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HDTV Guide - Page 2 - Introduction to HDTV

What is HDTV?

HDTV is High Definition Television. It provides several benefits over Standard Definition Television (SDTV): Upgrading to HDTV is kind of like going from 56K Dialup Internet to a 5 Mbit cablemodem, or like going from a Betamax VCR to a DVD. You can experience so much more with HDTV.

Widescreen display is more natural to the human eye, because people have two eyes side-by-side and naturally are comfortable with looking at a wide image rather than a tall image. The old 4:3 format originally came from the ancient movie industry where filmers could only look at film through one eye. When television was invented, it adopted the same 4:3 format the movies were using at the time. Movies quickly adopted a new widescreen format in the 1950s and 1960s because the wider displays give a more natural viewing experience, while television remained in 4:3 mode. Having a wide image is more natural to the human eyes, and gives a much better viewing experience.

It is important to note that getting an HDTV is not the same as getting a large computer monitor. HDTV uses different video formats than the VGA/WXGA formats of a computer, but with a little work, you can use a computer with a HDTV if you want.

HDTV Incentives For Everyone

The supply of HDTV units are continuing to increase as more hit the market, and should be very high when Christmas 2005 approaches. Also, the new Sony Playstation 3 and new Xbox 360 units will be released around Christmas 2005, and they will have games that have true HDTV resolutions. And, more manufacturers continue to come out with new HDTV units. Increased supply and increased demand should produce lower prices. Lower prices produce hot deals.

Also the US Government is pushing manufacturers to lower prices on digital TVs and tuners. The Government is requiring all TV broadcast stations install new HDTV broadcast towers, and to switch off the old broadcast towers by 2009. HDTV OTA (Over The Air) is free with an HDTV Tuner and HDTV Antenna in most areas of the US. So there will be penalties for broadcasters who do not switch their formats to HDTV widescreen.

A major incentive for consumers to get HDTVs is sports. If you love to watch sports at home, getting an HDTV will greatly enhance the video and audio experience. All NFL games are available in HD, and most baseball, basketball, and ice hockey stadiums have HDTV cameras. Some golf, tennis, horse racing, and Nascar broadcasts are in HD.

People who love movies will love to watch them in HD. HDTV is better quality than DVD, so watching movies on TV will look better than purchasing standard DVDs from stores.

TV show makers now have a huge incentive to film their shows in widescreen HDTV. If a TV show wants to capture the many present & future viewers who have HDTVs, they will need to use HDTV cameras. People who have HDTV televisions prefer to watch high definition programming over standard old programming. Someone will be more likely to watch a prime-time sitcom in HD than one not in HD, so if a TV show wants to remain competitive, it will want to quickly switch to using HDTV cameras. Also there's future syndication for TV shows to think about. Eight years from now when most homes have HDTVs, they will prefer to watch a re-run of Joey in widescreen HD rather than watching Sex In The City re-run in standard definition. Some re-run programming can be seen on some HD channels today, such as the original Charlie's Angels and Hogan's Heros which were originally filmed with high quality film that can be displayed in HD with stunning clarity. It's kind of funny if you think about watching a TV show from 1967 on a widescreen HDTV, but because they were filmed in widescreen, they look far better than watching a show from the 1990s that was filmed in standard definition 4:3 TV. TV shows that don't switch to widescreen HDTV cameras will greatly reduce the liklihood of their re-runs being viewed in the future.

The new Playstation and Xbox units that will be released around Christmas 2005 will have HDTV Output capabilities for stunning graphics capabilities. Kids who want the best gaming experience will want an HDTV with their new game console units.

Have You Really Seen HDTV Yet?

Just because you have seen a Plasma TV at a store, at a bar, a restaurant, or at a friend's house, does not automatically mean that you have seen HDTV. Some people just buy a HDTV screen and connect it to regular cable TV just to consume less space or look cool when mounted on a wall, not because they care about quality. An HDTV screen or flatpanel screen looks better than a normal TV, but you may not be viewing an actual HDTV broadcast.

The easiest way to find out if you are watching an HDTV broadcast is to watch something that you know should be widescreen such as a sporting event, and if the aspect ratio changes during the commercials (you see black bars on the left & right of sides of the screen during the commercials), then it is an HDTV broadcast. If the commercials have the same aspect ratio as the sporting event, then it is most likely a non-HDTV 4:3 broadcast that is stretched to 16:9, and is not HDTV. Most commercials are not in widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio, so an HDTV broadcast usually switches to 4:3 with empty unused space (black bars) on the sides during the commercials.

Of the hundreds of HDTV screens in the 50 bars and restaurants in the entire region where I live, I have only seen 2 places that actually show HDTV signals on their HDTV screens. One sports bar near me advertises they have 3 HD projectors and a dozen HD screens, while I'm sure their equipment is HDTV capable, they are not showing a true HDTV broadcast because the commercials are always in the same aspect ratio as the sporting events.

I was at a restaurant/bar the other day having lunch, and they had a NFL game on 3 old TVs and 1 Plasma flatpanel. The video on the Plasma was about 3 seconds delayed than the old TVs. I asked the staff why the Plasma was delayed, and they said because HDTV is delayed and the regular TVs are not, and there's nothing they can do to fix it. After I realized the commercials during the NFL game on the Plasma were in the same aspect ratio as the NFL game itself (no black bars on the sides), I quickly figured out their so-called "HDTV" was supplied by a cable box which was actually just a PVR box (which delays live TV by a few seconds because it records live TV), and they were tuned to the non-HD channel for the game. The staff probably assumed the channel numbers were the same on the old TVs and on the Plasma TV, and didn't realize the HDTV broadcasts were actually on separate channels (CBS vs. CBS-HD). And they also probably didn't realize they were given a PVR box, which delays TV by a few seconds.

I know a lot of people who say they have seen HDTV and were not impressed with the quality, probably because they were used to seeing stretched non-HD NTSC signals on Plasmas and incorrectly believed they were watching an HDTV broadcast.

Unless you go to a store that specializes in HDTVs, such as Tweeter and Cambridge Soundworks, you may not be viewing an HDTV signal into their HDTV TVs. Some common electronics stores, such as BestBuy and Circuit City may have their high-end HDTVs on display with a high quality HDTV signal, but their less expensive TVs may not have a good signal, but it depends on the store. The signal you get at home will be better than what you see in a store.

Also note that most Plasmas under $2,000 on the market today are actually EDTV's (low quality HDTV's), regardless of them being "HDTV compatible" or 720p/1080i input capable. EDTV is capable of viewing an HDTV signal, but the quality is only slightly better than old TV and is not really HDTV. One friend of mine recently purchased a Plasma EDTV flatpanel and loves to watch ESPN-HD, but I tell him although he has an HDTV signal going into his TV, his 42" screen with 852x480 video quality is much worse than my 32" LCD with 1366x768 support.

Check For Available HDTV Services

As a first step before buying an HDTV screen, do quick research for a HDTV service provider. Check with your current cable TV or satellite provider to see how many HDTV channels they have and how much the service will cost. Some providers will only charge $5/mo more for HDTV. Ask your provider how long it will take to install HDTV service after you get a new TV.

Free HDTV service is available in most areas in the country, but you may need to purchase an HDTV antenna. You can get the best HDTV reception if you are within 50 miles of a major city. You can see what kind of HDTV broadcasts are available in your area and what kind of antenna you will need, courtesy of AntennaWeb.org. Cnet also has some tips for installing HDTV antenna on the roof. Some people can get a dozen high quality HDTV channels for free with an HDTV antenna.

For hot deals on HDTV Antennas, look at the Hot Deals Club for deals.

How Does HDTV Compare to DVD?

HDTV has a much higher resolution than standard DVDs. I think DVDs can go up to 5 megabits of data per second, whereas HDTV can be 5 to 20 megabits per second, more bits mean more details on the screen. That, plus most DVDs only have up to 480 lines of resolution (480i/480p). Some DVD players support "progressive-scan", which means it can output to 480p instead of just 480i, which is a little better than 480i. More expensive DVD players can "up-convert" a DVD to 720p or 1080i, which uses processing (guesswork) to fill in extra pixels. Up-convert DVD players can give you a HDTV-like image which will look better than standard DVD, but will not be as clear as a true HDTV image can be. If play a DVD on your HDTV through a DVD player, then if you watch a movie on HBO-HD, you will see the HDTV signal has a sharper image.

There are some new high-definition DVD formats coming out soon, Blu-ray & HD-DVD, both of which are competing formats, and it will be a while before the players and discs are affordable. The Playstation3 is expected to include a Blu-ray drive. The Xbox360 will have a standard DVD drive, and later will be sold with a HD-DVD drive once they become more affordable.

Recording TV Shows in HD.

If you currently have a Tivo, ReplayTV, Home Theater PC, VCR, DVD Recorder, or anything that can record/pause TV, you may be able to continue to use those devices to record standard definition TV, but not HDTV. At this time, the only ways to record TV shows in HDTV digital quality are the following: When you record an HDTV broadcast, it simply dumps the original Mpeg2 stream in raw format to a hard drive. So unlike recording analog TV which requires realtime Mpeg encoding, digital HDTV just saves the original stream to a disk. That means the quality of the recorded video & audio is exactly the same as the broadcast, without any loss in quality. This is unlike a Tivo or ReplayTV which must encode standard analog TV, and suffer from a loss in quality during real-time encoding.

If you have a HDTV PCI Card for a PC, you will only be able to record HDTV channels. If you have a HDTV-PVR box provided by your cable or satellite provider, you can record HDTV channels and non-HDTV channels.

If you see a "HDTV PCI Card" sold on the market, it probably lets you do one of these: In the old days, you could tune your cable box to HBO, send the output to a VCR, and record a movie that way. With the consumer technology available in 2005, there is no way to record HDTV signals that output from a HDTV cable box, because there's no technology power enough for real-time encoding of HDTV through DVI or Component Video. With a HDTV PCI Card for your computer, you can find a way to record HDTV quality video with its original Dolby audio, but only with the free channels (CBS, ABC, Fox, NBC, PBS, ESPN), and only if you have an HDTV antenna or if you have a cable company.

Some HDTV-PVR boxes have USB and Firewire ports on them, but I have not tried them yet. I heard those ports could be used to download some recorded shows off of the PVR box, but have not yet confirmed this.

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