2008 Woodie Awards
Can I interest you in a HDTV?
Technophile
Jonathan Harrop
Issue date: 10/17/07 Section: Life & Style
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I say, on a regular basis, that I sell TV's for a living. This is rather inaccurate, as I sell "home theater" things, of which the main focus is TV's. There are two other parts of a home theater that I would consider "essential."
First, is source; a DVD player of some kind and/or whatever source you get your TV from, be it cable, satellite or rabbit ears. This is going to be pretty basic. Today, though, I'm talking about broadcasts, not DVD's.
The second is surround-sound, which I'll save for later.
Talking about TV's nowadays without talking about HD is a moot point - very few manufacturers even make non-HD sets anymore and by Christmas you'll probably see less than three-dozen old-school tube TV's in all sizes.
It's with this in mind that I'm going to talk about high definition sources, since the most frequent phone call I get on a Monday is, "I bought this TV this weekend and I hooked 'er up to my cable and it don't look no better than my old set!"
The reason, kind redneck, is that you have a TV with more than a million pixels attempting to display a picture with just over 300,000 pixels in it (a normal TV broadcast or a normal DVD).
Think of it like a YouTube video. YouTube videos initially start in the best size for their number of pixels so you get the best picture possible. When you expand it, it usually doesn't look as good.
The reason for that loss in quality is scaling. Scaling is the process a TV uses to make a picture that doesn't match its number of physical pixels fit the screen, higher quality TV's generally have better scalers. LG and the current generation of Sony TV's stand out here.
All that said, standard-definition isn't unwatchable on most name brand HDTV's.
Still with me? Okay, simply put, HDTV's are made for HD signals. The number of pixels matches, or at least has less discrepancy, and you get a better picture. Naturally, HD has more detail, better color and more dynamic sound, but it boils down to pixels.
First, is source; a DVD player of some kind and/or whatever source you get your TV from, be it cable, satellite or rabbit ears. This is going to be pretty basic. Today, though, I'm talking about broadcasts, not DVD's.
The second is surround-sound, which I'll save for later.
Talking about TV's nowadays without talking about HD is a moot point - very few manufacturers even make non-HD sets anymore and by Christmas you'll probably see less than three-dozen old-school tube TV's in all sizes.
It's with this in mind that I'm going to talk about high definition sources, since the most frequent phone call I get on a Monday is, "I bought this TV this weekend and I hooked 'er up to my cable and it don't look no better than my old set!"
The reason, kind redneck, is that you have a TV with more than a million pixels attempting to display a picture with just over 300,000 pixels in it (a normal TV broadcast or a normal DVD).
Think of it like a YouTube video. YouTube videos initially start in the best size for their number of pixels so you get the best picture possible. When you expand it, it usually doesn't look as good.
The reason for that loss in quality is scaling. Scaling is the process a TV uses to make a picture that doesn't match its number of physical pixels fit the screen, higher quality TV's generally have better scalers. LG and the current generation of Sony TV's stand out here.
All that said, standard-definition isn't unwatchable on most name brand HDTV's.
Still with me? Okay, simply put, HDTV's are made for HD signals. The number of pixels matches, or at least has less discrepancy, and you get a better picture. Naturally, HD has more detail, better color and more dynamic sound, but it boils down to pixels.
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