What is HD television | Guide to HD TV
Guide to High definition television, information about HD television signals, picture quality and help about choosing HD ready televisions!
Quite Simply, High-definition television or HDTV i a means of broadcasting television signals in a higher resolution than traditional formats such as PAL. High Definition TV is always broadcast digitally, and to fully appreciate the service, you will need a so called High Definition Television and a digital decoder such as a set top box, or connection to either Satellite or Cable Television.
Typically, HDTV has at least twice the resolution of standard tv. This allows much higher detail to be shown in comparisson with the regular analog television. As an added bonus, HDTV can handle 16:9 or widescreen pictures without "letterboxing". This makes the format an excellent way to watch movies in order to enjoy them in the intended manner.
One of the great things about HD television is that it is designed as a central part of a digital home entertainment system, and there are many forthcoming and available devices including Blu-Ray DVD players, the xBox 360 and other next generation consoles, and many PCs. HDTV digitally broadcast television is encoded with Dolby 5.1 digital audio, so it makes sense to get a full surround sound system in order to fully enjoy your new HD ready TV set.
Please note, Terms like "HD ready" are used for marketing purposes by manufacturers of televisions. They show that a TV or display can display video over an HDMI connection, a device that is used to communicate the HD signal and is used as a sort of copyright protection. It is important when buying a High Definition TV to check what the screen resolution is, as no all "HD-ready sets" have enough pixels to display video to the 1080 line or 720 line HD standards in full resolution without using interpolation. Some HD-compatible sets are just standard-definition sets with an HDMI input. This is a confusing use of the terms HD and HDTV.
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