HDTV — The New technology

Intro­duc­tion

HDTV tech­nol­ogy was first intro­duced in the US dur­ing the 1990s by a group of elec­tron­ics com­pa­nies called the Dig­i­tal HDTV Grand Alliance. HDTV is capa­ble of “theater-quality” audio because it uses the Dolby Dig­i­tal (AC-3) for­mat to sup­port “5. HDTV offers a degree of clar­ity that is much closer to this. HDTV can be recorded to D-VHS (Data-VHS), W-VHS (ana­log only), to a HDTV-capable dig­i­tal video recorder (for exam­ple DirecTV’s high-definition Dig­i­tal video recorder, Sky HD’s set-top box, or TiVo’s Series 3 or HD recorders), or an HDTV-ready HTPC. HDTV is just one part of the DTV tran­si­tion. HDTV is best viewed on a new high-definition tele­vi­sion. HDTV requires an HDTV tuner to view and the most detailed HDTV for­mat is 1080i.

Definition

The term “high-definition” can refer to the res­o­lu­tion spec­i­fi­ca­tions them­selves, or more loosely to media capa­ble of sim­i­lar sharp­ness, such as pho­to­graphic film and dig­i­tal video. High-definition tele­vi­sion (HDTV) poten­tially offers a much bet­ter pic­ture qual­ity than stan­dard tele­vi­sion. NTSC sys­tem, estab­lished in 1941, were high def­i­n­i­tion only in com­par­i­son with pre­vi­ous mechan­i­cal and elec­tronic tele­vi­sion sys­tems, and NTSC, along with the later Euro­pean 625-line PAL and SECAMs, is described as stan­dard def­i­n­i­tion today.

Television

While some early ana­log HDTV for­mats were broad­cast in Europe and Japan, HDTV is usu­ally broad­cast dig­i­tally, because dig­i­tal tele­vi­sion (DTV) broad­cast­ing requires much less band­width if it uses enough video com­pres­sion. To get a bet­ter pic­ture HDTV tele­vi­sions require a High Def­i­n­i­tion (HD) sig­nal. As of 2007, broad­cast­ers may demand, or cable-television oper­a­tors may elect, to place HD sig­nals in a pre­mium band that requires higher cable fees. HDTV has at least twice the lin­ear res­o­lu­tion of standard-definition tele­vi­sion (SDTV), thus allow­ing much more detail to be shown com­pared with ana­log tele­vi­sion or reg­u­lar DVD.

Resolution

It should be noted that while HDTV is more like a the­ater in qual­ity than con­ven­tional tele­vi­sion, 35 mm and 70 mm film pro­jec­tors used in the­aters still have the high­est res­o­lu­tion and best view­ing qual­ity on very large screens. Dig­i­tal NTSC– and PAL/SECAM-like sig­nals (480i60 and 576i50 respec­tively) are trans­mit­ted at a hor­i­zon­tal res­o­lu­tion of 720 or 704 “pix­els”. In Aus­tralia, the 576p50 for­mat is also con­sid­ered a HDTV for­mat, as it has dou­bled tem­po­ral res­o­lu­tion though the use of pro­gres­sive scan­ning. For exam­ple, you can get a 72″ pro­jec­tion HDTV that has 1920×1080 res­o­lu­tion from $2500 to $5000 depend­ing on the brand and model.

Satellite

Satel­lite ser­vices and a Cable TV providers are pro­vid­ing an increas­ing num­ber of HDTV feeds. Satellite-based TV com­pa­nies, such as Opti­mum, DirecTV, Sky Dig­i­tal (In the UK and Ire­land) and Dish­Net­work, offer HDTV to cus­tomers as an upgrade. To receive an HDTV broad­cast you need either a TV with a built-in HDTV tuner, like this Pana­sonic plasma HDTV, an HDTV receiver which can pick-up off the air HDTV chan­nels, cable HDTV, or satel­lite HDTV receiver like Dish Net­work HDTV and this DirecTV H10 receiver.

Technology

While high def­i­n­i­tion has become a real­ity for many con­sumers, the tech­ni­cal jar­gon asso­ci­ated with this exit­ing new tech­nol­ogy is caus­ing much con­fu­sion. Through the evo­lu­tion of dis­play tech­nol­ogy, a new tele­vi­sion has emerged; so totally dif­fer­ent, a new TV ‘paragon’ has been cre­ated. it doesn’t require a degree in TV Technology.

In addi­tion, lack of enthu­si­as­tic co-operation between broad­cast­ers, cable/satellite providers, and man­u­fac­tur­ers has injected fur­ther con­fu­sion for retail­ers on how to sell HDTV and con­sumers as what prod­ucts to buy, how to use them, and to what pro­grams are actu­ally avail­able in HDTV. On the other hand, a very high res­o­lu­tion source may require more band­width than is avail­able in order to be trans­mit­ted with­out loss of fidelity.

To watch high def­i­n­i­tion tele­vi­sion or HDTV you will need three things: A Satel­lite or Cable pro­gram sub­scrip­tion to HD Pro­gram­ming; An HDTV Satel­lite Receiver or Dig­i­tal Set Top Box; A high def­i­n­i­tion tele­vi­sion set (HDTV). But beyond all argu­ment, HDTV offers the ulti­mate in TV Pic­ture Qual­ity. We believe you’re inter­ested in what you need to know, to buy and enjoy a Digital-HDTV – NOT, how to build one.