- What is
HDTV?
A: HDTV is a new format for broadcasting TV programming.
HDTV is an acronym for High
Definition Television.
It is the high-end of digital cable, and
provides the highest quality TV viewing experience available. It
can be received via satellite or, where available, by converting
a special HDTV signal transmitted over a digital cable
connection. Digitally
encoding a television picture is known as DTV, or Digital
Television. A signal that is DTV is not necessarily HDTV - think
of small dish systems and the digital channels on the 4DTV
system. However, all HDTV signals are DTV - or digital.
Bottom-line is HDTV provides 5 times better resolution than
regular TV Analog signal.
-
Requirements to receive HDTV
video?
* HD - High Definition
** <QAM Tuner Definition>
A: As illustrated by the above diagram,
i) Buy a HDTV that have
ATSC or DTV Tuner built-in in order to view the highly
detailed video images of HD. ATSC / DTV is the tuner for receiving HD
signal. NTSC Tuner is for regular TV. Usually a HDTV Ready does not have an
Integrated DTV Tuner inside the TV. One need to buy the DTV
tuner in order to receive HD channel. Or rent a HD Ready Cable box
from the Cable company.
ii) HD Signal source : Next the TV Input Signal must be in HD format. To get
HD format, either use a HDTV Antenna, subscribe to a HD Cable
from the Cable company. Cable company usually lease or provides
a HD Digital Cable Box.
Using an Air HDTV Antenna, you can also able to receive some TV
channels, currently being broadcast in HD format.
iii)
I/O Cable : Currently non HD TV uses
RCA or S-Video cable to receive TV signal. For HDTV, it uses
HDMI, Component or DVI cable to transfer the highest best
quality, uncompressed Video & Audio data to the HDTV.
iv) Right Channel : The HD Channel and Standard
usually are on different channel. So, refer to your Cable TV
programming guide.
v) Other Sources : Besides Cable HD Channel, you
can also able to use Satellite Dish, Up-Convert DVD Player, HD
DVD player, Blu Ray DVD Player, Windows Media HD Movie to view
High Definition movies/video. XBox 360 is also able to deliver
HD to your HDTV too!
-
What is the differences between old
Regular TV and HDTV?
i) Display quality : Standard NTSC TV
display about 480 lines of resolution from top to bottom. HDTV
display 1080 lines of resolution. It's twice the number of lines
vertically and horizontally compared to the NTSC TV. So, the
HDTV displays a very fine detailed images.
ii) Audio Quality : Audio
Quality: The improvement in audio quality over traditional
analog TV is greater than that of a CD versus a cassette tape.
HDTV programming is capable of Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
content, which mimics the three-dimensional sound heard in movie
theaters.
iii) Aspect Ratio : defines the size
of the display (Display width divided by the Display height). Traditional Analog TV
display in 4:3 aspect Ratio. HDTV display in 16:9 Ratio in
Widescreen format. This 16:9 Wide Screen is a more natural
setting for our eyes and similar to those ratio used in Theatre
released movie. Bottom-line is you get to see more on the
HDTV screen. See below for Aspect Ratio comparison :
-
What does HDTV-Ready mean?
HDTV-Ready Television does not have the ATSC / DTV tuner to
receive HD signals. Std TV uses NTSC tuner. So, if you buy a
HDTV-Ready TV to
receive HD Channels over the AIR, you will not be able to
because it does not have the Tuner to do the conversion job. You need to either
buy the ATSC / DTV Tuner or rent a HD Cable Ready box from Cable
company. To avoid hassle, buy a HDTV NOT HDTV-Ready.
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