What is HDTV?

HDTV stands for High Definition Television. In plain English, It is a new TV screen with a higher resolution than the outgoing CRT (Cathode ray tube). Conventional CRT sets display around 480 visible lines of pixels. On the other hand the new HDTV is promising a better picture than what you are used to. Not without fault though :-) keep reading.................

HDTV is broadcast digitally, and sometimes confused with DTV (Digital TV) whose introduction coincided with that of HDTV: What a mess! You would think this "techies" would see trouble around the corner and find another name. How about "Zulu"? Zulu would be nice for HDTV. It signifies its qualities! DTV technology was first introduced in the USA during the 1990s. These two technologies are married but can of course live independently. You can have an HDTV (with a converter) without DTV and vise versa. There is however a catch! There is always a catch. You give me $50.00 and I will tell you! Actually the catch is your picture quality will suffer.

HDTV without a digital signal is just an expensive Mercedes stuck in mud. On the other hand, having the mighty digital signal on the regular CRT is well, 'plain Old TV'. Here is the breakdown; You can wrap me in a nice evening gown, throw a ton of Make-up on me and drag me onto the Miss America Pageant runway under all those lights! You will get boos and I will be run offstage to spend the rest of my life in counseling! Under all that glamour, it is still just Plain Ugly me.

Ok so that wasn't exactly a good example but I got your evil part of the brain focused so now I will try to make sense. Actually now that I think of it, some of those cross dressers look mighty good. Matter of fact when I first came to the US (I was born elsewhere) I once picked up one of those "chicks". If my friends hadn't dragged me away and whispered in my ear, I would have had the shock of my life that evening. Some of them look much hotter than any of the real chicks out there in those clubs. Word of advice, when you go out there take some real chick friends with you. They can sniff that species out for you. The other guys were just as fooled as I was!

Where was I? Sorry HDTVvs. DTV. Here is the scoop, take your torn, rugged, greasy Jeans to the most expensive Dry Cleaner in Town. Tell them to use the best detergents and scents and then excuse yourself and take refuge in a local coffee shop. Avoid Nightclubs, I got stories! After they get done with you stinky jeans, pick them up. They may smell like an Armani suit but I got a question for you; Will your jeans Look like an Armani suit when you wear the? Well that scene just painted a DTVor Digital Signal being pumped into a plain old TV. All you will get is a Plain old picture!

One thing to keep in mind (I am still a techie and a damn good one), During the analog signal run from the 1930's to present, whenever we had a signal interference, the picture normally became fuzzy, cloudy or whatever term you guys use in your fancy part of town. In the Digital era, you either have a picture or you don't. Digital tries to make corrections to pictures but if it is fuzzy, you just plain have NO TV! It is short and sweet you have a clear picture or you have no picture. Check out my next piece coming soon on this.