Back to Basics............. (1 Viewer)

[Wil_J]

Ok. It wasn't too long ago when I put together a small HT system for me and my wife's living room. Needless to say, I love it.
I don't know anything about HDTV though. If I'm eventually going to buy a bigscreen, widescreen rear projection HDTV like I want to. I need to start learning about what makes an HDTV so much better than a regular TV. I know it has something to do with the actuall lines projected on the TV, but I don't know much more than that.
Can anyone help me out? I need to learn everything about everything, but most importantly is that I UNDERSTAND it. I hate not knowing something that I want to know, and I need to start learning about screen resolution etc. etc.
Help!!........Wil
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My DVD's
"The rose petal floats on water,
the kingfisher flashes above the pond.
Life and beauty swirl in the midst of death."
al'Lan Mandragoran,
*******The Wheel of Time

 

[tommy_esq]

Actually, what's more important is that your wife understands what makes an HDTV so great so she'll let you buy one!!

 

[Wil_J]

Actually, she understands my hobby (addiction?) and has already approved me getting one. It's just a matter of cost and how long it takes to save for the one I want.
As a matter of fact, she is the one that bought me my main speakers out of her own paycheck (after letting me pick them out of course)........Wil

 

[PaulKH]

Wil_J - where are you?
As far as HDTV... let's compare it to regular TV and DVD...
Regular TV has 480 lines visible, transmitted in an interlaced (odd lines, then even, then odd, etc.), 60 fields or 30 frames per second. 480 line interlaced is known as 480i.
DVD produces 480 lines also, in interlaced or with some newer players, a progressive non-interlaced signal. 480 progressive is known as 480p.
HDTV offers content in (at least 3) flavors: 480p, 720p and 1080i. 480p is nice of course, but 720p and 1080i offer STUNNING detail, way better than DVD. The 1080i can introduce a bit of flicker on thin horizontal high contast lines, but trust me, you will be AMAZED.
Today you can get HDTV content from 3 sources... over the air (OTA) using a TV antenna and tuner, and from satelite, either from DirecTV (HBOHD and HDNet) or from Dish (HBO, Showtime, and some PPV). HBOHD on DirecTV is often 480i content 'upconverted' to 1080i (no real benefit I don't believe), but HDNet is BREATHTAKING 1080i content, with mainly 'demonstration' special interest programs.
Hope that helps.

 

[Wil_J]

This is good information. Thanks Paul for the intro to everything. One question though: Why is 1080i an HDTV standard if it's an interlaced picture?
And since 1080i is an interlaced picture, does that mean that 720p is a better picture since it is not interlaced?
Another thing I just thought of, does a TV being widescreen change any of the above numbers? Or does everything stay the same no matter what type of TV you're using?
I live on Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri........Wil
------------------
My DVD's
"The rose petal floats on water,
the kingfisher flashes above the pond.
Life and beauty swirl in the midst of death."
al'Lan Mandragoran,
*******The Wheel of Time
[Edited last by Wil_J on November 09, 2001 at 09:15 AM]

 

[Ergin Guney]

Another thing I just thought of, does a TV being widescreen change any of the above numbers? Or does everything stay the same no matter what type of TV you're using?

The numbers representing the resolution of each HDTV mode does not change based on the shape of the screen in use. However, as a general rule, you can assume that the resulting effective resolution of the picture you see on the screen will be lower for a 4:3 display compared to a similarly sized 16:9 display. This is due to the simple geometric fact that the display is showing the picture with the same electron beam size, but it is now painting the picture in a letterboxed rectangular area in the middle of the 4:3 (in order to conserve its aspect ratio), but the electron beam therefore has to squeeze more detail into a smaller area and consequently is "stepping on its own toes" (adjacent scan lines are partially overlapping, reducing the resultant effective resolution).

 

[Wil_J]

What is a motion artifact? Are you saying that 720p & 1080i are both HDTV Standards, I just need to decied what looks better to me?.......Wil
------------------
My DVD's
"The rose petal floats on water,
the kingfisher flashes above the pond.
Life and beauty swirl in the midst of death."
al'Lan Mandragoran,
*******The Wheel of Time

 

[Jim Ferguson]

Motion artifacts on 1080I are pretty benign, IMO. I generally don't see them on film-based stuff such as the HD movies on HBO, or the primetime CBS and ABC stuff. Mostly you will occasionally see some stair-stepping or jaggies on near-horizontal or rounded edges when watching video-based stuff. I suppose the "worst" case is a hi-def basketball or tennis game. You can definitely see these kinds of problems. But really, basketball in 1080I is pretty amazing to watch. The problems there tend to be more with MPEG compression artifacts than with motion artifacts.

 

[Ergin Guney]

Are you saying that 720p & 1080i are both HDTV Standards, I just need to decied what looks better to me?

Precisely... The 720p mode is just as much "HDTV" as is 1080i.
The ATSC standard for digital television actually includes no less than 18 display modes. Six of these (all the variations of 720 and 1080 scan line modes) are considered "HDTV" and everything lesser than those are considered "SDTV" (standard definition TV) modes. Take a look at this table for the details on this.

 

[Marque D]

dhackney of the avs forum provided most of these links.
http://www.avsforum.com – A Home Theater Forum that has an excellent HDTV Hardware, Programming and Recording sections
http://www.hdtvgalaxy.com/ - great place to find out what is televised in HDTV, good general information http://www.ee.washington.edu/consele.../ntsc/95x4.htm - Explains our current TV standard (NTCS) http://www.ee.washington.edu/consele.../hdtv/95x5.htm - Explains our new TV standard (ATSC) HDTV; but some of the info is outdated.
http://www.titantv.com/ - great place to find local DTV channels available in your area as well as great help for selecting an antenna
http://www.ilovehdtv.com/hdtvforum/menu.html
http://hdtvinsider.com/ - HDTV newsletter which appears in The Perfect Vision Magazine
http://www.copperbox.com/ - HDTV STB
http://www.howstuffworks.com/hdtv.htm - how it works, good overview, great links
http://www.cnet.com/electronics/0-3622-7-2643589.html - Consumer Reports--HDTV Guide
Link Removed – CNET’s HDTV explained article
http://www.princeton.edu/~conorneu/hdtv/hdtv.html - good site from a college student project. Not the most current but covers the basics well. Good introductory content
http://www.pbs.org/opb/crashcourse/ - simple overview of HDTV
http://www.hdtvbuyer.com/ - video professional site, good pro perspective, news, links, etc
http://www.ce.org/pdf/dtv_guide_current_issue.pdf
http://www.twice.com/DTVcharts/html – loads of info on most HDTV monitors currently on the market
Link Removed - programming info for ABC HDTV broadcast
Link Removed DTV and HDTV news site
http://www.cbs.com/hdtv – HDTV schedule for CBS
http://www.hdpictures.com/ HDTV info center (on of the best resource sites)
http://www.novia.net/~ereitan/index.html - history of color TV, good for perspective on introducing new TV standards in the US market
http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/Archives...11-002672.html – info on how to record HDTV
Link Removed – DTV Internet board
http://www.keohi.com/keohihdtv/index.htm – HDTV tips site
http://www.antennaweb.org – OTA (off the air) antenna help
http://www.henninger.com/library/hdtvfilm/ - good overview of resolutions & conversions; resolution charts
http://www.atsc.org/ - the people who set the standard
http://gehon.ir.miami.edu/com/classes/cbr535/hdtv.htm - good links; very good collection of links to pertinent HDTV documents
http://www.channel4000.com/partners/tv/hometown/partners-tv-hometown-19991126-195042. html - basic FAQ from WCCO Minneapolis
http://www.digitaltelevision.com - good collection of info, good archive on CODFM vs. 8VSB
http://www.digitaltelevision.com/dtvbook/glossary.shtml - full glossary
http://www.highdef.org/ - HD production news and info