Wednesday, February 10, 2010

HDTV And How It Will Change Television For You

By William Stepp

There are people today who are afraid to admit it when they do not understand the technical jargon used in the home entertainment industry. No one wants to admit that they do not understand a product description on a price tag. High definition television, or HDTV, has been baffling to many people. Here is the simplest explanation you will find.

So what is all the hoopla about anyway? There are many people that this the picture does not even look that good. True, it has been slow to gain momentum in the market. HDTV was originally hailed as being television heaven, and many of those people were sports fans. The debate has been going on since the first ones made their way into the retail showrooms in 1998.

What really sets it apart is that the standards used are the highest quality digital display available. The resolution is at the highest possible on the market today. It is still a digital television, and does not differ in the format of the signal received. Anything that is meant for a digital TV can be viewed on them. The reverse does not hold true.

The highest quality in analog is the lowest quality available for digital television. This means that even if you do not notice an improvement in picture quality, it is at the very least as good as what you have been used to. Any improvement at all though and you will want to watch your old favorites again so that you can see everything you missed before.

Why the overhaul and big switch from analog? It is not the first major change of its kind. Broad changes were made when color broadcasts were introduced. Changes were made again to make stereo sound a standard across the board. The big difference is that with the other changes, you could still watch shows with stereo, on a television that did not support stereo sound. You could watch shows on a black and white television, even if the broadcast was in color. You are not able to use anything analog anymore because it is not able to receive the digital signals.

The simplest and most obvious part of the explanation is still to come. Those black bars on home movies that are so incredibly annoying? You will no longer need them. The screens on high definition televisions are wider and display a significantly larger portion of the picture than other televisions. So, that is one more annoyance you no longer have to deal with anymore.

Lessons in price tag literacy. DTV means digital television. SDTV means standard digital television. It sounds a little better that way and turns out to be a nice marketing tool. There is no real difference between these.

HDTV means high definition televisions, and it meets all of the things we have described for you so far. It displays the highest resolution possible. It has a wider screen. It has digital surround sound. You will not see the black bars during your movies. It tends to be higher priced. Sports fans really love it.

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