HD = High Definition
SD = Standard Definition
I knew you were wondering about one or both of those, so I had to get that out of the way first.
One of my clients was having a new TV installed when I was at her home yesterday. I didn't measure, but I think that it was a 52-inch model. It was one of the top Mitsubishi DLP models. Of course that means that it supported 1080p HDTV.
What? I lost you?
My client's husband had picked out the TV knowing that it was the best and the biggest he was willing to pay for. The picture looked beautiful in the store but when they got it home the picture was blurry.
Their old TV was a 32-inch tube-style. When they had bought it 15 years ago, they paid more for than they paid for the new one.
On the old TV, the picture was clear and crisp, and they seemed more than a little disappointed that the new TV was so fuzzy. However, there was nothing wrong with the new TV.
I enjoyed watching the installers explain that the new TV was far superior to the old TV and that is why the picture was fuzzy.
Standard definition TV 720×480 pixels (little dots of color). HDTV is at minimum 1280×720 and 1920×1080 at the high end.
What does this mean? Since standard TV is designed for a screen with fewer dots of color, lower resolution video looks just fine. But, when you put that standard definition signal through a high definition TV, you see every flaw in the image.
The best analogy I can come up with is a newspaper or magazine photo. The images in magazines and newspapers often look just fine when viewed from the standard reading distance, but hold a magnifying glass up to them and suddenly the images are nothing more than colored dots. Using HDTV with a standard definition signal is like holding a magnifying glass up to that poor quality image.
To most people that quality difference isn't really that bad, but when you blow it all up to 52 inches, it can be very disturbing.
The solution is simple, spend the extra money to get an HD cable or Satellite package. You can also get an HD signal from many local TV stations using an antenna – no cable or extra service required.
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