Things You'll Need:
- HD receiver
- HDTV
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Step 1
Learn the difference between digital and analog signals. Traditional analog TV signals transmit information as a radio wave, which is then converted into a picture by a tube in the television. Digital television signals, however, work more like a computer by transmitting information in binary code.
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Step 2
Recognize the advantages of digital TV and how it enables HDTV. Digital provides a high-quality picture no matter what the size of the viewing screen, its images are of a higher resolution, it can maximize bandwidth by sending multiple signals simultaneously and it can support interactive content. Without these properties, there would be no HDTV.
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Step 3
View the difference between digital and HDTV as one of degree rather than of kind. Digital differs from analog in how it encodes and transmits images and sound. If you imagine digital television as a continuum, HDTV will fall on the far right side of that continuum.
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Step 4
Compare digital and HDTV resolution. On the low end of the digital spectrum, video images have a resolution of 704 by 408 pixels. HDTV resolution, however, is 1920 by 1080 pixels.
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Step 5
Compare the aspect ratio, which refers to how images are displayed and viewed. Standard aspect ratio is 4 to 3. HDTV, on the other hand, has an aspect ratio of 16 to 9. The higher the aspect ratio, the better the overall quality.
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Step 6
Compare frame rate. The moving pictures you see on a TV screen are really a rapid succession of still images. Frame rate is determined by how many images are displayed per second. The higher the frame rate, the better the image quality will be.
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Step 7
Register with the High Def Forum to get answers to all your HDTV questions and to chat with other digital enthusiasts around the world (see Resources below).
