Difference Between High & Standard Definition Video

Series Summary

High-definition television, or HDTV, is a digital television broadcasting system with greater resolution than traditional television systems. HDTV is digitally broadcast because digital television requires less bandwidth, if sufficient video compression is used. HDTV technology was introduced in the United States in the 1990s by the Digital HDTV Grand Alliance, a group of television companies, and MIT. Besides an HD-ready television set, other equipment is needed to view HD television.

So, how do you take advantage of HDTV technology on your television? In this free video series, our expert will teach you the differences between high and standard definition, how to choose an HDTV set, and how to receive high definition channels. He will also teach you how to tell the difference between cables, and how to connect HDTV digital cables. HDTV is the wave of the future, and understanding how to use it is only a few videos away!

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Brad Bear on behalf of Expert Village. In this clip, I want to talk a little bit about the difference between high definition television and standard definition television for all of you that are new to high definition television. Standard definition television is the term that we use to explain what we're used to, the old television, the analog television that's very square. That square is a 4:3 ratio. That's four units wide by three units tall. High definition is a little bit different. You know its a wide screen and that's called 16:9. It might be a term you've already heard. That's 16 units wide by nine units high. Well, mathematically, it kind of works out the same. But where it differs between standard def and high def and why high def is so much in demand right now and why the picture is so much better, is because standard definition television, the old television, is only 480 lines of resolution. There are only 480 lines that we actually kind of see making up the image. Now that worked when we didn't have anything to compare it to. But now with high definition television, there are two standards that we look at. And that's 720 lines of resolution. That's 720 lines high or 1,080 lines of resolution. That's also termed ten eighty. So, we call those seven twenty and ten eighty. When you go to buy your high definition television or if you've already bought one, I'm sure you've already come across this, with the 720 and 1080 options on the market. We'll talk a little bit about those in another chapter. Those are the main differences. If you watch an old TV show on a high definition monitor, you may notice that it's actually a very square image inside your wide screen image. If you don't go into your TV menu and change it to kind of zoom in to fill up the space, that's called pillar boxing. Pillar boxing are those black bars on the side. You may have gotten used to seeing letter boxing, the black bars on the top and bottom when you would watch a wide screen format movie in your old television. Well now, we have to worry about watching older stuff on our newer sets that are wide screen and we end up with pillar boxing on the sides. Again, that's just trying to show you the true aspect ratio of the original format in 4:3 on a 16:9 monitor. Now when you see a wide screen movie on your new HDTV, it's going to take up the entire thing. So lets get to the other titles and get a little more in depth of kind of how to connect up your different HD DVD or BluRay players into your new high def set or also the different kind of connection options, broadcast versus digital cable and different kinds of things like that."