It’s been around for a while, but only recently has it made a huge difference. The question, of course, is “why”. What is HDTV technology and how is it so different that it’s become so much more important these days than ever before by it’s predecessors? Here are some highlighted points of interest.

For starters, the origination of HD is simply “better quality”. Back in 1934, the first High-Definition TV was only called HD because it was a better quality TV than other that were out at that time. It meant higher resolution, but when you compare it to the new age TVs, it’s not even close. Back then, a High-Definition TV had a 30 pixel resolution. These days, the typical TV has at least 800,000, usually more. So it all comes down to the times.

That’s not the only reason why it’s a bigger deal now, though. Another reason is advancing technology of output video. That is to say, the invention of things like Blu-Ray. Blu-Ray is an HD medium that makes HD technology not only more supreme, but necessary in order to take advantage of the higher quality. Blu-Ray quality is outstanding, for sure, but you can only use it if you have an HDMi port on your TV.

That is both the reason behind the claim to fame for HD and the reason why it’s so seemingly exclusive. TVs can be HD without needing the port, but not having one is only a difference of a few thousand pixels of resolution, rather than hundreds of thousands. To get all the extra detail, you need a TV that can process it, which means having the HDMi port in order to communicate the complex language of the HD video being shown.

Because HD has become so much more important, it now comes in a completely different form. That’s why you need to have HDMi connectors to even use the real HD aspect. An HDMi connector is a high-definition multimedia interface, and is capable of reading and translating the digital information from an HD source to put it on your screen. Only certain things can use the HDMi port, and are the only things that can utilize the full potential of HD.

This quality comes from the output video, but more importantly from the TV as well. This is because the modern TV is generally 1080i or 1080p. The 1080 part means how many pixels of resolution. An image broken up into these lines is much clearer when there’s more lines to hide the separation, which is why a bigger number is a good thing.

As for the “p” or “i”, they stand for how the image is scanned onto the TV. The image is either “interlaced” or “progressively” scanned. Interlaced scanning is the method that scans the odd and even lines of resolution alternatively. It reduces overall bandwidth use, but in return has a lower quality video shown in the “twittering” effect of the image. Progressive scanning is more detailed because it scans each line in sequence, melding the image together as a whole. It’s better quality, but uses up more bandwidth (a lot more).

There’s no question that an HDTV is a better quality machine, but it’s only better depending on how you use it. The technology of the TV is only as strong as it’s weakest link. Not having the TV, for instance, is the same as having the TV and not having the connection. Overall, though, it’s home theater brought to a new, and better, age.

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