HDTV: Reasons For Getting It

As soon as supporters of HDTV introduced it back in 1998, word spread that people would have a radically new TV viewing experience. With high definition television, you would be watching your favorite TV shows with improved picture quality and hear it through digital surround sound that made you feel as though you were part of the scenes.

HDTV: What Is It?

HDTV surpasses regular analog television technology. With HDTV you’ll notice crisper and clearer images that your older analog television can’t match. With the older analog technology, the television receives wave signals on the air. The quality of the picture is diminished when these signals are converted to the screen. Signals to LCD HDTV or plasma HDTV are sent digitally, without losing the overall quality of the images received.

HDTV: Function and Benefits

The US is phasing out analog broadcasting and replacing it with digital broadcasting. When the deadline arrives in 2009, your analog TV will not work, unless it has a converter. Right now, your analog TV set will still work so you might be wondering why you would want to have an HDTV right now:

The picture quality of HDTV is better and you can see tiny details even on bigger screens.

HDTV multicasting allows stations to broadcast several programs in one line.

Viewers can participate in shows or movies, which have interactive content, such as games or contests.

HDTV will use the entire screen to display its signal, whereas analog sets use only every other pixel line.

You can expect to see all the brilliant colors and images from channels that broadcast HD.

HDTV Problems

Some HDTV models are quite expensive. It’s impossible to get High Definition programming through your older analog television. However, new televisions are built to be able to receive HD signals. If the television you buy doesn’t have a built-in tuner, you’ll need to look at HDTV antennas or HDTV tuners.

Shopping For An HDTV?

It’s best to see HDTV for yourself. By studying HDTV reviews and listening to only good buying advice, you’ll soon be enjoying a new way of watching television you’ve never seen before.

Copyright (c) 2006 by Leroy Chan

As with so many questions in life the answer to whether you neeed to buy a HDTV now or wait longer, is that it depends. It depends on your own viewing habits and how much television you like to watch. It also depends on how much you can afford to spend.

Currently, you can view pretty much all television programming with analog TV sets, but the FCC has made it necessary for all television broadcasting companies to switch over to being able to send their TV signals in HDTV format by 2007, and that is not very far away. The problem is that analog TVs cannot receive and display HDTV or digital TV signals. So when the time arrives that all programming is being sent in digital format, what is going to happen to your old, reliable analog TV?

Well, there are conversion boxes that can be bought for between $50 – $100 that will convert the digital signal to a format that an analog TV can display. Of course, the picture and sound will not be anywhere near the quality of even normal digital TV, much less HDTV. But at least you will still be able to view TV as you always have on your analog televison set.

So back to the question at hand, should you go ahead and buy a new HDTV soon, or just go along with your old analog one for a while? Well, keep in mind that a new HDTV will cost several hundred to a few thousand dollars to buy. If you simply can’t afford that expense at this point, then maybe keeping your current TV and getting the digital to analog converter is your best bet. Or maybe you just aren’t that much of a TV viewer anyway, so when you do watch, having enhanced picture and sound is just not all that important to you. Then once again, maybe you should just get the converter box and stay with what you have.

On the other hand, there is no good reason to keep waiting much longer to buy HDTV as the prices have already fallen quite a bit. They undoubtedly will fall further, but not all that much. And there is no advanced technology available after HDTV that is on the horizon that you should be holding out for either. So for those folks who can afford buying a new HDTV television, there is no time like the present.