the superior picture quality of HDTV that will drive the digital transition in the short run.

"HDTV doesn't sink in until you see it," said Dave Arland, director of government relations for Thomson Consumer Electronics. "It's like TV in the 1940's and color TV in the 60's; once the rich guy down the block gets it, so will you."