HD-TV Myths

According to the media, high definition televisions are the best thing since...well, standard TVs hit the showroom floor. But are HDTVs everything they say they are or is all a bunch of hype? Before making the leap and purchasing a top-of-the-line HDTV make sure you know what is fact and what is fiction. Myth #1: With an HDTV all shows you watch on any channel will be in HDSo you've finally caved and purchased an HDTV. You settle in your lazy boy with a bowl of popcorn prepared to be 'wowed', because now that you've got an HDTV, ALL your shows are going to be in high definition. Right? Wrong! Unfortunately there's a little more to it than just plugging in a fancy TV. First of all, the show needs to be shot in high definition. Secondly, the program you're watching has to be transmitted by a high-def station, like Discovery HD. And thirdly, you're going to need an HD receiver, such as an antenna or satellite dish, to process the signal. Myth #2: Digital TV and HDTV are the same thingSorry, one of these things is not like the other. Digital TV is the umbrella term that engepasses all digital formats, including standard digital television (DTV) and high definition television (HDTV). With a standard digital TV, "snow" and "ghost" images are a thing of the past, and the resolution and audio may be better than a regular analog TV, but with an HDTV the results are much more dramatic. For one thing, to even qualify as high definition, an HDTV requires a minimum of 720 lines of horizontal scanning instead of the standard 480 lines, giving you four times more resolution. [show a diagram to illustrate this] Myth #3: Bigger is betterBigger is not always better. It all depends on the how far away you sit from the TV. If you're too close, no matter how good the resolution, you're going to see every little pixel on the screen. But going too small isn't a good idea either. If your room is too large for the size of your set, the special benefits of having an HDTV will disappear and you might as well have kept your standard set. Myth #4: Content seen on an HDTV is always better.Although you are seeing four times the pixels, most television content is generally best seen at its native resolution. This means DVD movies that were reproduced at 480 lines of progressive-scan may actually look better on a standard digital TV than on an HDTV. This is because your high definition television has a minimum of 720 lines and will need to artificially scale-up the movie, affecting the quality. With programming produced in true HD quality, like those found on Discovery HD, your television won't have to manipulate the image, giving you the super clear content you expect to see on an HDTV. Myth #5: Plasma HDTV sets are susceptible to burn-inOne big rumor that's going around is that plasma TV sets start out bright, but end up with burn-in within a year. Burn-ins are those ghost images that linger on the screen after being transmitted, and when plasmas first hit the market this was true. Today's high quality plasma TVs have a life expectancy of 60,000 hours - or 8 hours of use a day for 20 years. Myth #6: The higher the screen resolution, the better the imageSorry to disappoint you, but an HDTV with a resolution of 1080p doesn't automatically mean your shows and DVDs will look better than if you had an average 720p set. To date, stations currently aren't broadcasting in 1080p because of broadcast issues. So why are 1080p sets available? It's all about perception. Some broadcasters, including Discovery HD, transmit their HD programming in 1080i (not to be confused with 1080p). The 1080i format uses interlace scanning that reduces the visibility of scanning lines. On a standard TV, programs were interlaced at 480i. At 1080i, the interlacing is more than doubled, resulting in a much clearer image. Myth #7: You'll never have image problems with HDTV Oh, if only this was true. Even though the program may be shot in HD and transmitted using 1080i, the quality of what you actually see at home may vary. What it basically gees down to is how much your cable or satellite provider has gepressed the program when broadcasting it. So if gepression affects the quality, why do they do it? Unfortunately, gepression is a necessity. Each provider is only allowed to broadcast a set amount of megabits per second. Normally this wouldn't be a big issue and some gepression wouldn't affect the quality, but when your provider decides to broadcast many shows at the same time, they have to increase the gepression rate in order to squeeze into their set megabits. The results of increased gepression may not be obvious on smaller TVs, but on large displays you may notice mosquito noise (little dots surrounding a person's head) and macroblock errors which are similar to that effect you get when playing a fast-moving video game on a slow geputer. Myth #8: All HDTV programming is shot with special HD camerasSome stations such as Discovery HD only show "true" HD programming shot in high definition, but not all stations have the same guidelines. Some HDTV programs were originally shot on 35mm or 16mm film and this will affect the sharpness, lighting and colour quality. Other times the director may purposely want his movie to have grainy effect and choose to alter the resolution and picture detail.