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The HDTV Difference

When high-definition television sets first went on sale in the late nineteen-nineties, sports and television fanatics alike lined up to take a look at this new technology. Of course, few browsers could actually afford to take the new sets home with them. As with any new technology, HDTV was extremely expensive at the start. But after years of improvements and increased competition, the average family can now purchase a new high-definition set without emptying out their bank accounts.

What is HDTV? Believe it or not, HDTV has been around for nearly twenty years now. Some of the earliest broadcasts were made in Europe in the early 1990’s, but it was not until 2004 that the first official HD television channel went on the air.

The primary difference between an HDTV and a standard analogue television set is the way they receive signals. An analogue set receives radio waves, while a digital set receives a binary code (a series of ones and zeros) for video and sound. This relatively new technology provides greatly improved picture quality and resolution.

However, many shoppers are understandably upset and even angered when they plug their new HDTV in only to find that its picture is pretty much indistinguishable from the picture on their old analogue set.

There are two reasons for this. The first is that many television stations have not yet begun to broadcast digital signals, which means that you are still receiving radio waves with their comparably poor resolution.

The second is that not all digital sets provide users with superior resolution. For instance, the lowest quality digital sets have about the same number of pixels as an ordinary set, only about 480 lines of pixels. Whereas the highest quality sets deliver a stunning 1920 x 1080 lines. Bottom line: if you want a crystal clear picture, you’re going to have to pay for it.