What is High Definition Television?

High Definition Television (HDTV) gives you the ultimate in picture quality, bringing a clarity never seen before. Be prepared to live every moment of your favourite films, to see every blade of grass on the pitch and to have your eyes opened to the amazing experience that is High Definition. We’ve all heard the hype but exactly what is HDTV and what difference does it make?

A television picture is made up lines of pixels; each of these pixels represents a spot of colour on the screen. The more pixels there are in a screen the better the quality of the picture, this is called resolution. Normal CRT televisions have an ability to hold up to 625 lines on the screen. HDTV’s allow for the use of 720 or 1080 lines creating a much better resolution and better picture quality.

Standard CRT TV		HDTV

You may find when purchasing your HDTV that the number of pixels is followed by a "p" or an "i", i.e. 1080i. These represent the way in which the TV displays images from the tuner onto the screen. The "i" stands for interlaced scanning, this is where the TV scans half the lines (odd lines) first then scans the other half (even lines) for a complete image.

The "p" stands for progressive scanning, this is where the TV scans the lines in progression. This provides a much quicker refresh rate and as a result Progressive scan TV's are much better at handling fast movement on screen.

A 1080p television therefore has a much better picture quality than a 1080i television, however there are very few HDTV's on the market that can support the 1080p signal.

There are two main types of HDTV:

By 2012 the old analogue television signal will be shut down and replaced with the new digital service. Newer models of HDTV come with a built in Digital Tuner allowing for a much wider range of channels and better picture quality. However that doesn’t mean you can’t watch the old analogue signal on your HDTV, it will still play the picture but only to the limits of the analogue signal.