1080p HDTV

What exactly is HDTV, and what does it mean for me?

HDTV. You know you want one. We all do. We’ve heard that HTDV offers greater clarity than we’re used to seeing, smoother motion, richer colors, surround sound, and the potential for improved performance from the various pieces of equipment that we want to work together. But before you buy, it’s helpful to understand the technology and its related issues.

First, just buying an HDTV and plugging it into a standard cable box doesn’t give you high-definition television. To watch high-definition TV, you need three components: an HDTV source, an HDTV channel, and the HDTV show itself. Your source, the HDTV set, can display both regular and

HDTV images, but standard analog television displayed on an HDTV set can be disappointing. True, it probably displays a little better than on a standard set, but it is still a far cry from what we expect from HDTV. Also, large screen sets in particular exaggerate the flaws in the standard programming, making them glaringly obvious.

Read the rest of this entry »

Everyone knows that media format wars have historical significance in the world of technology. Remember the most notorious battle between the Beta max and the VHS? The winner of such battles will make millions even billions. Later we had the upgrade of tape to CD, a revolution in music. In 1980 the Philips/Sony compact disc standard was finalized and nobody has looked back for the last 26 years (until mp3’s came along).

Well as ever there is a new media battle but who will win again is yet unknown. This modern forest of technological mass has produced a new insurgency: THE HIGH DEFINITION WAR. Blu-ray vs HD-DVD are two competing formats which are eventually going

to replace DVD’s. As you look around at your local electric retailers you can see changes happening in the broadcast world, not only are we changing from our conventional CRT screens to Flat screen but also to HD ready TV. The impact this has on our lives is not as large as black and white to colour, but nevertheless a change that will definitely be a benchmark for future media.

Read the rest of this entry »

When reviewing HDTV ratings one should really look for important features that will help them choose the proper high definition television depending on what type of media they plan on using with the system. There are many features and technical specifications that are used inside any HDTV ratings system. Some of the most important are:

Native Resolution - this is basically the number of horizontal pixels x vertical pixels that the HDTV can display. The higher the native resolution the better. A 1080p display will have a native resolution of 1920×1080 and any native resolution lower than that is not 1080p. Any native resolution lower than 1280×720 (720p) is not true high definition and one

should really be choosing a system with 1080p resolution as the prices now have come down. People might say there is not that much 1080p media to play on your 1080p tv, even if that were true, there will be much much more 1080p media to watch in the near future…. most of which is already here on HD DVD and Blu Ray disks.

Read the rest of this entry »