To be able to buy the right HDTV, there are concepts, terms and some technical information that you just have to know to be able to make the right purchase decision and not be confused by diverse choices and untrained stuff at the retail electronic shop.
SD or standard Definition means that either there will be interlaced scanning or progressive scanning of horizontal lines of the vertical resolution. A line can have up to 704 pixels horizontal resolution as well. SD is both compatible with 4x3 Regular TV and 16x9 widescreen TV aspect ratios.
HD or High Definition on the other hand has 720p or 1080p/i scanning system. A line in a HD system can have up to 1920 pixels of horizontal resolution and it is compatible only with 16x9 widescreen aspect ratio.
Roughly six million people opted for HDTV in the first five years from 1998 to 2003 and they did it for DVDs with 480p in widescreen. HDTV was certainly not the main reason for their choice. While a DVD would only give you the picture quality with 480i scanning on an analog TV, the same DVD will give much better picture with 480p or even 1080p if it is supported by the TV and the DVD player, when it is played on DTV. HDTV will be able to depict the original vertical resolution of the DVD in an anamorphic format.
So much has been introduced since the 1990s, DTV, EDTV, HDTV and the inter compatible hardware that it has become more and more confusing for the customers to take a decision. After being in the production house for fifteen years, DTV made it out in 1998. Two years later, Consumer Electronic Association thought that introducing Enhanced Definition TV would help the confused citizens, but it did not! What it did was increase the sales of mediocre standard TV sets.
Due to some complicated issues with the distribution of the 6MHz space reserved for HD channel broadcasts, you may often actually receive SD TV picture quality instead of HDTV, filled with artifacts. DTV broadcasters therefore require more support from the consumers in order to provide everybody with better and true HD quality pictures.
All you actually need to avail DTV signal is a Set Top Box to change the analog signal into digital; therefore you do not need to replace your old TV at all. But to see better pictures, you must have an HDTV compatible TV set. A fund of $1.5 billion had been approved for helping the people to buy a STB by reducing its cost under the program, once DTV becomes the order of the day.
After reading this article, you will be able to at least know the facts behind each of the available technology available in the market and therefore avoid being misled into buying a dis satisfactory product. Understanding is the key to buying the right product when it comes to technology and by now you should understand just enough to make the right television choice.
Author Resource:
Jack Ngar is an author writing about television related topics, and you are invited to visit his website at http://www.yousearch4.com/ covering number of aspects about HDTV LCD and Plasma Screens.