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Now that the freezing arms of
winter are wrapping around us, and we no longer have the excitement of
Christmas to keep us warm, we are mostly stuck indoors while at home. Many of you, like me, find this thought as chilling
as the outside weather. We’ve got three
months of boring TV to watch… Yea. So,
while we sit at home, sipping hot chocolate and watching DVDs or TV, we might
as well make the most of it. The good
news is that, with a digital High-Definition TV, you may actually enjoy
watching all those DVDs and TV shows. In
fact, when springtime finally comes around to beckon us outside, you might even
find yourself opting instead to stay indoors a little more often. This week, we’ll talk about digital and
High-Definition TV, and what these technologies offer us.
First, let’s talk a little
about how regular TV works. Traditional
TVs display an image on your screen by painting the picture one line at a time
until all 480 lines are on the screen. These
480 lines are drawn in an alternating fashion, know as interlacing. This means that all the odd numbered lines
are drawn so that exactly half the picture on the TV is displayed, then the
even numbered lines are drawn in, giving you the whole picture. After one image is completely drawn, the
whole process starts again. This happens
60 times per second, giving us the illusion of motion. Interlacing
allows our eyes to ‘see’ the image as a whole; otherwise we might actually see
the TV image being drawn top to bottom.
Since standard TV only shows us 480 lines drawn on the screen, the
larger the TV screen the less crisp the picture. To see what I mean, the next time you are at an
electronics store compare the same show on a 19” TV and a 36”. See those lines that are visible in the 36”
screen? Those are the TV scan lines, 480
in total. All standard analog TVs have
the same resolution, regardless of screen size.
Also, standard TV has an aspect ratio of 4:3, meaning that for every one
inch of width the screen is three inches high, making a TV screen almost
square.
Now, when you enter the world
of digital High-Definition TV, that 480 line interlaced picture is a thing of
the past. High-Definition gives us the
ability to see up to 1,080 interlaced lines of resolution. Further, it also offers the advantage of
viewing shows in ‘progressive scan’ mode, meaning that instead of drawing half
of the lines on the screen at a time, the entire image is shown on the TV
screen at once. Progressive scan can
display resolutions of either 480, 720 or 1,080 lines. Now, you might be saying that, even with a
big 60-inch high-dev TV if you watch shows broadcast in analog you still will
only get 480 lines even though the TV is capable of much more. This is not necessarily true. Many high-def TVs have ‘line-doublers’, which
is software that actually enhances the standard TV signal so that it shows up
on your big screen with no visible lines at all. And, if you are a DVD fan like me, a
progressive scan DVD player will take your high-def TV to new heights that
before seemed impossible to reach. With
a high-definition picture, the images you see on your TV can almost be compared
to looking through a freshly cleaned window.
A picture on a high-def TV is so remarkably clear and crisp that many TV
stars are so fearful that people will see what they really look like that they
are getting cosmetic surgery to enhance their looks. It makes that much of a difference. Further, high-definition TV carries with it
surround sound audio. No more with just
the old-school left and right stereo.
Now you can watch shows like ER
with sound coming at you from all four corners of your living room. Last year’s Super Bowl was the one show that
really made me appreciate both the excitement of football and the wonders of
what high-definition can provide. Also,
most high-def TVs have an aspect ration of 16:9, making the picture much wider
than standard TV and helping to immerse us into the show by capturing more of
our field of vision.
There are so many different
types of high-definition TVs on the market these days that it would take much too
long to describe each. There are front
and rear projection TVs, LCD, Plasma, DLP, among others. Prices range from just over a thousand
dollars to more than $15,000, depending on brand, technology used, etc. Suffice to say that any high-definition TV
will show a picture that will know your socks off. If you want to know more about the different
types of high-def TVs, and which may be best for you, just drop me an email and
I’ll be happy to try and answer your questions.
Now, for the Cool Site of the
Week... This week’s site is
CNet.com. The folks at CNet have what
has to be some of the coolest jobs on the planet—playing with and writing
reviews for electronic gadgets. Every
time I am looking to buy any piece of electronic equipment, from a cell phone
to a TV, one of the first places I go is CNet.com. The reviews are excellent and very thorough,
and they even have some nice price comparisons so you know where to go to get
the best deal.
As always, if you have any
questions or suggestions for future articles, please email me at
mike@MikeBryant.com.
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