There is good news for CableVision subscribers who may be miffed over the loss of the Travel and Animal Planet channels.

A senior CableVision official yesterday said both channels will return to the line-up in a few days after being bumped off in favour of the Hallmark and QVC channels.

“The source that supplies Animal Planet and the Travel Channel has changed its feed from analogue to digital,” operations manager Alan Smith said yesterday. “CableVision has invested in the receiver that it needs to broadcast these channels from a digital feed. The channels will be available to customers within the next few days.”

Animal Planet and the Travel Channel are part of Discovery Communications, which has started broadcasting its line-up via high definition television or HDTV.

In the meantime, subscribers with a shopping bug still have a few days to purchase items on QVC - but they'll need a US address to ship it to since the company does not deliver internationally.

High definition television or HDTV has up to 1,080 pixels (degrees of measurement of resolution) compared to regular analogue television which only carries about 540 to 750 pixels. The result is clearer and more life-like pictures.

HDTV is a form of digital television that treats TV broadcast the way a computer handles images and sound. Because digital TV uses a language similar to computers it can potentially feature Internet access, video games and multiple programmes on one channel.

Digital signals can be sent with satellites, by cable or as over-the-air broadcast.