About HDTV
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HDTV (high definition television) is the new standard in television technology
which provides wide-screen picture quality similar
to 35mm film along with compact disc (CD) sound quality.
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HDTV is part of several standards incorporated in digital television or DTV.
Basically, DTV is composed of three separate standards:
 HDTV 1080 (1080 lines of resolution, 16:9 aspect ratio)
HDTV 720 (720 lines of resolution, 16:9 aspect ratio)
SDTV (480 lines of resolution, 16:9 or 4:3 aspect ratio)
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At a minimum, HDTV has twice the linear resolution of standard-definition television (SDTV), thus showing greater detail than either NTSC analog television or DVD.
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In a side-by-side comparison of the old NTSC standard and HDTV, the difference is dramatically apparent. NTSC was 4 units wide and 3 units tall, while HDTV is 16 units wide and 9 units tall with greater detail.
View more side-by-side comparisons
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HDTV is the biggest breakthrough in broadcasting since color TV. HDTV offers wider pictures
with greater detail and the clarity of motion pictures. Compared to standard definition television (SDTV)
or the old analogue system (NTSC),
the HDTV image has twice the luminance definition - vertically and horizontally -
and is twenty-five percent wider. SDTV's (and NTSC's) aspect ratio is 4:3 (four units wide,
three units high) - the HDTV aspect ratio is 16:9. The 16:9 ratio is much closer to the average
wide-screen image shown in movie theaters. The biggest difference, and the greatest
appeal of HDTV, is its clarity. HDTV pictures are composed of 1080 active lines
whereas SDTV pictures are composed of only 480 active lines.
The fine-grained HD picture contains five times more information than does
the standard television picture and is accompanied by multi-channel, CD quality sound. The
difference in video and sound quality is dramatic.
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