HDTV is the most exciting thing television has ever seen yet some people find themselves faced with confusing abbreviations and too many choices. Just what is HDTV anyway?
High-Definition TV is the most advanced form of digital TV. It offers stunning pictures with crisp, clear clarity that commercials proclaim "makes you feel as if you're there." It's simply the best TV has ever had to offer, with its widescreen display and surround sound, the technology is the closest thing we've had at home to a movie theater experience.
Some people erroneously believe that when the government takes back the analog channels they will automatically have HDTV. This simply isn't true. President Bush signed legislation on February 8, 2006 that mandates that television signals will only be broadcast in digital as of February 17, 2009. Keep in mind however, that HDTV, while being the best digital TV has to offer is not synonymous with digital TV. Digital TV is comprised of 3 parts: Standard Definition, Enhanced Definition and High Definition. Therefore, while all HDTV is digital TV, not all digital TV is HDTV.
In order to understand how superior HDTV is, let's first look at its predecessors.
Analog TV has been used to transmit conventional TV signals for many years. The 60-year old system is comprised of 480 horizontal lines that are scanned to form a picture that makes sense to our eyes.
In 1996 Congress authorized the FCC to add a digital frequency to the television broadcaster's spectrum. The digital technology brought improved clarity leaving behind the "ghosting" images often seen on analog transmissions. Right now TV is still broadcast using both an analog and a digital signal. Very soon, the FCC is going to take back the analog channels and all broadcasts will have to be digital. They've been planning this for years. In fact, on Feb 8, 2006 President Bush signed legislation that will cease all analog transmissions as of February 17, 2009. In turn, this will free up spectrum for public service use such as fire, police and homeland security. Consumers benefit all the way around.
When shopping for your High-Definition home theater, a front projector is a popular choice. Although they are not TVs in the most obvious sense (they don't have a built-in screen or any kind of tuner), front projectors are an increasingly popular way to get big-screen viewing without big-screen furniture into your HD home theater.
How does a High-Definition front projector create such life-size stunning images? Since the image is projected onto a detached screen, everything inside a High-Definition projector's compact case is dedicated to creating the sharpest picture possible.
Even though it doesn't have its own tuner, it will display signals from another HD source such as a tuner, cable box or satellite receiver.
We live in an information society. Sometimes we need to understand every little iota about something. Most of the time we don't. Information overkill, or just as bad, not enough information can confuse us to the point of making poor decisions.
It's hard to explain high-definition technology in laymen's terms.
"What kind of HDTV are you looking for?" the salesperson asks.
"Well, a big one," customer answers.
Now might be the time to explain the difference in display technologies, such as DLP, LCD, Plasma, CRT, LCOS and Projection. If the customer doesn't know the difference, and most don't, they do know that size matters. They may not want the bulk of the CRT, but we as consumers, deserve to know the difference. Which technology is prone to burn in? Which HDTV might produce the "rainbow effect?" Which high-definition television will we need to watch with the drapes closed and which one can be viewed perfectly in a sunny room?
The Price is Right gave away a set of "home theater" recliners today. I'd be surprised if there wasn't an HDTV sensor installed allowing the recline position only if you are watching high-definition television. HDTV has exploded and for good reason. It's spectacular! The incredible picture clarity shows us what we've been missing all these years without even knowing it. Now that we do know we'll never go back. Now that we've seen and heard the HDTV difference, we're going to want all our components to get involved in the high-definition experience so that whether we're watching television, a pre-recorded movie, or playing a video game, we haven't left HDTV behind.
Home theater, literally theater at home, runs the gamut from Home Theater in a Box (HTiB) in a modest family or living room to special furniture, carpet, popcorn machines, speakers that rock, a room-size screen and a whole host of other paraphernalia.
Reuters reports that in 2004 during Boston Red Sox baseball fever, the year they won the World Series for the first time since 1918, National Amusements, the controlling shareholder in Viacom Inc, began screening high-definition broadcasts of Red Sox games in its Showcase Cinemas in several New England cities on weekday nights.
Fast-forward two years later when HDTV is rapidly becoming the standard for our home entertainment. The movie theaters are again taking note and again wondering how to boost their sagging profits. Enter 3D. Not your mother's 3D but you do still have to wear the glasses, although they're much lighter now and purported not to cause the headaches 3D glasses did in the 50s and 60s.
There are a lot of letters and numbers associated with High-Definition TV. Almost too many to comprehend and far too many to learn all at once. If you're buying a new HDTV however, you'll want to consider the aspect ratio. If you already have an HDTV, you may have had some experience with letterboxing (black bars at the top and bottom of your TV screen) or pillar boxing or sidebars (black bars on both sides of your TV screen.)
Aspect ratio is simply the relationship between the height and width of your TV screen. We've all been used to 4:3 which is 4 units across the top by 3 units down the side. When all of the video we watched was produced in 4:3 aspect ratio we didn't have a problem with it because the show or movie completely filled our TV screens. We didn't even need to know about it.
