¿Qué es HDTV?

The easiest way to distinguish HDTV is the picture. But crystal-clear images don't magically appear-there's a lot of cool technology at work here, and in order to find the perfect TV (and get the most out of it), it's important to understand how these improvements occur. Here's how it all happens:

Pixels
One of the easiest ways to gauge picture quality is by pixel count. Traditional TVs use up to 200,000 pixels to create a picture, which sounds like a lot. But HDTV monitors and HDTVs use up to 2 million pixels, so it's easy to understand how HDTV programming is up to 10 times sharper than the picture from your old analog set.

Interlaced/progressive scanning
These terms refer to the way in which the TV signal is processed. Currently, the 480 lines of information that create an analog picture are delivered through "interlaced" scanning. This means that the odd lines of the picture are put onto the screen first, followed by the even lines. This happens far too quickly (30 frames per second) for the human eye to perceive, but interlaced scanning still leaves temporary gaps, resulting in a less-than-perfect picture.

Digital TVs use progressive scanning. Here the lines are scanned in order, the same way your computer monitor works. With no even-odd gaps to fill in, the result is a smoother picture. Even better, most DVD players are now progressive-scan, which means that if you hook a progressive-scan DVD player up to a digital set (with S-video or component cables), movies take on a whole new look, too. So if you think DVDs look good now, just wait until you experience the brilliance of progressive-scan. And speaking of movies?

The whole picture
If you're a big movie fan, HDTVs offer even more than a stunning picture. While most tube TV screens are roughly square, presenting a traditional 4:3 aspect ratio, many new HDTVs and HDTV monitors are widescreen with a 16:9 aspect ratio. With a widescreen HDTV, say goodbye to letterboxing and those annoying black bars-every movie you watch (except full-screen versions) will be presented in crisp, digital widescreen format. The film buffs in your family will thank you.