HDTV IS THE BIGGEST THING to hit television since color TV. It’s nothing
less than a technological revolution that delivers a more exciting and lifelike image, bringing the immersive experience of a movie theater right into
your home.
HDTV also can be confusing. Almost everyone has heard of it, but not
everyone is quite sure what it is and what they need in order to get it. To complicate matters, a number of separate but related factors can make choosing
the right HDTV setup for your home more confusing.
This guide will help to lead you through all the issues so that you can
make a confident choice about a new television and the other components
and services that you’ll need to get the full HDTV experience.
HDTV basics
HDTV stands for “high-definition television.” Definition in this case simply
refers to how much detail is in the image. You’ll hear terms such as “pixels”
and “resolution” in discussions of HDTV (and those terms will be explained
later on), but here’s the basic idea: A high-definition television uses more dots
to create the image than a regular television does. In fact, an HDTV image
uses about three to six times as many dots as a standard television image.
What does that mean in terms of your experience? Think about a snapshot of someone that you might take using an instant camera. You’d get a
nice picture that would be a recognizable image of that person. But now
imagine taking that same photo with a high-quality 35 mm film camera and
having a professional print made the same size as the snapshot. The 35 mm
print will be much sharper and with more detail, so it will look more realistic. In the same way, a high-definition television image looks much more
realistic than a standard television image because of the extra detail.
SPONSORED BY
Philips is committed to improving the well-being of people. That’s why we design
innovative products that bring meaningful
changes to your mind, body and the physical
space you live in. If you are interested in
more than mere technology, consider any of
the acclaimed lifestyle products created by
Philips. People are looking for an enriched
experience. Our task is to design something
that gives them just that.
IT’S IN THE PIXELS
ANALOG TV
HDTV
Analog TVs have about 350,000
total pixels.
HDTVs have more than 1 million
total pixels (more than 2 million for
1080p models).
